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By day, Frederick Williams is an unassuming bank branch manager. By night, Williams transforms into T’Kara Campbell Starr, part of a drag family that can trace at least four generations within Portland.
For the unfamiliar, drag families are chosen, and are not blood relations. They mentor drag children— not child stars like the Bradys or Von Trapps, but young adults guided through the drag world by a more seasoned performer who often plays a deeply influential role in their professional and personal lives.
Keen-eyed moviegoers might remember Cambell Starr’s drag sister Alexis, whose likeness appeared in the comedy One of Them Days earlier this year. The sisters, and Campbell Starr’s husband Arcadian, are responsible for a whole soccer team of drag children.
T’Kara claims five by name: Jaeden, Bayside, Cuddy, Teala and Zaye. The extended family tries to host regular gatherings like home dinners to remain close (gumbo was most recently on the menu). The family tree’s trunk is Pebbles Campbell Starr, who joined the family during the ‘80s through her drag mother, Yasmine, and adopted T’Kara and Alexis in the mid-2000s. Pebbles died at age 53 earlier this year in Las Vegas.
“She admired the talent that we had and asked us to join the dynasty,” Campbell Starr says. “She took us under her wing and showed us the ropes of pageantry world and authentic drag and how to create and mold your character.”
The model most influential on Campbell Starr is actually Toccara Jones, an America’s Next Top Model contestant whose confidence inspired Williams, who named T’Kara in her honor. A bartender at CC Slaughters also told Campbell Starr that the Japanese word for treasure, takaramono, holds a similar spelling as her chosen name.
“The fact that I chose a name that’s as precious as treasure, something that somebody could treasure, and not knowing that meaning made me love the name even more,” she says. “My inner peace is when I’m in character as T’Kara and I can disconnect from my everyday world and show other people happiness and joy through my self-expression.”
Williams spent a few years in the mid-2000s performing as a male persona, and grew up performing with Portland Opera’s youth program, but he officially began performing as a female persona after trying in 2008 while on a trip with Alexis and Arcadian.
“It was the worst experience of my life,” Campbell Starr says, laughing. “I didn’t realize that I would have to buy a bigger size in shoes, so my feet killed me and I was like ‘I will never do this again!’ And then we got home, I was always in the dressing room with other entertainers and I thought ‘You know, I could actually do this if I put my mind to it.’”
Campbell Starr applied herself and began performing regularly at Darcelle’s and CC’s. She first performed at Local Lounge (now Back2Earth), then turned to the pageant world. Campbell Starr was crowned La Femme Magnifique, a pageant founded by Darcelle XV, during her tenth year in drag in 2018. The Imperial Sovereign Rose Court, a drag pageant noted as Oregon’s longest-running LGBTQ+ social organization, crowned Campbell Starr as Rose Empress almost three years ago, with Arcadian serving as her Rose Emperor (Alexis claimed T’Kara’s crown next). She loves Broadway showtunes as much as she loves dancing to pop hits, and currently favors Cynthia Erivo as her muse.
Campbell Starr takes her title as one of Portland’s Finest Drag Artists very seriously.
“It means channeling the heartbeat of Portland while remaining authentic, unapologetic and fiercely creative,” she says “It’s not just lip syncing, it’s storytelling through stones, sequins and shadow, protest and poetry, heartbreak and joy. It honors the legacy of queens, kings, and nonbinary trailblazers who paved the way with stilettos and style, while forging new paths for those yet to shine.”
