TBA Diaries: Critical Mascara: A Post-Realness Drag Ball

By Rebecca Jacobson

Stories worth knowing. Reporting worth supporting. Willamette Week's biggest fundraiser of the year is underway. Help fund independent reporting that is free for everyone.

Give today. Keep the stories coming.

Support WW.

At the beginning of the Time Based-Art Festival’s second-annual Critical Mascara drag ball, host Kaj-anne Pepper said it would be “a shitshow of a magic night.”


She spoke the truth.


Though the only things that actually emerged from rear ends were condoms and bananas (no joke, and the latter was consumed), this “post-realness drag ball” proved it deserves to hold a permanent spot on TBA’s schedule. Between the glitter, body paint, sequins, towering stilettos and high kicks, the show—inspired by Paris is Burning and the drag balls of ‘80s and ‘90s New York City—joyously defied narrow expectations of gender, beauty and, occasionally, talent.


But where was there no question about talent? In Pepper’s final number, a crowd-surfing act set to Miley Cyrus' “Wrecking Ball” featuring a couple dozen confetti-filled balloons and a neon rainbow poker.


Here’s what it looked like. Photos by Briana Cerezo.

Read more TBA Diaries here.

WWeek 2015

Rebecca Jacobson

Rebecca Jacobson

Rebecca Jacobson is a writer from Portland (OK, she was born in Seattle but has been in Oregon since the day after she turned 10) who's also lived in Berlin, Malawi and Rhode Island. While on staff at Willamette Week, she covered theater, film, bikes, drug dealers-turned-barbers and little-known scraps of local history.

Willamette Week reports the stories worth knowing, from City Hall to the people and places shaping Portland.

Help keep the stories coming by supporting WW on Give!Guide.

Support WW.