Esther, the Bipedal Entity! (moderator) is a conduit through which various biochemical algorithms choose to express themselves. In her practice, Esther explores history, media studies, fashion, and dance through video and live performances. After stints as a video producer at NYLON and Hearst, she recognizes the limitations of legacy/liberal media and seeks to create concise and engaging content to better contextualize our position in history.

Julian Castronovo (they/them/theirs) is a senior staff attorney at a nonprofit in Brooklyn where they provide holistic civil legal services to low-income queer and trans New Yorkers, including representation in anti-discrimination suits, Social Security and other public benefit hearings, as well as in eviction, immigration, and name change proceedings. Julian believes their role as an attorney is simply to ensure that queer and trans people have access to basic needs so they can focus on thriving and building the world we deserve outside of the repressive and oppressive legal system. Outside of their work, they are a parent to three cats and are an avid Bravo fan (#scandoval).

NYC legend, comedian, host, and international entertainer Murray Hill is a relentless shtick slinger, larger-than-life personality, and freewheeling ad-libber. He plays Fred Rococo in Bridget Everett’s Somebody Somewhere (HBO). The show was awarded many “Best of 2022” Awards, including “Best New TV Series” from AFI. He can be seen on Amy Schumer’s Life & Beth and guest-starred on Welcome to Flatch (FOX). This summer, he hosts the new competition show Drag Me To Dinner (Hulu) and will be seen in Paul Feig’s movie Grand Death Lotto (Amazon Studios) starring John Cena and Awkwafina. He performed his solo comedy show at Just for Laughs, New York Comedy Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Murray was awarded the New York Voices commission from Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, where he debuted About to Break. His infamous holiday show A Murray Little Christmas has also been a perennial sold-out destination there for a decade. For 10 years, Murray hosted Dita Von Teese’s international tour Strip Strip Hooray. He starred for two seasons at the Sydney Opera House in Club Swizzle, which toured major festivals. He’s in music videos for Peaches, Countess Luann, TV on the Radio, The Regrettes, Joan as Police Woman, Bridget Everett, and Gossip. The New York Times anointed Murray “Downtown’s New ‘It’ Boy.” He’s been included in “Best of New York” lists in the Village Voice, Time Out, PAPER, and New York Magazine; inducted into PAPER’s Nightlife Hall of Fame; selected as OUT’s Top 100 influential performers twice; included in New York Magazine’s “Fifty Most Iconic Gender Benders of All Time” and PAPER’s “Top Ten ‘It’ Boys in NYC Nightlife History”; and named one of the Top 12 gender-bending performers in NYC by Time Out. He was recently awarded the Trailblazer Award by Queerty. His campaign for Mayor of New York in 1996 was inducted into the New York Historical Society.

Joe E. Jeffreys is a drag historian, dramaturge, and video artist whose work has received funding from the Jerome Foundation. As a professor at NYU, he teaches a wide range of Major Playwrights courses for the Drama Department, including ones on Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, and Samuel Beckett and the Absurdists. He has led the department’s LGBTQ+ performance class for many years including a full semester devoted to examining RuPaul’s Drag Race and its impact. For the past decade, Jeffreys has actively video-documented the NYC drag scene and his work has screened internationally at festivals, museums, and galleries including The Museum of Arts and Design, and The Tate Modern. Samples of his video work can be seen at https://vimeo.com/joejeffreys.

Rachel Rampleman is a multimedia artist who creates bodies of work that explore gender, artifice, and spectacle, and is the creator of Life Is Drag – the largest digital archive of drag and burlesque performers in the United States. Utilizing directorial, curatorial, and anthropological processes, she showcases exuberantly irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging clichés and taboos to rethink and reimagine the gender construct. With Life Is Drag, Rachel has documented 350+ performances (video portraits), showcasing the most innovative and singular LGBTQIA+ performers currently exploding on the national alt-drag and neo-burlesque scenes across America, with a specific focus recently on New York City-based performers while in residence for the last six months at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre in Chelsea.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently living and working in New York City, she received her MFA from New York University in 2006. Since then, her work has been shown internationally at the Shanghai Biennale (Brooklyn Pavilion, 2012-13) in China, the Chennai Photo Biennale (India), and throughout Europe at S.M.A.K. (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) and Art Cinema OFFoff (Ghent, Belgium), C/O Berlin, Die Fruhperle, and The Secret Cabinet (Berlin, Germany), and at VIDEONALE.16 at the Kunstmuseum Bonn.

Nationally, her work has been exhibited at such venues as Socrates Sculpture Park, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Satellite Art Show, Spectacle Theater, The Wassaic Project, Flux Factory, VOX Bizarre, Cantor Film Center, The Arts Center of the Capital Region (New York), Other Cinema at Artists' Television Access (California), The Wexner Center for the Arts, The Contemporary Arts Center, The Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts (Ohio), PULSE Miami (Florida), The Flint Art Institute (Michigan), The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, The Carnegie Museum of Art, and The Andy Warhol Museum (Pennsylvania).

Rachel’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Art F City, Paper Magazine, Artnet, DRAIN, Domino, eyes toward the dove, HYPERALLERGIC, Gothamist, Berlin Art Parasites, the Fanzine, Seattle Pi, Absolute Arts, ÆQAI, and LeCool Bangkok, among others.

Klondyke is an alien tragg*t superstar!!! Child of a black hole and a supernova, raised by a 4th-dimensional rockstar. Experimental musical theatre composer, Haus of Quench Member, and winner of Cakeboys 2021 Take the Cake Competition, they are here to terrorize norms out of existence through the great unifier: MUUUUSIIIIIC!

La Zavaleta was raised in Mexico City and pulls inspiration from her time there for her drag. She competed in the fourth season of The Boulet Brothers Dragula, and was crowned Miss Bushwig 2021. She is the host of the weekly competition BITCH FEST at C'mon Everybody, a show that allows artists to express themselves with a full twist to allow them to grow in the industry.

Paris L’Hommie is a multifaceted artist who specializes in the art forms of drag and burlesque. A triple threat with an eye for fashion, Paris is known to sport many different artistic looks. Her super modelesque body will have you unable to keep your eyes off her. Paris uses burlesque as an act of defiance in the face of oppression. By bearing her unashamed Black queer body, she is showing that the beauty of queer Black people should not be hidden, but in fact, celebrated.

Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre (Artistic Director Kira Simring) is a not-for-profit dedicated to the incubation and presentation of new work across all artistic disciplines that mine the mind, pierce and awaken the soul. Founded in 2006, the cell has provided a developmental home in the heart of Chelsea for works in progress by artists ranging from early careers to established staples of the New York community. Originally established as a 21st-century salon, the cell has evolved into a cultural hub for the performing arts, food artists, cyborg theatre artists, musicians, installation artists, choreographers, and more. Past installations include Dark Matter Immersive’s Garden of Eden, Chauhaus, and Steve Pavlovsky's Tranquility Base. Past performances include the revival of Elizabeth Swados’ Nightclub Cantata, What Keeps You Going? by HOLDTIGHT,Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) (starring Jackie Hoffman), Persou by Ellpetha Tsivicos and Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez, Tolerance Party, Found, Hoard (co-produced with Off the Wall), The Evolution of Mann, Bastard Jones (a Drama-Desk Award nominee), Crackskull Row, Hey Jude, Rady & Bloom's Peter/Wendy, The McGowan Trilogy, Horse Girls,Hard Times: An American Musical (now the Tony-Nominated Paradise Square) and Dinner and Delusion. New work developed at the cell has been seen on Broadway, Irish Repertory Theatre, MCC, Rattlestick Playwrights’ Theatre, New World Stages, Cherry Lane Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, Toyohashi Arts Theatre, Kino Theater, UK, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Carnegie Stage, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Art Basel Miami.

Learn more: http://www.thecelltheatre.org/

The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) lifts up the voices of the people in the debates that shape New York City. Through Advocacy, Preservation, Planning, and Public Programming, MAS leads the way toward a more livable city from sidewalk to skyline. MAS envisions a future in which all New Yorkers share in the richness of city life—where growth is balanced, character endures, and a resilient future is secured. For 130 years our advocacy efforts have led to the creation of the NYC Planning Commission, Public Design Commission, Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Tribute in Light; the preservation of Grand Central Terminal, the lights of Times Square, and the Garment District; the conservation of more than 50 works of public art; and the founding of such civic organizations as the Public Art Fund, the Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, and the Waterfront Alliance. The Life Is Drag event is part of MAS’s upcoming Enduring Culture Initiative, which aims to document, celebrate, and preserve NYC’s diverse intangible cultural heritage.

Learn more: https://www.mas.org/