A Free Drag Show Blooms at the Block for First Fridays

"I'm lucky to have these amazing people to work with, and I will only stop when I tear an ACL or break an ankle," says drag artist and activist Potted Plant.

Kraig Weaver laughs, adding, "Can you please re-evaluate which shoes you're wearing?"

The pair is chatting about Blossom Party, the free alternative drag show that Plant and co-producer, queer activist and lawyer Z Williams (they/them) started in 2023. The event recently found a permanent home at the Block Distilling, which Weaver co-founded, and will be held there every first Friday beginning April 5.

Williams and Plant are both members of the Colorado Springs queer community, and Blossom Party is a beautiful example of resilience in the face of immense violence and tragedy. On November 19, 2022, a mass shooter opened fire in Club Q, an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs. The attack left seventeen injured and five dead: Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance.

After the shooting, Matthew Haynes, who was uncertain of the business's future, closed Club Q, with tentative plans to reopen in the coming months. It was a sudden loss of income for regular performers like Plant, who struggled to book new shows and make ends meet. "I've been doing drag for a very long time," she says, "and losing a place where I worked four nights a week, which was pretty much my full-time job, and having that taken away from me as a producer was really, really difficult."

It was a devasting loss of life, community and stability. "For many of the [Club Q performers], drag is like an emotional outlet, so in a sense, you're losing your therapist," Plant reflects. "I saw through a lot of my [drag] family members that it was very, very difficult for their careers. It...made them not want to do drag anymore.

"After the tragedy, I thought I was done performing," she adds, "and even now, I still have those thoughts."

Colorado Springs was left with one LGBTQ+ spot — Icons Bar — which closed in December 2023 because of smoke damage from a fire. While the Club Q organization opened a new club,  the Q, in the lobby of the Satellite Hotel on March 29, community members like Plant and Williams have already crafted safe spaces of their own.

Blossom Party showcases a rotation of artists, many of whom are Club Q survivors and impacted community members. Judgment-free acceptance is emphasized, and it's a haven for diverse performers. "We put a lot of effort into focusing on BIPOC individuals, black and brown performers, as well as trans individuals," Plant explains. "So we highlight everyone who wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable as a performer walking into spaces like X Bar and Tracks as a visibly trans person."

More than just a place for displaced drag performers to strut their stuff, the show also provides resources like naloxone (Narcan), a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, and information about free STI and HIV testing. Calls to action for transgender rights are distributed, and art is sold to support other Club Q survivors.

"Drag has always been an art that is led by some of the most marginalized people, like the poorest folks, BIPOC folks, sex workers, trans people, the people at the very margins. So to us, it's a way to honor that legacy of drag," Williams says. "It's moving drag from being something that is for folks who can handle a $20 cover at Tracks...and feel safe walking into that space and returning it to a community that oftentimes has been excluded from the mainstream drag community."

Weaver adds that hosting the Blossom Party aligns with the Block's vision of assembling a populace of punks and politicians, pole dancers and priests. "For us, it's a beautiful way to showcase what we wanted the Block to be," he says. "If we can provide an area for someone with a different art form, a different level of creativity than what we get to express, then that's the best use of our space and what we want."

According to ABC News, 84 anti-LGBTQ+ bills became law in 2023, ranging from restrictions on what bathrooms transgender individuals can use to laws that block gender-affirming care for minors. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking 479 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S., including drag bans such as Kansas's S.B. 149, which will expand the crime of promoting obscenity to minors to include drag performances.

In a time when the rights of drag performers and transgender individuals are increasingly threatened, spaces like the Blossom Party are vital pockets of support, love and community.

"Blooms are these spectacular things that bring us joy and surround us with beauty. Those are things that for me are very, very important to remind myself of," Plant says, explaining her inspiration for the show's floral name. "Hopefully I leave my audiences with a little bit of beauty in the world."

Blossom Party, Friday April 5, 7:30 p.m., 2990 Larimer Street, free.