As an internationally renowned drag queen, Shangela Laquifa Wadley is ready to bring the kind of show to Syracuse University that was missing from her college campus in Dallas.

“Oh honey, well, they’re going to walk out of here with their wig snatched, okay,” Shangela said.

A Drag Queen Bingo Event, slated for Oct. 16 from 8-10 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium will feature a queer-themed bingo game, a drag performance and a Q&A session with Shangela.

Last year, Student Association’s diversity committee held a similar event, which included a moderated conversation with The Vixen — a drag queen famous for her participation in the tenth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Hunter Gorick, the president of SU’s Pride Union, said the idea of queer bingo came from drag bingo.

“We thought of putting the two ideas together because it’s educational and also a staple of what drag is beyond just a drag show,” Gorick said.

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The bingo show is one of the many events being held as a part of SU’s LGBTQ+ History Month celebration. The events are meant to educate SU on the campus’s queer community, and serve to remind the respective community members that they are not alone, Gorick said.

Gorick added participants don’t need to know about drag to attend the event. The bingo poses an opportunity to learn and enjoy a community that may be unfamiliar to some, he added.

Shangela described the game as “not your grandma’s game of bingo.”

“This is definitely a lot more fun. There’s a lot more comedy, there’s a lot more fun humor added to the event and there’s also entertainment,” Shangela said. “Trust me, my grandma is not seeing a high energy, amazing, extravagant dance show at her local bingo hall. And that’s what’s going to happen here.”

From the age of 18 years old, Shangela worked as a backup dancer for multiple drag queens in Dallas. After a few years, she moved to Los Angeles and started doing drag herself. After an amateur performance one night, the club let her host her own show. Ten shows in, she was approached by the season two producers of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” who encouraged her to audition.

Shangela is the only contestant to ever compete in three seasons of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The queen from Paris, Texas, has also appeared in episodes of “Glee,” “The X-Files” and “2 Broke Girls,” among other shows. Most recently, she had a small role in “A Star Is Born,” alongside Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

“I hope that people can draw from my experience, the inspiration to keep going no matter what,” Shangela said. “At ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ as a contestant three times, I never walked away with a crown, but I never let that hold me back from walking in life as a queen.”

In addition to the bingo event, the LGBT Resource Center at SU hosts many other events for the queer community on campus. The resource center is a safe space for students to hang out, do their work and get snacks, in addition to its more formal programming, said Berri Wilmore, an LGBT Resource Center student staff member.

Wilmore said that there are so many queer events on this campus, it would be hard to make it to all of them. Wilmore said that drag is something that more people are interested in right now, making the event one that will attract a diverse audience.

“I like to bring a high level of energy to any program or event that I’m a part of, so this coming drag bingo is going to be something that they’ll be talking about for years to come,” Shangela said.

Published on October 15, 2019 at 10:55 pm

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu