When Per Sia learned that she was selected as San Francisco’s newest Drag Laureate, Rooftop Elementary School in Twin Peaks was the natural place to celebrate.
Officially appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday, Per Sia (pronounced pur-zhuh, like the empire) is also the head teacher for first graders at Rooftop’s after school program, CASA. She’s worked there for 20 years. Given its elevated location among trees, Rooftop is often foggy and wet. The day Per Sia’s laureateship was announced was bright and warm. The exuberance was palpable. Two dozen or so first- and second-graders watched the mayor and the laureate make the announcement.
Per Sia is a founding member of Drag Story Hour, where performer-storytellers read to kids in the city’s libraries, schools and museums. Started in San Francisco in 2015, Drag Story Hour, or DSH, grew into a nonprofit organization with independent affiliates in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Drag Story Hour and the queens who take part in it have withstood homophobic protests, vandalism, harassment and persistent death threats. Various states have attempted to ban the events. Lurie’s announcement, and its location at a San Francisco public school, explicitly served as a response to that hostility, and as a statement of solidarity with the city’s LGBTQ residents.
Introducing Lurie, San Francisco City Librarian Michael Lambert noted the importance of the celebration at a moment when many of the books being banned in parts of the US are written by or about LGBTQ authors. “As the first Asian American to serve as your city librarian, I know first-hand that representation matters,” Lambert said.
The mayor, who can come off at events as stiff, was animated. He addressed the crowd with comments about the importance of the Laureate position, especially for young people who may be suffering from neglect, educational disparities, violence, and anxiety about the future. Presented with a list of finalists, Lurie made the selection.
Drag, Lurie said, inspires acceptance and dialogue across generations and, most importantly, joy. “Thank you for showing us all that embracing the freedom to be yourself is a powerful, profound act,” Lurie said to Per Sia.
Per Sia, who is from South Los Angeles, has lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years, and describes herself as a first generation Chicana, trans person, educator, DJ and drag artist. “All of these identities are part of me,” Per Sia told the crowd. “But they’re also under attack. That means that my — our — existence is being debated, and targeted, by people who don’t know who we are.”
The position of Drag Laureate was created in 2022 by an LGBTQ advisory committee of the city’s Human Rights Commission, along with other agencies and organizations, under Mayor London Breed. Per Sia will serve as a liaison to The Art of Drag, a series of workshops at the San Francisco Youth Theatre.
Laureates are messengers of tolerance, reminders of drag artists’ contributions to the city, and advocates of its LGBTQ culture. They are charged with helping to preserve San Francisco’s nightlife and entertainment. Per Sia will get an honorarium of $35,000 for a two-year term in the position.
Taking the microphone, Per Sia first thanked her first-graders and her former students.
“I always say I’m the luckiest drag queen in the world, because I get to do everything I love,” Per Sia said. “During the day, I work here, and at night, I work with the big kids — you know, the adults,” she said.
“But let me ask you this,” Per Sia said with a pause. Almost instantly, before she could get the next word out, a child interrupted, asking, “What?”
The audience burst out laughing.
“Thank you,” Per Sia continued. As she paused again, other kids who had grown impatient jumped in, asking almost in unison, “What!?”
“What is drag?” Per Sia asked. The kids grew quiet again. Sia thanked one of them for raising her hand.
Drag is “telling stories to other people,” the child said. Another student said drag is “reading.” “Drag is performing and helping others learn, and reading stories about bodies to each other,” said another.
“All bodies are cool, right?” Per Sia asked the crowd.
Another student offered up an answer that was hard to hear. Per Sia asked her to speak up.
“Tell people to be themselves,” the student said.
Per Sia explained that all the answers were correct, because drag is everything.
“This recognition means so much because it celebrates all the things that make me me,” Per Sia told the audience. “It reminds my students, my community, my queer self, my family, that there’s no one way to live, no one way to be. And definitely, definitely, no one way to exist — and resist.”
