At the Boulder Public Library’s Story Hour, drag is for everyone

Transphobia is rampant across this country. It always has been, but the current federal administration has made that form of hate a driving part of their mission.

And it’s bled into many different facets of society and culture – from federal policies seeking to ban gender-affirming care, to censorship and book bans at public libraries and in schools, to outward discrimination and hate crimes.

In the face of all of that, the Boulder Public Library has continued to stand up and provide a safe space – not only for folks of all gender identities, but for kiddos and families – in an effort to uplift diversity and representation.

Miss Zarah is a Colorado drag entertainer who has been doing Drag Story Hour at the Boulder Public Library since its inception, along with Miss Shirley – another drag entertainer.

Melanie Borski-Howard is a youth services librarian at the Boulder Public Library, and has been leading the coordination and production of Story Hour since it began.

Their first show nearly 10 years ago was so successful that they moved into a bigger space, and kept hosting them fairly regularly … even through the pandemic, doing Storytimes virtually … and since November, they’ve been doing it once a month – every third Saturday.

KGNU’s Jackie Sedley attended the most recent one, this past Saturday, at the library. Afterward, they spoke with Zarah and Borski-Howard.

Listen:

Miss Zarah:

“Nighttime Zarah is completely different from Drag Story Time Zarah.”

“ I’ll get the question, ‘Are you a boy or a girl sometimes?’ And I go, ‘I’m both.’ And they go, ‘Okay!’ And just move on.”

“ Drag story time is also good for adults too, to tap into that inner child that we all have, that we suppress as adults.”

“A lot of the people that fall into that negative rhetoric, they were never put in safe spaces. And that’s why they act out in the way that they do and say the things that they do ’cause they weren’t be able to be in safe spaces. And so I think everyone deserves that. And so that’s what I try and try to do with any drag event that I do.”

The Boulder Public Library’s Drag Story Hour is affiliated with International Drag Story Hour out of New York.

The next Story Hour is the third Saturday in June, the 21st, during Pride month. To find more information, head to the library’s website.