What Is A Drag Daddy? | Stéphane Magloire | TEDxDonauinsel
Stephane shares that realizing his queer identity and building his career as an artist taught him that *opportunity meets preparation* to create lasting impact. He demonstrates this by successfully establishing queer visibility and art programming in Vienna, Austria, despite facing intense resistance from extremists. His core advice is to proactively find opportunities and build one's own luck. ## Speakers & Context - **Stephane** — Speaker who is American, Black, a queer artist, and identifies as a "Drag Daddy." - **Audience Member** — Interrupted the speaker with an enthusiastic greeting. - **Anecdote Context** — The speaker recalls moving from Haiti (the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere) to the US, contrasting Haiti's strength with America's "land of opportunity." - **College Hunting Trip** — The initial inspiration for his queer journey occurred during a college tour of New York City. ## Theses & Positions - Opportunity is defined as a time or set of circumstances creating a possibility to *do something*. - *"Luck is opportunity meets preparation."* - The job of an artist is to *"suspend time and look for what is missing, and then create something."* - A strong sense of community values is crucial for creating lasting artistic/social change. - One cannot sustain life solely on "representation"; one must earn "real money" through an established career. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Opportunity:** A time or set of circumstances which create a possibility for you to do something. - **Generalist (artistic sense):** Described the speaker's early phase of life, swinging between sports, arts, and music. - **Drag Daddy:** The self-appointed title the speaker adopted through his work, implying a paternal guidance role in the queer community. - **Suspending time:** A process of slowing down to look deeply at what is missing in one's current life circumstances. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Artistic Development:** Moving from an initial focus (e.g., sports) to a central passion (musical theater), acting as a generalist. - **Coming Out:** The personal process of accepting and revealing one's sexual orientation (as gay) to self and others. - **Community Building:** Utilizing a initial, small "drag brunch" event to build a network that expanded into formal institutions like Odeon Theatre. - **Activism/Defense:** Organizing events (e.g., drag story time for kids) in direct response to visible societal resistance (right-wing, religious, political extremists). ## Timeline & Sequence - **Childhood:** Moved from Haiti to America at age **three**. - **Adolescence:** Period of "swinging" between various arts and sports. - **College Search Trip:** Occurred while visiting New York City to look at universities. - **Early Artistic Milestone:** Becoming a "Renaissance man of Maplewood, New Jersey" within **four years**. - **University Acceptance:** Received an acceptance letter to **NYU Tisch School of the Arts musical theater program** three years after his initial NYC encounter. - **Second Career Pivot:** Moved to Vienna, Austria, after a near-death motorcycle accident in Vietnam, forcing him to slow down and reassess his purpose. - **Current Work:** Established a residency in Vienna to teach queer young artists and promote queer visibility/art. ## Named Entities - **Haiti:** Origin country, described as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but rich in community values. - **New York City:** Location of the turning point encounter at Lips Drag Bar and Restaurant. - **Maplewood, New Jersey:** Town associated with the speaker's initial artistic generalist phase. - **NYU Tisch School of the Arts:** University program where the speaker first studied. - **Lips Drag Bar And Restaurant:** The venue where the speaker first saw drag. - **Vienna, Austria:** Current location where the speaker established his residency. - **Stephansplatz:** Central square in Vienna where the speaker located his new purpose. ## Numbers & Data - Age moved from Haiti to America: **three**. - Number of years to become a "Renaissance man": **four**. - Age when finding his purpose in Vienna: **39**. - Number of international drag artists in the group: **160**. - Number of countries represented by the group: **40**. ## Examples & Cases - **The "Monkey Bars" Analogy:** Describing adolescence as swinging between activities, culminating in finding musical theater. - **The NYC Encounter:** Running into a "fabulous gay man" leading the speaker and his friend's mother to Lips Drag Bar. - **The Initial Drag Experience:** Being confronted by an individual who stated, *"ooh, child, you want my wig?! Cause you got a face for drag."* - **The Struggle for Identity:** The internal struggle of figuring out how to "come out to myself as gay, how to come out to anyone around me." - **The Vienna Slump:** Being forced to slow down in Vienna for five days after a near-death accident, forcing him to question his purpose. - **The Resistance Protest:** Facing right-wing extremists, religious extremists, and political extremists protesting a kids' drag story time at the cafe's front door. - **The Rally Support:** Witnessing 2000 people show up to support his event to protect queer art. ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Google:** Used during the Vienna stay to search *"Gay Vienna"* for initial direction. ## References Cited - None. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - The speaker notes that the early feeling of "opportunity" wasn't immediately understood or actionable. - The speaker acknowledges that the success seen in Vienna is partly due to the unique timing of his personal crisis (the accident). ## Methodology - Utilizing personal narrative arc to teach the principle: Passion and unique background must meet a clear opportunity (preparation) to create something lasting. - Community mobilization and direct artistic programming (e.g., workshops, performances) to sustain visibility. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - **Ask:** *"How do you create your powerful sense of community values in your community?"* - **Process:** Find opportunities, prepare yourself, and actively make your own luck. ## Implications & Consequences - If art and queer visibility are suppressed, visible backlash from extremists can occur (e.g., protesting the children's story time). - Successful community building can scale rapidly, moving from a small initial event to representing global diversity across multiple artistic forms. ## Verbatim Moments - *"From the poorest country in the western hemisphere and moving to one of the richest countries - the land of opportunity - I was already rich."* - *"‘Stephane, you have two hands and a brain. Do something!’"* - *"And I grabbed it and it shocked me, threw me in the air like an Olympic gymnast. And I landed perfect!"* - *"‘ooh, child, you want my wig?! Cause you got a face for drag.’”* - *"There’s no such thing as luck. Luck is opportunity meets preparation."* - *"What the fuck am I doing? Sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. Sorry. What am I doing? What’s my purpose? Where am I going?"* - *"I need to create. Queer. Daytime. Visibility. Representation. Diversity. Inclusion."* - *"You can't live from representation, y'all. You live from real money."* - *"How do you create your powerful sense of community values in your community? Has luck found its way to you? Have you found a way to suspend time to look for what's missing? To create something?"* - *"Prepare yourself, find the opportunities and make your own luck."*