Liberation Through The Eyes of Qing Blaze

Image Credit: MacLean Colomb

RICHMOND, VA –Beginning with the first pride after the Stonewall riots in 1969, whiteness and corporate interests have reared their heads out of the queer liberation movement. Incessant grasps for monetary consumption and attention from the queer community, and the continued evaluation of white, male, gay bodies as superior to any that do not fit cleanly onto a binary put many on high alert during Pride. 

Qing Blaze, a draglesque performer, co-producer of a queer, POC driven arts collective and program director for Diversity Richmond, is someone who consistently works to challenge these binaries through their work. 

“When I started to develop my stage persona, I wanted to embrace the challenge around gender norms that drag presents, but I also really love the fullness, and the sensual nature, and the power… the ways that sensuality allows us to subvert expectations. I wanted to hang onto that,” Qing said.  

Within the context of today’s sociopolitical climate, challenging expectations is especially important, as harmful rhetoric surrounding marginalized communities is increasingly propagated through the 24-hour news cycle and social media. This, Qing said, is what drew him to the art of draglesque in the first place. Through storytelling, Qing is able to reclaim history, resist the erasure and co-optation of this performance. 

“The more that I began to identify with who I am, and name myself, and realize that it was really hard for me to find other people that I could look up to, it was because of the erasure of history. People who come from such deeply marginalized backgrounds, our stories often become co-opted by other people or completely erased. I felt like when it was time for me to approach ways to convey a story, I wanted to use every opportunity available,” Qing said. 

Qing wants to take the opportunity to not only share his own personal stories, whether he is on stage as a performer or producing a piece, but also the stories of the people he comes from. This embrace of cultural stories allows Qing to bring a sense of urgency to his performance and approach his art with intention. 

“As people who live in these bodies, it’s very important for us to approach our opportunities for visibility and communication with a bit of strategy, because our history is being taken away from us every single day,” Qing said. 

Aside from using their platform to highlight the people who have been influential to him and tell culturally significant stories,  the very nature of their work as a draglesque performer is revolutionary. Because of the way that sensuality has been stigmatized, communities of color and queer folks have been separated from a level of collective power. 

“When we decide that sensuality is not appropriate in a certain form, or we start to police what the expectation of a body or a body function is, I feel like we start to slowly chop away from our ability to be in our full power.”

Qing wants to destigmatize this sensuality to connect people with the very human nature of sensuality, so that it can begin to garner more respect as an art form that elements of colonialism and religion have partially stripped away, according to Qing. 

“I think it infuriates people,” Qing said, “because they don’t understand why me and my little Black body would feel so proud, or confident… I think that directly challenges those systems.”

Qing also underscored the importance of organizations in the Richmond area that aim to center Black voices and experiences, not just during Pride, but every day. 

UGRC and Black Pride, for example, have been able to host health fairs, as well as on-site training for those interested in learning about how to better care for themselves and loved ones, as well as leadership programs. 

These organizations do an exceptional job at breaking cycles of thinking that one can only be a teacher or a student, Qing said. They encourage everyone who participates to bring something to the table and learn from others who participate. 

“We all have something to share to bring to the larger vision as far as resources and connections,” Qing said. 

Though there are organizations doing incredible work, underfunding and some shortcomings of Richmond City to meet the needs of queer people, and people of color still inhibit progress. 

Qing chose to highlight these organizations in particular, he said, because they are unfortunately experiencing severe funding cuts under the current administration, and are not receiving the same attention from people who can donate to organizations like Virginia Pride. Additionally, Qing said, Richmond has neglected issues of public health and has not supported spaces for artists to thrive in the city. 

“I really want Richmond to think critically about the fact that those of us who are already underserved, when it comes to issues of housing, food access, access to education, those who are marginalized are impacted three and four times,” Qing said. 

There are also so many empty spaces that go to waste, even though there are so many artists in Richmond that need studio space, according to Qing. There are lots of opportunities for direct support that Richmond just needs to lean into. 

People flock to Richmond because they see it as this beacon where artists are coming, but that’s happening in a lot of ways, unfortunately,  despite the city not having support in financial ways, and in ways of providing space and opportunity for people to do their work,” Qing said. 

But people like Qing work to fill these gaps. He wears many hats, and his roles all work together to elevate issues of importance to him and his communities, normalizing conversations and connecting people through the common thread of humanity. 

“It’s all about that common thread of accessibility to name yourself, own your identity and be a representative of your community,” Qing said.