The Vancouver performer and activist is thrilled to return to venues after spending the year online
Aly Laube, Staff Writer
@godalyshutup
Vancouver-based drag performer Kendall Gender was at what she considered the peak of her career in 2020 when the pandemic hit, leaving them to urgently pivot to online drag. With that, her performances went from being in-person to totally virtual — a huge learning curve for the performer, activist, and organizer.
“I sort of put my stiletto to the ground, if you will, and switched everything,” she says. “We started creating a lot of online content. Me and my partner were filming full music videos to submit to online shows. I started doing online fundraisers, and everything just became mobile, but it was very rewarding.”
She’s thrilled to say that this helped her grow her audience and network exponentially. Looking back, she feels lucky to be a working and valued performer in the city, but is particularly excited to get back on stage. When she does, fans can expect elements of her original look combined with hints of new inspiration.
“I think it will be equal parts excitement both for the audience and for me to return to what I love most in my life,” she says. “That positivity and radiance will just fill the whole venue.”
For her as a biracial artist, drag and activism go hand in hand. Last year, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, she started using her platform more for advocacy and spreading the word about the causes that matter to her.
Now that she has a stronger and bigger audience, she can’t wait to apply the skills she learned during lockdown live. Right now, she’s working on a series of charity events called VISIBLE that support groups like BLM and Rainbow Refugees, and she plans on putting that learning experience to good use in the next year.
“Digital drag is a really cool way for people to connect to draw if they are not able to go to the shows, whether they’re underage or don’t feel comfortable,” says Gender.
“I’ve gotten a lot of messages and following from younger queer people and younger allies who wanted to be in the drag scene but had no clue how to, whereas now they just add me on Instagram and they get the full experience of digital drag and drag performance.”
She hopes to keep making digital drag for the rest of her life — with the help of her partner, who has a design degree from Emily Carr. Their shots only got more ambitious with time, at one point taking the duo from their cozy home to the end of a crashing waterfall in North Vancouver.
Gender hopes to be “quite busy over the next couple months” with live shows that will incorporate video elements. She can’t wait until it’s safe for crowds to get together and dance the night away, complete with backup dancers in the club. For hard details and updates, follow her on Instagram.
Aly Laube is an event producer, journalist, and musician living on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She is a radio host on CitR and CIVL, the associate director of Cushy Entertainment, and the front woman of the local band Primp. In her spare time, she watches horror movies and panics about the ever-looming threat of climate change. As a queer mixed-race woman with a glaring inability to keep her mouth shut, Aly is very often in the throes of either rage or passion. In general, you can catch Aly doing too much all the time. She’s reachable at alaubefreelancing@gmail.com.
