West Long Branch (The Verge) – Monmouth University’s chapter of All Lifestyles Included (ALI) put on their annual “Dragula” drag queen show at Anacon Hall on Friday March 23rd. The show featured professional drag queens, such as Alexis Milian and Jersey’s Barbie, along with a couple of students getting the opportunity to strut their stuff on stage.
All of the proceeds from this show went to “Out of The Darkness”, a suicide prevention organization. Some facts were given out during the beginning of the show, including that suicide was the 2nd highest killer of college students.
Many of the performers strutted their stuff on stage for two hours. Some students, including myself, got the opportunity to go on stage as a performer. It was an interesting experience to see how the crowd reacts to certain moves, and although most of the gentlemen who were on stage did not have any drag expertise, there were people there to help them and the crowd loved every minute of their performance.
The person that was in charge of the show was sophomore Louis Garbarini. He said that he was able to meet most of the drag performers “just from being out and around in the gay community.” He said that he originally met Jersey’s Barbie, and she introduced him to everyone else. He said that he could not come up with a favorite performer because, “they are amazing performers and I know them all and have become very close to them and I know they always put on an amazing show no matter what and are good at what they do.”
“Dragula” got a tremendous turnout by students and also got rave reviews from students. It was a successful event that everyone enjoyed, and helped expose support for suicide awareness.
(Video courtesy of Louis Garbarini)
