The people of Chicago are in for a real theatrical treat as this is the next stop for creator/storyteller Les Kurkendaal-Barrett is bringing his one-man show The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen.  We will confess that we had not heard of William Dorsey Swann, who was not just a leading drag queen and the first LGBTQ+ person to lead a resistance movement,  but he did these things in the late 19th century in the South.  K-B first learnt about Swan when he heard about author Channing Joseph, who was  writing a book about Swann, and he soon was hooked 

In the upcoming production, creator/storyteller K-B channels the spirit of Swann while reflecting on his own life as a Black gay performer.   He starts his fascinating one-man show, Kurkendaal-Barrett starts the show, and as he is himself and then turns into William Dorsey Swann, by the end, he weaves his own life as well as his experiences with racism and homophobia into his story.

Joseph describes Swann as “the first queer American hero,” and K-B adds he was also the first queer American activist. The remarkable part of this story is that way back then, Swann was throwing these drag balls, and police started harassing him and his friends, and they would fight back and protest with groups of people.

Shockingly, there are so many similarities with the present time, it’s quite frightening.  The fact that very few people have heard of Swann is indicative of how queer history has always been whitewashed,  and again, that is exactly what the current administration is now doing very forcibly.  Plus, certain states are working on making drag performances a crime and are trying to make things like Drag Time Story Hour illegal.

When K-B was asked what he wanted people to draw from his performance he replied “I want people to take away that we need to stand up for ourselves and fight because history is repeating itself. Also, I want people to know that queer people and people of color are just like non-queer people; we have feelings and emotions. When we are the recipients of racism and homophobia, no one focuses on how it hurts us emotionally as well as physically. People are people, no matter what—and those slurs hurt us.”