Cullen McCurry – News Stories

Throughout history, drag performance has been one of the most essential art forms attached to queer culture. Drag is often thought of as female impersonation, but in reality the world of drag is much more than that. Drag is an avenue for queer people to explore their gender identity and break the conventions of femininity and masculinity, regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the person. This liberating art form thrives off of human interaction, so once the pandemic hit in 2020, drag artistry has had to evolve and adapt along with the rest of the world.

One group of drag artists from Knoxville known as the House of Commitment spoke about their experiences performing in drag during the pandemic, and the impact that COVID has had on drag performance. Daphne, who is considered the Mother of the House of Commitment, explains, “At the beginning of the pandemic, we thought it was gonna be nothing. I had bookings for a few weeks and then was going to take a short break.” Twinkie, another member of the House of Commitment, describes drag as “always flowing, like a river. So it’s kind of prepared me for change.” During this time, the House supported each other through the mutual trials that they have endured. Once Daphne and the rest of the House realized that it was not going to be as temporary as expected, they realized they had to adapt. Despite the disappointment of not being able to perform in front of a crowd, this resilient group of performers realized that they had to express their artistry in different ways, relying more on social media to show off their creations.

On Instagram, drag artists have a platform to show off their creative skills and also advocate for issues that are important to them. Social media also helps to attract people to the shows that are frequently held in the Knoxville area. Below you will find a map of some of the best queer performance places in Knoxville as well as a link to each of their Instagram pages.

“With everything happening with the pandemic, queer people need other queer people in a time like this, to survive.” says Phoenix, who is a drag artist and also has done hair styling for the House for a long time. “Coming into the House of Commitment changed eleven months of self-destructive thinking, for me.” The House of Commitment show how queer people can build a sense of community between each other, and support one another throughout their endeavors.

Now that many bars and clubs have begun to reopen, it has made many drag performers feel grateful for any opportunity they have to perform. Daphne expressed how, returning to live drag shows after months of quarantine, “shows are limited and showtimes are reduced. They have to decide who has been doing drag longer and who relies on it the most.” 

Further explaining the financial difficulties that come along with doing drag, Mel Box affirmed that they are “doing drag because [we] want to do drag. Drag is not a free hobby. You have to be committed to what you’re doing to make it work.

Whether or not you have returned to the club scene following the pandemic, there are many ways you can support drag entertainers in the Knoxville area.

Instragram:

@houseofcommitment

@melboxxknox

@daphne.gloss

@it_the_glixch @sculptedbyphoenix

@twinkiemcfuck

A map of some of the best places to see drag performances in Knoxville.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1-v2BSnGzDoAuljMeO8rK9XcCsuP2l5w6

On Friday, March 19, the University of Tennessee’s men’s basketball team lost to the Oregon State basketball team in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament, with a final score of 70-56. Fans across the University of Tennessee campus were devastated by the loss, as it meant that the Volunteers would not continue on in the tournament. 

A photo from UT Athletics advertising the game.

The Vols performed poorly from the beginning of the game, and it was clear that this was not going to be a good one for them. One of the weaknesses that the team suffered from is that they were not able to make many of the 3-point throws that they went for. Fans had high hopes for the team going into this tournament, and many considered them to be a favorite going forward, but on Friday night that was clearly not the case.

An action shot from the game originally published by Knoxville News Sentinel.

One UT basketball fan that I spoke to, Patrick Jones, tells me that he was planning on celebrating the victory on Friday night, but when he started to see how the game was going, he decided he would instead spend the rest of the night “trying to forget the horrific loss.” He explains that he was very excited to see the Volunteers throughout this NCAA tournament, but after this loss he “doesn’t even know if he can watch the rest of the tournament.” 

Oregon State 25, Tennessee 11

Bad, bad basketball for the #Vols on both ends of the floor.

If Tennessee doesn’t change something fast, it may be back in Knoxville before midnight. @VR2onSI

— Jake Nichols (@jnichols_2121) March 19, 2021

Fans online were also unimpressed with the Vols’ performance on Friday.

Another basketball fan and student, Nicholas Gangloff, tells me that he “doesn’t even want to talk about” the game from Friday. Gangloff points the finger to coach Rick Barnes, saying that he does not believe he has done a good job in the past couple of years to make the team improve.

Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, is the Volunteers’ home stadium. Friday’s game, however, took place at Bankers Life Field Arena in Indianapolis.

Overall, it was a disappointing night for Vols fans, and many have decided, because of this, that they do not care to watch the rest of the season.

UT student and basketball fan, Nicholas Gangloff, talks about his experience watching the game on Friday.

The homeless population in Knoxville has consistently been oppressed against in a variety of ways, not just in terms of having less access to services that make it easier to attain financial mobility, but also by the police trying to get them off of the streets and providing no real solution for where they can go. This can be seen in the hostile architecture across Knoxville that attempts to remove homeless people from sleeping on benches or being in other places because they believe that it makes the city look better to not show these people who really have no other place to go. By doing this, the City of Knoxville makes it seem like the homeless epidemic in Knoxville is under control, but what they’re really doing is leaving this people with no place to sleep and forcing them to gather in other parts of the city, such as the street across from KARM, a homeless shelter here in Knoxville. 

Homeless people line the street across from KARM, where many of them have not been able to receive access to their services due to overcrowding.

Walking along the streets of downtown Knoxville and the Old City, it was not difficult to find subjects to interview. Many even seemed eager to tell their stories without the fear of judgment. One woman I interviewed named Shannon, who preferred not to reveal her last name, explained that there’s really no way to prepare for homelessness. In her situation, she was evicted from her apartment after she was unable to pay rent due to unemployment. She tells me that, since then, she has just been going from place to place, and has hopes to eventually move to California. Among all of the people I interviewed, there seems to be a consensus that the City of Knoxville and particularly the police, have not had homeless people’s best interests at heart. 

Frank, a homeless man who was photographed on the streets of the Old City, tells me that he has always wanted to be an artist, and he used his artistic talents to create his sign.

Things have been ever more difficult for homeless people during the pandemic, as many shelters such as KARM have now implemented strict rules for which people are allowed to stay there. One woman, Donna, who had just been denied service from KARM, explained that they require each person to have their temperature taken with “thermometers that don’t actually work.” When I asked her what a homeless person who is sick and in need of services is supposed to do, she shrugged and said, “look around,” referring to the homeless people on the other side of the street, sitting out in the cold.

What these people all had in common was that they were not in this situation by choice, and they knew that things needed to change on a systematic level in order for homeless people to get the access to resources they need. This is a situation that anyone could easily fall into, but is extremely difficult to get out of.

The homeless population of Knoxville has consistently grown over the past several years, with shelters offering help but many times having to turn people away if they are sick or for a variety of other reasons. In the most recent report by Knoxville Homeless Management Information Services, 9,183 people accessed homeless services in 2018, a 3 percent increase from the year before. The actual homeless population is likely much higher as many homeless people do not access these services, and in some cases, they are turned away.  This community has been affected recently by a variety of issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, cold temperatures, and interference from law enforcement. A report from Knox News reveals that in October of 2020, the Knox County police disbanded a homeless encampment underneath I-40 E without providing much of a solution for where they could go, as many of these shelters are already overcrowded. Many of these people who have not been so fortunate to receive services from homeless shelters in the city of Knoxville line Broadway St. across from Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries, as they now have no other place to stay. 

Upon visiting the former homeless encampment under I-40, there were still a few homeless people gathering around the area. The sound of cars from the interstate above was deafening and a group of five or six people were gathered around a heroin needle. But that is not a fair representation of all of these people, as many of them have been placed in these circumstances outside of their control. There was one woman named Piper, 28 years old, who has been homeless in Knoxville for about three years. She became homeless after she was in a car accident and had to use all of her money to fix the car, resulting in her being evicted from her house. She describes this former encampment as a “tent city” where a lot of the people felt a sense of family. She says, “once you go under that bridge, it will always pull you back. All we have out here is each other.”

On Friday, February 5, 2021, FX and Hulu premiered “The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears,” an unauthorized documentary about Spears’s life and career, mainly focusing on the conservatorship that she has been under since 2008 and the legal battle that she has been involved in since 2019 regarding the conservatorship. A conservatorship is a legal arrangement where a guardian or “conservator” is appointed to control one’s financial and personal endeavors when that person is not believed to be physically or mentally able to take care of themselves. Spears’s father, Jamie Spears, has been the conservator of her estate and person since 2008.

A promotional photo for the New York Times/FX documentary. Britney herself was not directly involved in the documentary, despite being reached out to by the New York Times.

The documentary begins chronicling Britney’s life and career. She debuted in late 1998 at sixteen years old, releasing pop music that resonated with fans in every corner of the world. She faced a great deal of scrutiny in her early career, resulting in the paparazzi’s unhealthy obsession with her. This obsession hit its peak between 2005 and 2007, where Spears was basically unable to leave her home without being harassed by paparazzi. At one point, Spears made up 25% of the paparazzi business.

Spears was unable to leave her house without being swarmed by paparazzi. In this photo, one cannot even see Spears because of the photographers.

Due to this pressure and harassment, Spears dealt with a great deal of mental health issues in the mid 2000s. Following a hospitalization in early 2008, she was put under a temporary conservatorship, which was later turned into a permanent conservatorship. Later that year, she released a new album and embarked on a world tour, starting speculation as to whether or not she needed to be under a conservatorship.

Spears performing on her 2009 Circus tour, which came in the midst of her highly publicized breakdown and beginning of her conservatorship.

For the following years, Spears continued releasing music and engaging in promotion, all while under the conservatorship. It was not until 2019 that she signaled she wanted out of the conservatorship. It was then that the conservatorship got wider media attention, with Spears stating that she does not wish to have her father as her conservator. Since then, he has refused to step down, resulting in the #FreeBritney movement, advocating for the end of her conservatorship or, at the very least, for her father to step down.

#FreeBritney protestors outside of a courthouse. The movement has brought up larger concerns about conservatorship abuse in general.

As of 2021, Spears’s father has still refused to step down, but with the increased media attention and the release of this documentary, one can expect more changes to come in regards to Spears’s conservatorship.