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Story night at the Douglas Public Library played out like any other monthly family night: free food, some crafts, and a very special guest reading books. More than 100 adults, teenagers and children attended Juneau’s first Drag Queen Story Hour hosted by Gigi Monroe of Juneau. 

She introduces herself to the kids, and explains, “I’m a drag queen, and if you’ve never met a drag queen, this is what we look like. We like to play dress up and make people happy.”

The buxom Gigi Monroe is the creation of James Hoagland, a professional wig designer and producer of Juneau Pride’s sold out drag revue, Glitz. Covered in ruffles, rhinestones and glitter, some of the kids listening from the floor thought the drag queen reading childhood classics might have been royalty.

She’s known for her bedazzled costumes, lively impersonations of Dolly Parton and Liza Minelli among others, and even pyrotechnics.

But at the library, “It’s definitely more G-rated than what I usually do at a show,” Hoagland said.

He said the experience provides youth with a real life example of self-expression, so they may feel freer to express themselves.

The idea to bring drag queens to Juneau’s youth came from the Brooklyn Public Library whose Drag Queen Story Hour “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity in childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.” 

Heather Paige Burke saw a video from Brooklyn and asked her friend at the Juneau Public Library if it could happen here. Burke, who brought her husband and 2-year-old son, said Juneau celebrates many cultures, but others are lacking in visibility.

“So it’s great to have literally all colors of the rainbows. And as much as we can expose our children to that, the better,” Burke said. “Like, then you can see, anyone can be anything their heart tells them they should be and who they truly are.”

Amelia Jenkins, who works in youth services for the library, said there were a few raised eyebrows when they announced the event.

“We just let them know that the library is for everybody and families can decide for themselves whether this was right for them,” she said. “And they took that pretty well.” 

So far, there have been no formal complaints.

It took Hoagland about an hour-and-a-half to get ready for Drag Story Hour, about the same amount of time he spends preparing for the stage. He said drag, like other performance arts, is just trying to connect with people. In this case, very young people, and letting them know whoever they are is OK. No matter the audience, Hoagland’s goal is for them to let go and just have fun.

Family Night is funded through The Friends of the Juneau Public Libraries who pay for all programming expenses.

This spring, longtime friends and musicians Tania Lewis and Christopher Behnke released their first album “Live at the Outpost.” During the Alaska Folk Fest, the banjo-guitar duo recorded a Red Carpet Concert at the Alaskan Hotel. Here’s their performance of Lewis’s song “The Swell.”

This video was made in collaboration between with Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus. Watch other Red Carpet Concerts with The Hannah Yoter Band of Anchorage, The Quaintrelles and Goldwing.

Rusty Recordings producer Justin Smith discussed the album with the artists. Lewis and Behnke worked as researchers together for six years aboard a boat that Smith captained in Glacier Bay. Here are some highlights from the conversation:

• Tania Lewis says a lot of the songs were inspired by Glacier Bay, Icy Strait and other parts of the region. She says the ocean’s waves scare her, but that she tries to embrace them.
• Christopher Behnke says the recording was one of the first songs he’d played with Lewis after returning to Gustavus from Fairbanks, and that to him, the record is representative of the community.
• Justin Smith says one inspiration for the record was a photo he saw of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings looking at each other across a little table with “beautiful vintage microphones.”

Hear a mix of the interview here:

For our fifth video, we present Anchorage songwriter Emma Hill with Kat Moore performing Hill’s original song “2 Seconds Flat.” Since their recording at The Alaskan Hotel during the 43rd Annual Alaska Folk Festival, Hill has toured Europe with her songwriting partner Bryan Daste and Moore has toured Colorado with her band The Super Saturated Sugar Strings.

This video was made in collaboration between with Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus. Watch other Red Carpet Concerts with The Hannah Yoter Band of Anchorage, The Quaintrelles and Goldwing.

For our next Red Carpet Concert from the 2017 Alaska Folk Festival, we present Goldwing. Performing their song “Buffalo Coat,” Juneau songwriter Dan Kirkwood is flanked by Ben Higdon on pedal steel and Dan DeSloover on bass. They usually play with drummer Clae Good, though the band became a trio to fit into the tiny hotel room.

This video was made in collaboration with Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus. Watch other Red Carpet Concerts from the 43rd Annual Alaska Folk Festival with The Quaintrelles, The Hannah Yoter Band and  Goldwing’s Alaska Originals performance.

For our third video, we present The Hannah Yoter Band, performing their song “Something Good.” It’s third video from our eight-part Red Carpet Concert series filmed at the Alaskan Hotel during the Alaska Folk Festival. The six-piece band is fronted by Anchorage songwriter Hannah Yoter. This spring she received an individual artist grant from the Rasmuson Foundation to work on the band’s next album.

This video was made in collaboration between with Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus. Watch other Red Carpet Concerts with The Quaintrelles,  Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms, and The Hannah Yoter Band’s Alaska Originals television performance during the 2016 Folk Festival.

For our next Red Carpet Concert from the 2017 Alaska Folk Fest, we present the Portland musicians Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms. Returning for their second Red Carpet Concert, we recorded the duo performing their song “Been on the Rocks” at the Alaskan Hotel. They are currently touring with Foghorn Stringband in the UK.

This video was made in collaboration between KTOO Public Media and Justin Smith of Rusty Recordings in Gustavus.

Watch other Red Carpet Concerts with The Quaintrelles, Reeb Willms and Caleb Klauder, as well as  their performance with Foghorn Stringband during the 2016 Alaska Folk Festival.