Local drag queens educate children

Drag Queen Story Hour is back for an encore performance to help children find a comfort level with books.

It began last year at Bitwise Industries helping and entertaining over 100 people. For Willie Redman, also known as Deja Skye, the experience is something that is extremely rewarding. Redman says, “First and foremost we are doing this for the community. We’re not doing it at a personal gain. We’re literally doing this out of the kindness of our hearts. At the end of the day, we’re sitting down and reading a book to a child.”

Tracie Cisneros came to story time with her daughter Audree.

“My daughter walks around being an advocate for anyone who needs one,” Cisneros says. “She is the standup girl. If you don’t have a friend, she goes to be your friend. That’s my kid. And it’s because of stuff like this.”

And events like this would not be possible without the idea, concept and overall creation by COMMON SPACE founder and executive director Justin Kamimoto.

“We chose drag queens that are really known as the community queens,” Kamimoto says. “The ones that have a good reputation in the community and the ones that are really giving back in such a unique way. All of the ones that we got here today are kid-friendly. They know how to interact and engage with families and they know how to camp it up in a kid version friendly way.”

Kamimoto says that in the future he hopes to expand the event by adding more drag queens from the Central Valley to the lineup and possibly searching for a bigger location as the event is growing each year.