12 JANUARY 19-25, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Fresh Talent SAMORA KASH WELCOMES NEW DRAG QUEENS WITH DRAFTED. BY CLEO MIRZA Denver drag queen Samora Kash (Cameron Rogers out of drag) accomplished more in 2022 than most people do in a decade. She only started performing in 2021, but last year she produced more than fi ve of her own shows, appeared four times in the monthly Drag Nation event at Tracks, performed on the main stage at Denver PrideFest, became a favorite at all-ages shows and children’s birthday parties, released the single “JUMP IN” with Black Mazerati, and was named one of the Fifteen Freshest Faces of Colorado drag. “To be honest, I didn’t realize that I had really stepped my heels, so to speak, in almost every venue in Denver so far, some of them being straight venues. So I feel like I got to do way more last year than I ever dreamed of doing,” says the 29-year-old queen. She premiered her latest endeavor in December with an open-stage night called Drafted, which takes place the third Thursday of every month at Denver’s only gay sports bar, Tight End. We chatted with Kash and Tight End general manager Justin Laine to get the scoop on Drafted ahead of the upcoming show on Thursday, January 19. Laine and Kash fi rst met at Lucid, where Laine was working and Kash was hosting a weekly open stage night called Glow Up, which also functioned as a fundraiser for local nonprofi ts. Glow Up ended when Lu- cid closed abruptly last August, but the two stayed in touch. And when Laine was hired at Tight End in October, he saw an opportunity to revive the concept in a new venue. “Since coming on, I wanted more drag. Samora obviously was the fi rst person I reached out to, because of our history, friendship, working relationship, everything. There was no question in my mind as to who to go to,” Laine recalls. “Justin and I both have the same mission,” Kash adds. “We still wanted to keep raising money for different nonprofi t organizations. This mimics [Glow Up], but is a whole dif- ferent rebrand of that show. That’s where Drafted came about, and the whole point of the name is that we’re trying to draft new talent.” Any drag artist is invited to perform at Drafted, as long as they show up dressed and ready to go by the 10 p.m. showtime, with their music either on a fl ash drive or queued up on Spotify. While some people send Kash their music ahead of time, Drafted is designed to encourage last-minute par- ticipants, so no advance notice is neces- sary. Kash opens each show with her own performance, then passes the baton to a special guest performer. “For this show specifi cally, I al- ways have a guest with me. The fi rst one in December was with Jessica L’Whor, and this month it will be Ariez Iman. My whole thought pro- cess was that certain entertainers in Denver were with me a lot at Lucid, so I wanted these fi rst few months to include those entertainers, then I’m going to start reaching out to others as well,” she explains. Depending on how many aspir- ing drag entertainers show up each week, they’re split into two acts, with an intermission in between. And Drafted is as accessible as possible for anyone who wants to try their hand at drag — there’s no entry fee or cover. “Tight End is a no-cover bar. That’s kind of our thing. Even Pride days, we don’t have a cover,” Laine notes. “I think that helps en- tice people to come, and to perform.” Kash, who also hosts Cherry Pop, a monthly open-stage night at Hamburger Mary’s, recognizes just how important these shows are for nurturing new drag talent. “There’s such a need — not just in Denver, but in Colorado in general — for open- stage shows. I can’t tell you how many people are like, ‘There’s not enough of these,’” she emphasizes. Kash was fast-tracked into the Denver drag scene because she already had relation- ships with several established performers willing to give her a shot, so hosting open- stage nights is her way of paying it forward. At Drafted, not only do new entertainers get the chance to cut their teeth on stage, but they also get to network with people like Kash, and the ensuing conversations could potentially lead to larger, paid book- ings. “I’ve seen what a difference it makes. To see the entertainers that came to Lucid getting on fl iers at all these bigger venues, it’s huge,” she says. “I feel like sometimes when they’re starting out, they think, ‘Well no one is really paying attention; this is just an open stage night.’ But what I try to get them to understand is [that] it can lead to much bigger things if you really put the time and effort into it.” Despite its sporty name, Drafted is one of the few opportunities for up-and-coming drag entertainers that is not a competi- tion; it’s free space for them to explore and develop their artistry. There are no rules, no restrictions, no rigid categories and no rivalries — just camaraderie and celebra- tion of each other. “I feel like a lot of times entertainers feel like, ‘I have to be a queen, I have to be a king, I have to fi t a mold to make it or be any kind of entertainer in this city’ — or whatever city,” Kash says. “But what I love about doing these open-stage shows is it gives you a chance to just be whoever you want to be. You don’t have to fi t in that box. At the end of the day, it’s giving someone a space to be whatever the art form looks like to them.” Adds Laine, “You really get to see these performers grow and fi nd their niche.” But the goal of Drafted is bigger than just uplifting individual performers. As with Glow Up, Drafted doubles as a way to raise money for local nonprofi ts that benefi t the queer community. Kash always holds at least two donation rounds throughout the night for whatever organization she’s chosen to work with that month. “We are all looking to fi gure out ways to make change or make a difference in our community, and I think there’s not enough work, ever, that can go into supporting these local nonprofi ts,” she says. “For me, it’s just about being able to support them in any way I can, and using my platform to do that. As I used to say at Glow Up, none of us glow up until we all glow up together.” Laine agrees, and points out that after the recent mass shooting in Colorado Springs, the need for community support is greater than ever. “We started talking about this just a couple weeks before the tragedy at Club Q, so I think that just kind of confi rmed that this is something we need as a community,” he says. “All of our nonprofi ts that we’ve worked with are LGBTQ community-based. Now more than ever, helping these organizations helps us all as a community.” This month, Drafted will be raising money to go toward the medical bills for Mike Bomberger, a beloved local drag pho- tographer who is currently in a coma after being struck by a car. As far as the future of Drafted goes, Laine and Kash hope that the show draws enough of a crowd to ultimately become a more fre- quent event. “The goal would be to eventu- ally get back to being weekly or biweekly,” says Laine. “That’s always a topic to be discussed. Obviously we just started this last month, so it’s kind of this trial-and-error to see if it picks up,” Kash explains. By bringing a monthly show to Tight End, Laine also aims to expand the bar’s clien- tele beyond queer sports fans. “We’re a gay sports bar, but the fi rst part of that is we’re gay; we’re queer. That’s why we wanted to bring this here,” he says. “Not only to help the community, but to bring in other parts of the community other than just gay football fans. Hopefully, Samora and Drafted will break the mold of what Tight End has been.” Drafted, 10 p.m. Thursday, January 19, Tight End, 1501 East Colfax Avenue, free. For more on Samora Kash, visit samorakash.com. CULTURE KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS Samora Kash aims to fi ll the need for more open-stage shows in Denver. RARE BY GRIST
