- Drag Queen Story Hour is coming to Book and Puppet Company in Easton this weekend
- The event runs from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Easton bookshop in Centre Square
- Drag Queen Eileen O’Brennan and puppeteer Rebecca Migdal will be host for the festivities, which will feature engaging visuals to accompany the children's stories
EASTON, Pa. — Drag Queen Story Hour is coming to Easton Book and Puppet Company this weekend as part of the city’s celebration of the written word, and they’re elevating the experience with some help from an unusual cast of supporting characters.
As the Easton Book Festival hits its stride this weekend, Eileen O’Brennan and Rebecca Migdal are teaming up to entertain the younger audience at Centre Square’s child-friendly bookshop.
Drag Queen Story Hour, set for 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, also will feature a festive little audience — the Yippee Skippy Puppets — who will react to readings of kid-friendly titles in an environment that promotes tolerance and acceptance in a safe space.
“If you care about your child's freedom of expression, if you care about them being able to accept and be comfortable in a culture which you know accepts and supports [the] diversity of gender expression – which is a normal human self-expression – then this is a good opportunity for your child to learn about that and for the parents to learn about it, too."Book and Puppet Company co-owner/puppeteer Rebecca Migdal
While Drag Queen Story Hours have drawn ire from the public on the national stage here and there, it operates with the idea that children are far more engaged in educational endeavors such as reading if it is made entertaining and exciting.
O’Brennan, who got into Drag Queen Story Hour a few years back while working in Bethlehem, said the event is simply a fun performance piece that everyone can enjoy — with books in which “everybody’s different, but everybody’s accepted.”
“I am just a character, as a clown would be, or one of the characters you would see at a theme park. I am there to read to the children,” O’Brennan said, adding there is nothing sexual or inappropriate about the event.
'A safe space for the progressive community’
According to Colette Townend’s essay “How Drag Queen Storytime in libraries helps early years children develop multi-literacies, empathy and centers inclusion,” Drag Queen Story Hour came about in 2015 when LGBTQ+ author Michelle Tea aimed to make an event that “captures the imagination and gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive and unabashedly queer role models.”
Opponents often accuse performers of indoctrinating children or promoting sexual material, which Migdal and O’Brennan write off as wholly misconstrued.
Part of the problem lies with outspoken homophobia, Migdal said, which is ripe with “a lot of hysteria and misinformation,” especially when those hateful concepts can so easily be shared on social media.
“I typically will wear pants and a long-sleeved outfit, so nobody can try to say that anything's happening. "I cover up way more than needed. And yes, drag queens do things like that in nightclubs, but that thing is a totally different event than a Drag Queen Story Hour is.”Drag performer Eileen O’Brennan
“I typically will wear pants and a long-sleeved outfit, so nobody can try to say that anything's happening," O'Brennan said. "I cover up way more than needed.
"And yes, drag queens do things like that in nightclubs, but that thing is a totally different event than a Drag Queen Story Hour is.”
At its core, Drag Queen Story Hour is simply “a highly visual and aural multimodal reading experience,” Townend’s essay states. “With many modes for children listening to interact and make meaning from, DQS builds on established skills and knowledge delivered by early years librarians and storytellers to bring a new and refreshing experience for children and adults alike.”
At Book and Puppet Company, Drag Queen Story Hour also serves as a way to celebrate the rich sense of diversity that defines their business and their family and friends, Migdal said.
“From our point of view, as the owners of the bookstore, we have a trans person who's a cashier at our store, a lot of our good friends are trans, so we are inside of the LGBTQ community as allies," Migdal said.
"And we opened this store with the idea of creating a safe space for the progressive community."
Misunderstandings about what the events are “only exemplify why LGBT experiences need to be given a platform and empathized at early years stages,” Townend’s essay reads.
Puppets add a splash of fun
The types of titles featured at Saturday’s events will all be age-appropriate, O’Brennan said.
“The books I'm reading are from public libraries,” O’Brennan said. “I picked up my books from the Allentown Public Library, and [Book and Puppet Company co-owner] Andy [Laties] provided some of them. I would say they're fifth-grade reading level and below.”
Migdal’s puppets add a splash of fun interaction to the storytelling, serving as a sort of audience who can, on occasion, cheekily insert themselves into the dialogue.
"I find a way to essentially mediate the story from the point of view of, say, a childlike character, such as a puppet or something like that.”Drag performer Eileen O'Brennan
“I just respond to whatever's happening with the storybook," Migdal said. "So I'll pick out a puppet or two to kind of be involved. I don’t act out the story so much as I just kind of comment and engage the audience around the theme of the story.
"So I find a way to essentially mediate the story from the point of view of, say, a childlike character, such as a puppet or something like that.”
Essentially, it’s a fun layer to help keep kids entertained and intrigued in a safe space “for everyone of any persuasion to come together and learn about self-acceptance and about self-expression, from a place of the genuine love of who you are,” as Migdal put it.
“If you care about your child's freedom of expression, if you care about them being able to accept and be comfortable in a culture which you know accepts and supports [the] diversity of gender expression — which is a normal human self-expression — then this is a good opportunity for your child to learn about that and for the parents to learn about it, too,” Migdal said.
Migdal also said it’s a great opportunity to open up an age-appropriate discussion with your child about a subject that can be challenging.
Easton Book and Puppet Company is at 22 Centre Square.
