Die Schwarze Frau, Yukiro Dravarious
"Keep moving forward, never straight"
Oh Lord - this interview shifted my perspective.
The wonderful Yukiro entered my life last year, after a fashion party I went up to my amazing photographer friend's studio and as the life doors opened my eyes went from the highest pair of shoes to the ceiling and the entire space was filled up with a most beautiful drag queen, in full drag, waiting to have a late-night photoshoot. I sat in on the shoot and watched this professional being photographed by another professional and moving, making shapes, directing, taking direction, getting creative, and the level of confidence and the level of humility displayed by both creative experts was mind blowing.
🥂 🥃Special thanks to HalloGallo VEGAN Bar in Nakano who sponsored this episode by donating their wonderful creative space. Richard and Yuki we love you - please do go and visit once the state of emergency is lifted, these spaces need our business. 🥂 🥃
More about our origins legend below. In this video you will hear the journey of a creative, magical queer child and the highlights include: - honest conversation around bullying, the impact on creativity and the route to recovery (hint hint - being yourself is fucking cool) - fully owning who you are and being respected for it - putting ME in my place and correcting my assumptions and biases around his experiences of bullying - schools me, takes me to church - she in drag; he out of drag - moving to Tokyo and putting in the work to get to where he wanted to go - learning Japanese and university here - the queer experience of being a salaryman in Japan - a deep dive into depression and desperation - becoming a Drag Queen and Die Schwarze Frau, his Drag Name - Starting the Haus of Schwarz and becoming a drag Mother to the members of the haus (we explain all about Hauses in the video) - being a film director, band member, writer, actor and performer for a living - queer culture and all the accoutrements thereof This video is a queer video and thus we talk about queer matters in a matter of fact way, albeit though my straight filter. If you are unable to handle lifestyles that differ from the received norm, this may not be the video for you. With respect. Jog on. Also swear words - headsets for those of you who don't want your kids to know the f-word yet. (it may not be the f-word you were expecting! You'll find out at the end!).
If you are interested in listening to queer experiences, difficulties and triumphs and integrating that into your cultural and daily lexicon, then YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE! There are many many ways to lead a life and everybody has stories and I am HERE TO TELL THEM! I am not interested in telling the same stories over and over again, or in supporting only a received, narrow and socially approved set of views and stories. In these interviews, we have spoken frankly about infertility, depression, therapy, failure, abuse, creativity, music, near-death, family, death, loss and many aspects of the human experience. What so far has been missing is queer voices, the lens of being absolutely different, Dwelling near the edge, diversity of tastes, sexual and sartorial, and from hereon in, the full colours of the rainbow, all the crayons in the colouring box will be used, so I can bring experiences and shine light on all areas of the bell curve.
Edge dwellers are fascinating
🧚♀️ The Legend of Yukiro and Sarah continued...🧚♀️
I learned how to be a good subject for my photographer; act confident, throw shapes, don't pretend to be coy, pose, follow direction, go above and beyond, get over yourself and be collaborative, hold your head high, be a goddam professional.
That's all it is - do the job you are there to do without trying to seek approval.
DO THE GODDAM WORK.
SHOW UP. SHINE.
LET IT GO. (Danielle LaPorte quote)
I was captivated by Yukiro from the start, a polite, eloquent, beautiful, and utterly queer darling, I took an Instagram selfie with him and we both went off into the Tokyo night to our next events. Again, he appears on my radar. Legend of September 2019, Lyndsey is his yoga teacher. Hmmm.
Shortly after I am invited to appear in his Cult Film as Bunana Flakes. Curiouser and curiouser... Kyle, my adorable videographer HAPPENS to meet him while taking footage at Lindsey's studio. They become friends. Kyle begins to film some of the scenes for his film "Spoiled Identity". And so we tumble down the rabbit hole of joy, delight and coincidence and enter the magical world of people who live their live creatively, bravely, alternatively, queerly, colourfully, fully and unapologetically.
Welcome to the Haus of Schwarz.
Welcome to a fully expressed fantasy.
Welcome to courage, conviction and another element of the human experience.
Welcome to life up the bellcurve.
🧝♂️♀️"ALWAYS FORWARD, NEVER STRAIGHT!"♂️🧛♀️
Watch here or listen to podcast below.
Find Yukiro here, here & here.