Yashi Davalos curated Miss/They Camaraderie 2024 opens Jan. 19 at Charlotte Street

Miss/They Camaraderie 2024. // Photo provided by Charlotte Street

Miss/They Camaraderie 2024 is an exhibition in pageant form that will be open Jan. 19 through March 2, 2024. The show is curated by current Charlotte Street Curatorial Fellow, Yashi Davalos, and can be viewed at the Charlotte Street Gallery, 3333 Wyoming Street. There will be an opening reception at 6:00 pm on Jan. 19.

On the Curator:

Davalos began her two-year fellowship with the Charlotte Street in late August of 2023. She comes to Kansas City from New Orleans, Louisiana, where she worked as an independent curator. While with Charlotte Street, she will curate three to four exhibitions, as well as help develop new programming.

Touring the Exhibition Space:

Enter the exhibition space in the Charlotte Street Gallery and you will find yourself greeted by gapped Black Archives filled in with editorial style imagery. These images are the featured works of touring artists Delaney George (Los Angeles, CA) and Trinity Thomas (New Orleans, LA). The exhibition was initially conceptualized by Davalos while researching Black Archives in the South. However, she found that the Archives were incredibly lacking in Kansas City.

This initial space is presented to point to the gap in Archives, and open a dialogue regarding the standards of femininity within the Black queer community. The Archival work features that of Nasir Anthony Montalvo. The gaps in Archives are intentionally filled in with the editorial imagery as dialogue.

Leaving the initial, hallway space leads to a stage featuring the work of John Brant. Brant is well known within the Kansas City area for their queer erotica photography. The stage itself is meant to confront the viewer with the historical idea of tokenization of queer drag within Kansas City.

The final space features sculptural work by SunYoung Park and Jackob Graves, both local artists. Video projections of Boi Boy in drag accompanied by one of their dresses hanging from the ceiling reflects on the idea of gender euphoria within the self, and within a collective.

The exhibition is meant to be satirical in nature, and speak on various topics such as: the fluidity of femininity and its relevance to social status, the history of tokenization within queer drag within Kansas City, and how that narrative has changed at the intersection of queer, Black beauty queens.

Previewing the Pageant:

The pageant itself will take place on Feb. 9 in the Charlotte Street Gallery and will run from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The pageant will only take place Feb. 9, and will not be repeated.

Participating artists will be Korea Kelly, Boi Boy, and Alej Martinez. Martinez, a writer, is new to the world of drag, and will feature garments designed by Dustin Loveland. Kelly is a Black queer activist from Kansas City, and is currently competing for Miss Trans USA. Boi Boy is a local artist and drag performer.

The show will be satirical in nature and will be run similar to that of a traditional pageant. Contestants will be asked various questions, change into different costumes, and walk down the stage. At the end of the show, a winner will be crowned.