Happy Pride! Our very own Sasha Velour ‘13 designed the 6/12/23 New Yorker cover, “The Look of Pride.”

Sasha spoke with The New Yorker’s art editor, Françoise Mouly, about the power of drag: “Queer expression, including drag, is the ultimate proof that a person can decide for themselves how to dress, dance, act, and live . . . and still find success, or a life worth living. Drag shows us that we don’t need to be afraid of who we are . . . and, if anything, we should exaggerate our quirks!”

As well as comics and drag (with a CCS shout-out):

“I learned everything about drag by drawing myself as a superhero! I first created Sasha Velour as a comic character, and slowly became that illustration in real life, too. Comics and drag share the same idea: you take a good story, clear character design, and put in lots of hard work. At The Center for Cartoon Studies., they taught us how to draw, self-publish, and distribute our own work with limited tools. I’ve continued to use those skills in drag: designing posters, storyboarding concepts, making things out of paper. Both comics and drag come from strong independent traditions that enable artists and performers to develop a more unique and recognizable style, and to address a wider range of political and personal topics. All you need to make art is your own self.”

Sasha Velour is a drag queen, visual artist, author, and more. Velour is probably best known for winning Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which was nominated for its first Emmys that same year. THE BIG REVEAL: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag by Sasha Velour is now available wherever books are sold. 

Sasha received an MFA from The Center for Cartoon Studies in 2013. Her thesis project was about the Stonewall Riots, which she completed and self-published as Three Dollar Riot upon the 50th anniversary of the uprising.

Tags: CCS Alum, drag, Pride, Queer, Sasha, Sasha Velour, The New Yorker