ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — If the screaming crowd in the twinkling Majestic Theatre in downtown St. John's was any indication, Newfoundland drag queen Tara Nova will never have to accept $37.50 for a show again.
The 23-year-old began the week scrambling to find a new place to perform, after calling out the only queer venue in town on national television for underpaying drag queens and undervaluing queer art. She ended the week on stage in a theatre full of fans waving five-dollar bills, as social media posts supporting her rolled in from drag stars and fans across the continent.
"How do you like the new venue?" she asked the crowd on Thursday night. The reply was deafening.
Tara Nova is the second Newfoundlander to compete on the reality show Canada's Drag Race, the Canadian spinoff of the wildly popular RuPaul's Drag Race franchise. The show airs Thursdays on Crave.
Last week, during the premiere episode of the fifth season, she told her fellow competitors that drag performers in St. John's were paid a total of $37.50 to perform six numbers. Several queens whipped their heads around to stare at Tara Nova, gobsmacked.
"It's the 50 cents," says Helena Poison, a queen from Toronto. "What are you doing with that 50 cents?"
In the episode, Tara Nova didn't name the venue that offered queens the paltry sum. However, Velvet Club and Lounge, the only dedicated LGBTQ+ bar in St. John's, responded to the comments on social media. One post, signed by owner Luc Viau, said the bar would start charging a cover "to increase our show budgets." Viau did not respond to a request for comment.
In an interview earlier this week, Tara Nova said the low rate she denounced on television devalues the immense amount of work that performers put into their outfits, hair, makeup and routines — and that it devalues queer art. Coming from the bar that is supposed to be a space for queer people, it's particularly hurtful, she said.
"This is our only queer space," she said. "We can go to other spaces in the city and we are paid what we ask. But when we go to the one queer space, it's almost like they can hold it above our heads."
"We are the people that bring other people into that space," Tara Nova added.
She said the bar upped the pay to $60, or about $10 a song, when she returned from filming Canada's Drag Race.
"A jukebox probably makes more," she said.
After the Drag Race episode aired, Tara Nova posted a video saying the club cancelled her next show.
On social media, support poured in. A few queens from the fifth season published posts supporting her, as did Kiara from season one. Deja Skye, from the 14th season of RuPaul's Drag Race, also weighed in, posting in all capital letters, "They get paid in Newfoundland how much?"
Drag Race subreddits lit up with posts applauding her for speaking up. She was discussed on the popular Drag Race gossip show, "Drag Tea Served with Matt."
In an interview, Irma Gerd, a St. John's drag queen who participated in season three of Canada's Drag Race, said the discussion about low pay for queens in the city needed to happen for years. She understands why young performers have put up with it — the bar is the only queer venue in town and they felt they had no other option but to perform there and accept what they're offered.
She said performers received $35 in cash and the remainder in change. "Literally, a toonie and two quarters," Irma Gerd said.
Quoting the movie "The Princess Diaries," she added: "'It is not appropriate for royalty to jingle.' That's exactly what I'm saying about these girls walking out of Velvet: You should not be jingling."
Irma Gerd hoped the outcry against the bar would inspire young drag performers to stand up for their work, and seek out venues — even venues that are not traditionally queer spaces — that will pay them what they're worth. "They're queer when you make them queer," she said.
She pointed to Canada's Drag Race itself as an example of how valuable and respected Newfoundland drag is. Despite being an isolated province with few designers and fewer fabric stores, Newfoundlanders Irma Gerd and Tara Nova are the only queens from and living in Atlantic Canada to be on the show.
Denim, from season four, is from Prince Edward Island but lives in Montreal.
Tara Nova was eliminated from the show on Thursday night, despite her clever runway look paying homage to the peculiar fashion sense of Newfoundland and Labrador's first premier, Joey Smallwood.
But as one of her supporters on social media said, in a sense it didn't matter what else happened in the show — Tara Nova had already won.
When asked what she hoped people took away from the controversy, Tara Nova said, "I'd like everybody to know that they have a voice, and that we are put in society as public figures, as drag artists, to use our voice to make a difference."
"Use your platform. There is so much you can do."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2024.
Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press