Xiomarie LaBeija Brings The XL Show To Partners

Xiomarie LaBeija emceeing Black Gay Pride in New Haven on Juneteenth 2021. Lucy Gellman File Photo. 

Xiomarie LaBeija likens being a drag queen to being a Power Ranger.

“Being in drag is almost like a power boost,” she said. “You know [the Power Rangers] were vulnerable as people but as soon as they called on their forms, they had super abilities...that's what Xiomarie is to me.

“I feel more powerful, more level-minded, more joyful and motivated,” she said. “The passion is real behind my artistry.”

Her artistry, and that of other queens, is now back on display in-person at a place that is very special to LaBeija. That place is Partners Bar & Night Club on Crown Street in downtown New Haven. She’s bringing the XL Show, the virtual drag event she created last year, to the stage this month.

If LaBeija was a Power Ranger, the global pandemic was Rita Repulsa and Master Vile all in one. Covid-19 hit the drag community hard, shutting down shows and drying up LaBeija’s income. She went from having three jobs to only having one.

With no shows, there was nowhere to perform. Nobody needed their makeup done. Before March 2020, LaBeija—yes, of that legendary House of LaBeija—had graced the stages all over Connecticut, often focusing on the importance of representation in her performance. In the pandemic, the 10-year veteran queen turned to a job with far less glamour and glitz. She sustained herself as a grocery store clerk in Hartford, going in as an essential worker during the pandemic.

“I do feel like working at the grocery store feeds the other side of me where it’s not all chaos,” she said of her grocery store job, which she still works. “It helps me with my professionalism. But the feels are definitely different. Two different uniforms and yet they bring different sides of me. One quiet one and one vocal.”

Scenes from the XL Show online last year. LaBeija used a mix of social media platform including Instagram Live.

The XL Show began online, with LaBeija going live every week on social media with other queens and putting on a performance. She said she created it as a platform to allow her and her fellow artists to have a way to perform safely. She wrote queens’ social media handles on a whiteboard for payment as they danced from their bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens.

“The XL show online gave 20-plus artists an opportunity to showcase their art from home and still, at least we hoped, get tipped,” she said. “Thanks to Venmo and Cashapp and my trusty marker board that I use to update after with all the performer’s info.”

Just as the Power Rangers always came back to defeat their antagonist, in-person drag shows and LaBeija are now back to give folks hope that there is a way to perform despite Covid-19 and the highly contagious Delta variant. This Friday—which also marks the beginning of Pride Month in New Haven—she will take the XL drag show from the computer screen to the stage where it all started for LaBeija.

LaBeija first stepped foot into Partners 10 years ago, for a drag competition. The Bridgeport native said she was still too young to perform but still worked up the confidence to get up on stage and give it a go. Although she lost, it made her hungry to win every future competition— which she did, she said.

“I did Halo by Beyoncé and I lost, and I came back the next month and I won, and I came to the one after and I won, and the one after, I won again,” she recalled. “My first time performing was me competing.”

She said it means a lot to her to bring the XL show to the place where her queendom started, and to share it with other queens from across the state and the region.

“To have it where we had it, that's where my heart was always at,” she said of being able to now host the show at Partners. “I kept telling myself that I am going to do the XL show, and look at me now.”

LaBeija at the Legend Drag Show on the New Haven Green earlier this year. Lucy Gellman File Photo. 

New Haven Pride Center Executive Director Patrick Dunn, who performs in as Ms. Kiki Lucia and has become one of LaBeija’s most steadfast champions, said he’s glad to have her show join the Partners family.

“I always love when I have the opportunity to work with Xio,” he said. “Xio is a fabulous performer and has been a regular in my shows across the state for years.”

Dunn said Partners, as well as the nearby 168 York Street Cafe across the street, has been Kiki Lucia’s home for performing drag from the beginning of her career as well.

“It’s an amazing space to celebrate the incredible art of drag,” he said.

LaBeija said the XL show centers queens of color because she has seen her fair share of the lack of representation in the drag community specifically and society generally. On Friday Sept. 3, for instance, she will welcome queens Kenya Mone Heart, Angelina D’Amor, and Crystal Starz.

She also wants audiences to see that queens come in all shapes and sizes. The curvaceous queen recently performed in her hometown for Bridgeport Pride, choosing songs like “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor because not every girl, or queen, is a size zero.

“There's no hiding my curves, and I would never want to,” she said.

It’s one of the ways that “Representation/Matters!” has become part of her greeting to the audience, and to fellow performers. She said she gets on stage to represent so that anyone who is watching, and looks like her, can do what she does. LaBeija said she crushes the beauty standards every time she steps foot on the stage because she is tired of the idea that someone can be “too big.”

“When was the last time you saw someone like me do something like me?” she said. “Never. Exactly.”

Find out more about Xiomarie LaBeija and the XL Show on Instagram or Partners' website. Jewel Booker is a graduate of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI) and a participant in its inaugural summer camp. She recently finished her senior year at New Haven Academy and is starting at the University of Connecticut this fall.