Pandemic is a drag: Let Yovska haunt your quarantine with this monstrously bold performance

CBC Arts Presents Queer Pride Inside: A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret was a virtual cabaret featuring over a dozen LGBTQ Canadian artists that CBC Arts produced in partnership with Buddies in Bad Times this past June in celebration of Pride Month. Over the course of the summer, we'll be highlighting some of the individual performances that were included in the cabaret. 

There is no performer on this planet quite like Yovska, and we've been very lucky to have him be part of both our series Canada's a Drag and our recent special CBC Arts Presents Queer Pride Inside: A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret. A Toronto-based designer and drag performance artist, Yovska categorizes himself as a "drag creature" dressing up as a variety of different monsters with a dash of fashion. He relates the themes of the paranormal and fantasy to his experiences growing up as queer and immigrant in Canada. By reclaiming the form of monsters and aliens, Yovska is able to turn negative stereotypes into empowering alter egos.

For Queer Pride Inside, Yovska decided to offer up a timely, haunting piece entitled "Pandemic is a Drag."

"My video deals with anxieties and fears of going outside and what is outside during this quarantine time," Yovska says. "The monsters looking in from the windows and creeping around the house stand as metaphors for the fears of uncertainty that loom around the corner. It's about being in the dark, and I relate this to the idea of keeping a light on because you're scared of what could be hiding in the shadows of your room."

Watch the performance above, and follow Yovska here (also look for him on the most recent season of the Netflix reality competition show The Boulet Brothers' Dragula).

See CBC Arts Presents Queer Pride Inside: A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret in its entirety on CBC Gem.