Winnipeg's Pharaoh Moans is a self-described "androgynous drag monster who performs with a social consciousness." As she explains: "I'm interested in creating shock value and impact that challenges the binary in today's society."

Pharaoh's drag is a mesh of several different influences from '80s punk to '90s club kids to contemporary high fashion. She uses her drag as a "political statement" — a tool to "claim space, normalize expression and challenge the binary of the western world."

She enjoys bringing her persona to the streets most, where she is able to "make impact regarding these issues without ever having to say a word."

You'll see what she means in a moment.

Pharaoh was inspired to become a drag performer after realizing that there was a gap of expression in Winnipeg's drag community.

"There was a lack of representation of self-declared freaks and punks, monsters and club kids," she says. "During that era when I started, many of the scene's drag performers were interested in female impersonation and looking pretty. Knowing very well that I had something more to offer, I decided that in order to fill this gap of expression, I would have to do it myself."

So she did. And it's changed her life, giving her — among other things — community.

Before drag, Pharaoh considered herself very isolated and "had very few confidants in this world."

"After performing in drag, I became the mother of the Haüs of Bath and began to nurture a chosen family who supported me as I expressed my true self. Drag also worked as a catalyst for me to gain insight into many different lifestyles. I began work facilitating safe spaces and programs that encouraged folx to grow with harm reduction in mind. Drag has helped me also deal with my own shame, turning it into pride."

Celebrating her 10th year of drag this July, Pharaoh is also the co-founder of the Like That @ Sunshine House collective, a "come as you are" safe space for Winnipeg's 2SLGBTTQQIIA+ community. And as if that all isn't enough, she also facilitates programming for a safe space "for folx who identify as being current or former sex workers, experientials, and/or victims and survivors of the sex trade."

Follow Pharaoh Moans on Instagram.