The Theater Offensive (TTO), Company One (C1) and The Boston Public Library (BPL) present VIRTUAL Drag Story Hour. Each Thursday session, a different drag performer will read a children’s book with LGBTQ themes — featuring Neon Calypso, KaMani Sutra, and Ra'Jah O'Hara! Drag Story Hour captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.

This week’s book is The Boy and The Bindi by Vivek Shraya, illustrated by Rajni Perera. A five-year-old boy becomes fascinated with his mother's bindi, the red dot commonly worn by South Asian women to indicate the point at which creation begins, and wishes to have one of his own. Rather than chastise her son, she agrees to it, and teaches him about its cultural significance, allowing the boy to discover the magic of the bindi, which in turn gives him permission to be more fully himself.

Read by: KaMani Sutra

KaMani Sutra (All pronouns with respect) is a South Asian (teluGAY) gender queer bearded drag artist from Washington DC transcends western drag expectations by their performance repertoire and their aesthetic senses. #telugay

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Drag Story Hour is based on Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) which was created by Michelle Tea and RADAR Productions, under the leadership of Juli Delgado Lopera and Virgie Tovar, in San Francisco in 2015. It started out as drag queens reading stories to children in libraries and grew into a global phenomenon! DQSH now offers literary and creative programming for kids and teens of all ages led by drag queens, kings, and creatures all over the world. DQSH is a global network of local organizations, each of which is independently managed and funded.