With recent celebrations for the one-year anniversary of HOTBOX, Pipe Dream interviewed Sativa, the proprietor and host of a stellar weekly drag show held at Legacy Lounge on Hawley Street. A celebration of creativity, queerness and great music, HOTBOX has made a massive impact in Binghamton, and Pipe Dream was able to learn all about the person who brings it to us every Thursday night.
What should our readers know about you and Hotbox if they’ve never been (they totally should btw)?
“Readers should know that I am Class of 2018 — double major in Graphic Design and English Rhetoric & that I won the Rainbow Pride Union drag show in 2016! I also served as Photo Editor for Pipe Dream from 2016-2017.”
Q: How did your career in drag begin and what was that experience like?
“When I moved here for school in 2014, I sought the New York City drag energy I had at home. From sneaking into shows at the local gay bar Merlins, to winning Binghamton University’s Drag competition to 2016, to becoming club kid at Tranquil’s Trash Tuesday, to working as house photographer for The Cave, Rosalind, and Chatterbox shows; Drag has inevitably become part of my identity. Working both the technical part of nightlife and now more recently the performance aspect of it; I feel I have a well rounded perspective.
I’m grateful for the community it builds and the space it creates where Queer people can live their authentic selves free of judgement. There was a period of over one year without a regular drag show/gay social night in Downtown Binghamton, so I created one! I’ve dabbled in drag for the aesthetic sense but never regularly performed. I basically started performing when HOTBOX began January 25, 2024. It’s been a labor of love for sure and I’m learning every day.”
What’s the best experience you’ve had as a performer?
“Best experience I have as a performer is when people tell me how important HOTBOX is to them and how they see it as a safe, Queer-prioritized nightlife experience. Truly, my only wish for the show was to be a safe haven for our Queer community to mingle, have fun, and boogie on the regular. So when people tell me that’s how they experience it, I get all warm inside. It’s all I’ve ever wanted!”
What is essential for a good drag show as a performer?
“As a performer, HAVING THE NERVE is essential for a good drag show! I love getting in peoples faces; good drag captivates the audience and keeps them on their toes!”
What is essential for a good drag show as an audience member?
“As an audience member, being able to scream, shout, hoot, & holler is essential for a good drag show. Performers ride the energy of the audience, so essentially a good audience gets a better performer.”
What drag essential for you is way too underrated?
“Redness relief eyedrops! In the midst of doing makeup and wearing enlarging contacts, my eyes tend to get red before showtime. Redness relief really helps my eyes pop — it’s the small things that help elevate the fantasy.”
If you only had one song to perform for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
“Burning Up by Madonna. That was the first song I performed to open HOTBOX so it’ll always hold a special place. I know that song like the back of my hand. Plus, Sativa … Burning Up?! It just makes sense.”
What piece of art has made the most impact on you?
“The robot suit by French fashion designer Thierry Mugler from his Fall/Winter 1995 fashion show. It’s so gobsmackingly outer-worldly. If you look like a femme superhero goddess in drag, I love you.”
What’s your dream drag show?
“My dream drag show would be one where a cast individually performs each track from Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor (the Non-Stop Edition).”
What would your three wishes be?
“1. Bring back 24-hour Walmart
2. Have a body double
3. Unlimited supply of broccoli”
What trends in queer culture do you love?
“I love that we’ve been accepting sexuality as fluid rather than binary.”
What trends in queer culture do you hate?
“Thinking drag is always a competition.”
How do you define camp?
“Over the top, larger than life, ridiculousness that is theatrical and exaggeratingly playful.”
What does your ideal day look like?
“Show day for me consists of getting out of bed by 1-ish, preparing my luggage for the evening, printing out the setlist and writing out my show notes. A shower later, it’s 5 p.m. and I’m sitting down at my vanity. Painting the mug until about 8 then it’s time to get to the gig. Change into costume, take the pictures for social media, then host a damn show for the town of Binghamton!”
What else do you think our readers should know?
“Drag is fun. Drag should be fun. If you’re not having fun, either doing drag or watching drag, you’re doing it wrong.”
What do you want people to take away from your shows and the HOTBOX experience?
“Life is stupid. So just have fun with it all. I love being unserious. The world is already so painful that if I can look like a million dollar fantasy or land a joke for someone to smile a little and escape the cruelty of reality, then I did my job.”
What does drag culture mean to you, as queer person?
“Just existing as a community and uplifting one another. And having fun!”