ABSTRACT
A queer romance transpires and thrives against many odds. Adolfo and Teddy duet and tango as they explore how gender transgression (through drag) allowed them to feel empowered as they pursued graduate education and shed timidity bred into them through oppressive undergraduate experiences. Adolfo also reflects on his intersectional experience as being both gay and Cuban American in the American South. Teddy and Adolfo additionally explore their histories as student and community leaders, since each served in prominent campus organizations and as charter members of the community’s Pride organization. Benjamin composes their stories as a dance to provide a multi-sensory glimpse into their world as drag performers, which reconfigures the possibilities of ethnographic storytelling (visually and sonically). External to major narrative arcs, Teddy muses about kissing girls in high school, Adolfo romances Cuban cooking, and Benjamin tries to figure out who Shangela is.
