The night has come and gone; Augustana’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance put on a wonderful event to celebrate pride, togetherness, and helping the voiceless speak. Night of Noise also featured an array of free snacks and beverages for visitors. Shortly after 7PM, Wallenberg Hall was almost full of students, faculty, and more friends who came to watch the show.
After making sure the audience members were all over 18 years old, one queen, who doubled as an announcer throughout the night, asked the crowd if they allowed a “clean” or a “dirty” show. Needless to say, the crowd went wild for “dirty”. The performances consisted of stunning outfits, makeup, and hair; upbeat dancing, music and lipsyncing to songs like Beyoncé’s “Partition,” Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real,” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass.” The announcer kept the audience loud and enthusiastic in-between performances. All of the queens (Dementia Jaide, Jamie Summers, Nikki Turner, and Milange Cavalli) gave the audience an incredible show altogether and all eyes stayed on the stage. Some spectators even doled out some cash tips for the queens.
The four drag performers gave exciting performances until their intermission at about 8PM. The queens invited the audience to a meet and greet during the break and returned to the stage some time after 8PM. The night went on until about 9PM when the drag queens said their goodbyes, gave some political commentary, advised the audience to continue to exercise their right to vote, and thanked the students who helped set up the event by inviting them onstage, including vice-president and next year’s GSA president Jennifer Terry who initially reached out to the queens and invited them to perform for our campus.
The GSA executive board was pleased at the turnout for their first campus-wide event and cannot wait for their on-campus involvement next year. Be on the lookout for their anticipated activities table during Welcome Week this fall as well as more events during the 2017-2018 school year!