Project Title
Sweet Tea: Documenting the Queer South

Discipline
literary/photography

Grant Amount
$1200

Website
 

Description
Matthew Terrell preserves Atlanta’s heritage as a queer hub through photography and writing about the Southern drag scene. Atlanta has served as a training ground for subversive, legendary drag queens for generations—both Rupaul and Lady Bunny found their start in Atlanta. Similarly, a new breed of young, stiletto-strapping queens have found community in Atlanta. They bring their drag to a wider audience—straight people, trans folk, and gay men young and old come to see their performances. These young queens work alongside and learn from their drag mothers and other kin—they stand up for each other, and all queer people, through the rebellious act of drag.

Terrell will document Atlanta’s drag heritage through a series of biographical blog posts on Huffington Post Gay Voices. The text and images from this series will then be compiled into a limited-edition art book as well as an eBook. The queens featured in this book will be both young and old, Atlanta-native, and Atlanta-adopted. These biographies will be a lasting document of these vital figures within the Southern queer community.