Pizza Stone in Chester to host Drag Queen Story Hour on June 4

Emoji Nightmare, left, and Katniss Everqueer, hosts of Drag Queen Story Hour.

Drag Queen Story Hour will be hosted by the Pizza Stone, 291 Pleasant St. in Chester, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 4. This event is sure to renew a love of reading and community.

This event was originally scheduled to be at the Whiting Library.

Kids of all ages will enjoy the creative theatrics of reading books aloud and singing songs to capture the magical fluidity of childhood. This free, imaginative afternoon performance will be hosted by Katniss Everqueer and Emoji Nightmare, two of Vermont’s favorite drag queens.

The Pizza Stone will reserve a special VIP floor seating area for kids who like to sit close to the stage, and all children are invited to enjoy free pizza.

This unique Vermont DQSH will share books focused on individuality, gender, creativity, expression and social responsibility. Plus, there will be a very special musical guest performance by the Reverend Yolanda, one of the founders, in 2017, of the New York Public Library Drag Queen Story Hour.

DQSH is just what it sounds like: drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH 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.

Donations will be accepted toward advancing the health and safety of young LGBTQ+ Vermonters in the local community.

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Filed Under: Community and Arts LifeIn the Community

About the Author: This item was edited from one or more press releases submitted to The Chester Telegraph.

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  1. Mr. Dalton hope to see you there so you can determine first hand if we should be inclusive of those who may be different from you. As to your comment on white supremacist story hour there is no need for that school boards across the country are taking care of that right now by hiding the history of our well ingrained institutional racism from being taught. Inclusion and acceptance is what Jesus taught. He was not accepted by society and he gave his life for it.

  2. I assume they are not showing videos from their other drag careers to children at story hour. They are simply reading stories “focused on individuality, gender, creativity, expression and social responsibility.”

  3. Susan Brace says:

    Wow! Is the video that good?

  4. Don Dalton says:

    It’s entirely appropriate that this event take place at a private venue, not at a public library.

    Many of us had questions over having people who present blatant pornography on their website with no warning whatsoever– as if that’d matter to curious children– serving as role models in a public venue that’s paid for by the taxpayers of our state and community. I’m not going to link to it here, but it’s easy enough to find the website of Nightpagne and I refer particularly to the video “WAP,” and I daresay that many members of our community would be shocked that the Whiting Library was actually hosting “pornographer’s story hour.” Yes, they’re just reading. So then should we have white supremacists story hour, because they’re “just reading”? I say this to point out a blatant fact that Mr. Nied was trying to make: the library is public. It is not private. It’s not for the leftists to further their views and it’s not for those on the far right to promote their views. It’s not for those in our community who believe that pornographers make good role models for our children; I highly doubt that this is the consensus view of the good people of our community.

    It’s a public library. Mr. Nied was and is right, and we owe him an apology. He was merely standing up for the public character of our library and yet people– who I daresay had never seen the website in question– were quick to accuse him of being prejudiced and hateful.

    It’s not a matter of mere procedure, either, and to show that, we need only consider what would happen if the library director tried to promote white supremacist story hour instead. Surely there would be righteous and justified outrage and strong assertions that the director can’t just program whatever she wants to.

    Do yourselves a favor: watch the video.