Night for the Ladies of SF
Picture this. I’m standing in line for the film Lady Like outside the Vogue theater with Emily in the middle of San Francisco. We’re shooting the breeze with this lovely SF native couple. The conversation begins with whether or not we’re going to see the star of the film at the screening. The star being the one and only Lady Camden! A drag queen who is widely recognized from season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She grew up in London where she attended ballet school. During that time, she realized her dream to become a performer. Soon after she moved to Sacramento, CA where she was no longer pursuing ballet performance due to an injury. She still had this need to perform, only in a way that would let her showcase her inner popstar diva. So, naturally, she discovered the art of drag! She moved to San Francisco where there were plenty of gigs and other queens to support and teach her. We continued to discuss our shared love for drag with the couple and they informed us about some other performances that were happening in the bay area for Pride weekend. We start talking about who will be performing at The Palace of Fine Arts, one of the shows being put on by Lady Camden. She created a one-woman show titled Lady Land which she was debuting the day after her documentary showed. First, can we talk about work ethic?! She is on the go go go! A documentary screening, a one-woman performance, on top of all the Pride gigs. She does not stop werking! Second, this timeline is why I had strong reason to believe that she was going to be there for the screening. And so did the couple. They were the cutest by the way. The two of them looked so in love and to see them loving drag together was delightful. They were talking about the times they’ve seen Lady Camden just walking so casually around SF… and then… It happened.
I saw a white figure in the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw the tip of a big beautiful blonde wig. And then I saw an elegant white ostrich-feathered gown and a gorgeously painted mug. At that moment, I realized that it was none other than THEE LADY CAMDEN. I grabbed Emily by the shoulders and said “She’s here. Oh my god she’s here. There she is.” The couple and Emily turned their attention quickly to where I was pointing. And there she was, standing in all her glory before the screening of her documentary in a queer film festival. She was eating all of it up.
She started to walk our way and I turned around to collect myself. As I turn back around, she’s directly in front of us. Emily asks for a picture and Lady Camden says, in her little British accent, “Yes of course, but hurry before they yell at me.” Good one Camden. We turned and posed for the camera and snapped the cuntiest photo. Then I needed to turn and collect myself yet again. For the rest of our wait time, I spent it fawning over how good she looked and hyping her up for how good she looked, of course. Being in SF has been so great and I’ve seen some amazing, breathtaking things. But meeting Lady Camden has got to be one of the biggest highlights of this whole trip. I watched her exude star quality on Drag Race through a little television screen. So, to see her shine in person was so incredibly special.
Lady Camden was welcomed to the stage before her doc started playing. She shared such a heartfelt thank you to all of her support system, the Bay area, and those in the audience who came to listen to her story. In the theater, there was such an infectious and overwhelming sense of community, care, and love. We were so lucky to be present and share the space with others supporting their local queen for her documentary homecoming.
