Communism, queer,activism, non binary visibillity,pink triangles and space. This is Space manifesto.

How did you start doing Drag? What are your core influences?

I started out at a friend’s birthday party. There was a competition that resembled RuPaul’s Drag Race, where we acted crazy, and the drag queen Chraja was there, who proposed to me to get invovled with drag. I was really excited with this idea! A week later, I performed my first show at the BeQueer club. Other than that, I had little knowledge about RuPaul’s Drag race, since I had seen just a few seasons of the show when I started my drag. My main drag influences were the queens that I watched perform at local clubs, as well as artists who had build a persona, such as David Bowie.

What were your internal motives with which you were driven to create Space, and what are the symbols that you manifest through her?

The last three years I’ve been in several movements, like in political left coups, in queer groups, in enterprises, in marches, etc., that helped me to develop my present political identity. I may own a different one in five years, though. I’m a communist, I believe in queer, and I feel best represented by the anarchy-queer movement. Through Space, I choose to show that it is cool to be a communist. Communism isn’t just what the history books have taught us, about Stalin, there are good parts of it, like the ones that took place in the first years of the Soviet Union. Moreover, through meta-Marxist theories and analysis, through the feminist movement in communism, it is proven that communism could be a system that is able to create an ideal world. With equality, without hierarchy, without discriminations, without pillars of the system that, to me, right now are causing all this inequality, ex the nation, the patriarchy, etc. This theoretical concept is not yet complete in my mind, but to me, communism is hope.

Do you have any political idols?

Yes. They are almost too many to count. I think that my biggest political idols are Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

By Space Manifesto, you have started a discussion about gender identities. Would you like to elaborate on this?

Yes. Space is a genderfluid character. Actually, out of drag I’m non-binary, so, as e result, Space is also non-binary. Space is more Butlerian than me in a way, because her non-binary realness is performed by her outfits, her use of a wig or not,etc, her looks, whereas I (oyt of drag) don’t believe that much in the theory of performativity, like, for example a certain performativity can make me more queer than my naked body, or when I wear my pyjamas.

Space is queer. Do you think that there might be certain dysfunctionalities in the greek queer movement, that should come to light?

That’s a nice question! Yes, in Greece we have to conclude to what is queer, actually. This is the main problematic that needs to be resolved (laughs). For example, to me, queers are freaks, they are the part of the lgbtqi community that are out on the fringes and choose to fight like that. For example, meetings of institutional lgbtqi entities and government representatives, this is not queer activism to me. Queer, as a term, is usually used as an definitive umbrella, instead of LGBTQI. To my opinion, addressing the definition of queer and resolving this tension, might inspire queers to finally stand together, promote their communication and become the foundation of resolving other problems that occur within the greek queer community.

What’s Space’s back story?

Space comes from a planet that’s in a galaxy far away and there we had a fully automated luxurious space communism and everything was just marvelous. She went for vacation, but she got lost and landed on earth and, more specifically, in Greece, but the earthian technology wasn’t advanced enough to send her home, so now she’s forced to eat the shits of capitalism, patriarchy, etc. Here in Earth, the only humans she can relate to are drag queens, who are also perceived as freaks and outcasts, just like she is, due to her alien attributes. As a result, drag queens are kinder to her, because they identify with her marginalization. Space, too, feels cool around them and she starts doing drag to make a living, since it’s the only job she can get. In the meantime, she attempts to overthrow the existing systems of repression and to show earthians how cool was communism in her planet.

How does Space aspire to help the greek queer world?

Space doesn’t try to be anyone’s savior. Other than that, I feel that’s she contributing by advocating for communism, and using symbols, such as the communist star in her makeup, her clothes or other political symbols, like the pink triangle. She also speaks through her political voice and statement, managing accordingly her narratives, or even her lipsyncs. I’d like to add that making a political propaganda doesn’t have to be something miserable, it could be an opportunity to communicate important matters, like work rights, or the non-binary visibility in and out of drag. I could give you some examples via specific performances of mine, if you’d like to.

We could discuss about the performance you’ve carried through at the “Glam Slam 3” event, where you first presented your Manifesto, calling all the drag queens to claim their working payment rights. Would you like to deliver on that?

First of all, I want to clarify that this was a strongly conscious choice of calling emphasizing the positionality of drag queens in the text (because in Greece there are numerically more drag queens than drag kings right now). Despite that, this is a manifesto that calls every drag performer. When I started doing drag, I dealt with a payment situation that I met in most kinds of jobs, especially those that had to do with art. I’ve worked as an assistant in several projects without payment, with my consent. And on up to that day, I had executed shows as a drag performer, where I wasn’t payed at all, in order to gain some visibility about my work and star claiming paid work in the future. That was my conscious decision, until then. Nobody promised me any salary that didn’t give me in the end, and I had a clear agreement about that with every person I have worked with, that’s why I don’t blame anyone personally.

Of course, politically speaking, I get the fact that it’s just another aspect of the existing greek economical system, that is leaking. So, I decided to do this performance, in order to coil all drag queens with a union that its main goal is to claim our rights, such as getting paid, set a minimum wage and having social security. The fact that, a drag queen is making all these preparations, the rehearsals, etc to offer a quality show and not making any money out of it (even though the drag experience is ultimately worthy in every way), this makes me very sad.

Have you ever felt targeted?

Yes, in and out of the community. Some times I’ve been targeted because I’m a drag queen from alt-rights and fascists, some times I’ve been targeted from members of the community just because I’m a communist and other times I’ve been targeted from communists because I’m queer. But, through these incidents someone can find people with common ground personally and politically. So, Ι guess that every cloud has a silver lining.

What are your aspirations about Space’s future?

I’d like to communicate her thematic via her performances even better. I’d really love for Space to make an album where she’ll narrate stories of her daily life in Earth. The Union maybe is a goal for Space, if it happens, it’d be her biggest accomplishment.