Event: Legends of Drag with the Red Ribbon Revue
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Church of the Village
Starring: Stella D’oro, LaRitza DuMont, Coco LaChine, Ruby Rims, and Simone, with Aaron Lee Battle, Sam Bolen, and Brian Mummert of the Red Ribbon Revue and Emcee Linda Simpson
Gallery:
About the Event:
On June 14, stories, sequins, and some serious star power were on display when our annual Pride program, Legends of Drag, returned for its third fabulous year!
In a time when LGBTQ+ rights and queer expression are under renewed attack across the country, we doubled down on joy and the enduring legacy of drag. Legends of Drag isn’t just a show, it’s a fierce, intergenerational tribute to the queens who paved the way.
This year’s event shone a spotlight on many of the phenomenal performers featured in Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age (Cernunnos, 2022), trailblazing queens who have served as cultural icons, community leaders, and spiritual anchors for decades. From underground balls to blockbuster movies and TV shows, these legends have seen it all.
For the first time, our divas shared the spotlight with the brilliant voices of The Red Ribbon Revue, a musical showcase featuring HIV-positive performers from across generations, created by Sam Bolen and Brian Mummert. Since its debut on World AIDS Day 2019, the Revue has stood as a joyful, unflinching celebration of life, identity, and the power of visibility.
About the Performers:
After more than 30 years as a drag queen, Linda Simpson continues to dazzle her fans with her witty demeanor, fine-tuned camp sensibility and unique blend of sass and class. And let’s not forget her stunning appearance! Since emerging from the East Village drag scene in the late 1980s, the multi-faced queen has racked up a mile-long list of creative endeavors, including nightlife work galore as a hostess and party promoter; publishing the “revolutionary gay magazine” My Comrade; writing and starring in four different plays; and extensive work as a journalist, often in cahoots with her male alter ego, Les Simpson. Another of Linda’s roles is drag her-storian. Her acclaimed book, The Drag Explosion, features her vivid photographs of New York City’s drag subculture in the 1980s and ‘90s. The New York Times has called her “A worldly wit… A kind of mother superior of the New York drag scene,”
Aaron Lee Battle is a singer, actor, and a Backstage Bistro Award winner for Outstanding Vocalist and a winner of the Manhattan Association of Cabaret’s (MAC) Hanson Award. Aaron has appeared at many of the cabaret rooms in New York City over the years. He has performed at The Apollo Theater’s Music Café with Tom Thorndike and as a resident guest artist at Gunay Restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey. Aaron is honored to be a part of Red Ribbon Revue (RRR) again! Happy Pride!
Brian Mummert sings, conducts, arranges, composes, and curates musical experiences that span eras and genres, all in the service of harnessing musical narrative as a mode for deepening mutual understanding. He is the founding artistic director of The New Consort, an American Prize-winning vocal ensemble dedicated to exploring the roles musical ritual and community can play in our lives; and a co-founder of The Red Ribbon Revue and ChamberQUEER, a chamber music collective spotlighting LGBTQ+ voices and hailed as "a utopian dream... [at] the cutting-edge of classical music" (The Nation). As a vocalist, Brian specializes in music of the Baroque, but has also swung with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, toured the world as the music director of the Yale Whiffenpoofs, and premiered dozens of new works by composers including Julian Anderson, Frances Pollock, David Lang, Róssa Crean, Simon Frisch, Jonathan Woody, Sarah Kirkland Snyder, and Tim Holt.
Coco LaChine holds the title Empress VII – the Celestial Dragon Empress – in the Imperial Court of New York. Through her work with the Court, Coco has helped raise over a million dollars for organizations such as Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Trinity Shelter. Coco’s star reached new heights as a consultant and drag coach for the iconic film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Coco says of her drag persona, “It's not just a facade for me. I transform into a different entity, not just a character but a complete being. I'm not trying to act like someone else. I'm just me.”
LaRitza DuMont, New York City's Latina diva, has appeared on Sex and the City and Law & Order, and served as John Leguizamo's muse for his character in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. She was featured on MTV as a Madonna lookalike and performed with Madonna herself. LaRitza is an alumnus of famed NYC Latin club Escuelitas, as well as Tunnel, Excalibur, Boy Bar, and The Pyramid Club.
Over the past 50 years, Ruby Rims has worked at all of the top cabaret venues in New York City. The Manhattan Association of Cabaret Artists honored Ruby with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. Numerous appearances on The Phil Donahue Show throughout the 80s thrust her into the national spotlight. Ruby has lived with AIDS since the 1990s, defying all odds. As she puts it: "They didn't think I'd be here long. I was like, 'Sorry, I still have too many dresses to wear.'"
Sam Bolen is an actor, singer, and writer living in Brooklyn. He co-created the musical Midnight at the Never Get (MAC Show of the Year, Lucille Lortel nominee) and has been seen onstage at City Center Encores! (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Irma La Douce), Classic Stage Company (Assassins), and more. He is a Moth StorySlam winner and has had his stories featured on The Moth Radio Hour. He co-created The Red Ribbon Revue, a project that spotlights HIV-positive artists and those lost to AIDS. He also runs a candy store from his couch.
Simone got her start performing in the 90s, working the Tunnel and The Limelight, and was the first queen to perform at Lips. In 2021, she received a grant from the City Artist Corps to continue doing public performances at Stonewall each weekend throughout the summer. More than any other trans entertainer, Simone carries on the spirit of Marsha & Sylvia and the street queens of this city.
Stella D’oro is the director of the non-profit Dancers Over 40, and is also known as the “Queen of Vaccine” for hosting Vaccine-o-Licious, a show that aims to educate on HIV vaccine trials. She was recently spotlighted in HuffPost for her unwavering devotion to her art at age 74. Stella proudly held the title of Queen Mother of Hell’s Kitchen show bar, Barracuda Lounge, until its closure.
Support:
Legends of Drag is presented in partnership with Divine Creative with the support of the House of Jax. Cultural programming at the New York City AIDS Memorial, including programs like Legends of Drag, is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Photos: Courtesy of Wilsonmodels