Drag Night
Sean as Little Annie with Judy and Rowan Doren ’07 as the Dragster
Of all the grand old Adams House traditions, perhaps the most famous is Drag Night, and we’re happy to say it still glitters on. After randomization, the number of students who came nightly to the Dining Hall in drag dwindled, and rising sophomores were no longer required to come to the first Tea in drag, but the spirit of the celebration continues unabated.
Each year, elaborately choreographed songs and dances are staged, some of them rising to legendary status. In 2011, a large group of tutors and students from Kirkland came in drag bearing a large paper-mâche heart and gaily joined our celebration. “We are Family” was the festive final song joined by performers and audience alike weaving in a long line around the Dining Hall.
This year’s Drag Night was particularly festive because Jack Cashion, one of Adam’s current HoCo chairs, brought his band, the Nostalgics, to play the whole evening. With our new amp and speaker system booming music across the Dining Hall, performers sang, danced, and lip-synched through some amazing acts. Sean and I had the great fortune of having the band’s excellent vocalists perform “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” as they cavorted around the stage and finally climbed tall ladders to end the number in a sweet and heart-felt kiss.
When we think back 45 years to our own undergraduate time at Harvard, what a refreshing change this is. In the old days if you were not on a one-man one-woman couple you were not on a dance floor. Now a group of men and women can dance together, one man, one woman can dance together, two men or two women can dance. And on Drag Night, men in dresses can dance with women in dresses, or pants…it doesn’t matter. We just have fun. After all ….we are family!