Drag: A British History
£15 (£13.50 for Friends)
[ Talk )
In celebration of our hanging of Leonard Rosoman’s The Drag Ball, join Jacob Bloomfield, author of Drag: A British History, for a fascinating exploration of drag in British culture.
Drag is an intrinsic, and common, part of British popular culture — drag artists throughout history have made themselves some of the most renowned and significant entertainers of their day.
As Bloomfield will show, drag was also at the centre of public discussions around gender and sexuality in the 19th and 20th centuries, from Victorian sex scandals to the ‘permissive society’ of the 1960s. This compelling new history clarifies drag, stressing its ordinariness while showing its important place in British cultural heritage.
You are welcome to visit 18th century Pallant House from 5pm and see Leonard Rosoman’s ‘The Drag Ball’ (above) on display on our beautiful staircase, plus an exhibition of work from contemporary artist Jake Grewal.
Speaker bio - Jacob Bloomfield
Jacob Bloomfield is a Zukunftskolleg Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Konstanz and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent. His research is situated primarily in the fields of cultural history, the history of sexuality, and gender history. Jacob is the author of Drag: A British History (2023). His second monograph will be about the historical reception to, and cultural impact of, musician Little Richard.
Book - Drag: A British History
Drag: A British History is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag performance in modern Britain. With this book, Jacob Bloomfield provides fresh perspectives on drag and recovers previously neglected episodes in the history of the art form.
