The Big Reveal

An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag

By: Sasha Velour

Narrated by: Sasha Velour

“Drag embodies the queer possibility that exists within each of us—the infinite ways in which gender, good taste, and art can be lived.”

–Sasha Velour

This book is a quilt, piecing together memoir, history, and theory into a living portrait of an artist and an art. Sasha Velour illuminates drag as a unique form of expression with a rich history and a revolutionary spirit.

Each chapter strips off a new layer, removing one tantalizing glove and then another, to reveal all the twists and turns in the life of a queen. As Sasha recalls her own journey, from the women who raised her, to learning the craft of an artist, to success, disaster, and more, she also uncovers the history of queer life around the world that made it all possible.

From shamans to “fairies balls,” empresses to RuPaul’s Drag Race (and beyond), The Big Reveal chronicles and celebrates our shared queer pasts. “If we want to be seen as legendary,” writes Sasha, “we have to weave ourselves into history.”

From an iconoclastic drag queen comes an equally singular, thought-provoking manifesto that brings necessary and sparkling substance to our understanding of drag, queerness, beauty, and liberation!

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Drag History & Queer Education

Sasha writes and speaks beautifully and is well versed on her drag history and this book is a lesson in queer education. Highly recommend!

Heartfelt Engaging Informative Drag Herstory

I truly love every minute of this book.

It is truly enhanced even more if you have the physical copy to leave along with you can do the photograph and illustration that goes along with the story. I love the way the story integrate personal and feels and personal stories from childhood and beyond in addition to history of drag artist and arts and culture and queer culture throughout time.

Perfect

Part history, part philosophy, part autobiography. It was beautiful and well-done. Definitely a book I’ll read again.

An a ICONIC book

Shasha did deliver a book full of life experiences and academic research over the history of Drag. I was amazed when he mentions Mexico’s influences of drag artists like Francis (which I saw twice in Mexico City). I loved this book and it should be a must read for any aspiring drag artist.

part drag history, part personal philosophy..

...all Sasha.

this was an enjoyable listen - Sasha performs their own words in an engaging, easy to consume manner. a nice reminder of where we've come from, where we could go and not to take anything too seriously.