How Neon Calypso’s story of resilience informs her drag and identity
Boston-based drag queen Neon Calypso (@neoncalypso) doesn’t let anything stop her from being her true self. As a disabled trans woman of color, she leans on her community to celebrate her own story and the stories of those around her.
“Despite being a disabled entertainer, despite being blind, getting on a stage just allows me to take ownership of what I’m able to do,” Neon Calypso says, “Everyone can see me for what it is that I love to do, and no one’s judging me on anything personal.”
Neon wears a prosthetic in her left eye and has experienced severe concussions and temporary loss of vision in her right eye. She says, “Being a disabled performer, one of the things I pay attention to majorly is the visual presentation of the space. I don’t have depth perception, so I don’t see what everybody else sees.”
She explains that as she performs, she calculates the depth of her space in her head to make sure there’s enough room to land a flip and do her choreography.
As a child, Neon was very expressive, making up dances and putting on fashion shows for the adults in her life. She first officially stepped into the spotlight in high school, performing Madonna’s “Vogue” in her first wig, which she remembers as a “huge, big, curly ’fro” that she could bounce around.
Though she didn’t see herself doing drag right away, Neon knew when she finished high school that she wanted to be a performer as she loves entertaining and writing her own music. “Doing drag made me become the star that I have always wanted to be,” she says.
At the start of her career, Neon’s performances were very dance-heavy, then her work evolved with the incorporation of spoken word in her numbers. She says that the message of her drag is very personal.
As a trans woman of color, Neon faced discrimination early on in her career and even lost a job because she called out a manager who had been trying to police her “Blackness” in her performances. She says that the drag community has been a great source of support, and she formed a sisterhood with other performers.
“Boston has definitely changed for the better,” she shares. “I would say I’ve had an impact on the upcoming generation of younger queens. We’re definitely trying to create the space that we deserve and need, but it took a lot of calling out these people and calling out these actions as a community and being supportive of one another to actually get to those places.”
Fans might be surprised to know that Neon’s life outside of drag is very opposite of what she does onstage. When she’s home, Neon describes herself as a homebody who spends most of her time with her dog, Khadijah, who inspires her to go out into nature, take walks and go for hikes. “I would definitely say my life is a lot better with her,” Neon says, adding that Khadijah is going to be trained as a vision service guide.
“I do drag because I think I am my very, very true self on stage. The purpose of my drag is a lot more meaningful than a pretty look on stage or a click on Instagram,” Neon says. “The impact I have as an actual entertainer is what is meaningful to me in my drag.”
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