{"id":34652,"date":"2024-06-06T17:13:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T21:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34652"},"modified":"2024-06-13T16:35:40","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T20:35:40","slug":"first-drag-king-story-hour-a-hit-for-aurora-public-librar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/first-drag-king-story-hour-a-hit-for-aurora-public-librar\/","title":{"rendered":"First Drag King Story Hour a hit for Aurora Public Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Magna Room at the Aurora Public Library was the scene of joy and inclusion on June 1 as the APL hosted its first Drag King Story Hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Held in conjunction with Pflag York Region, this was the first Drag King Story Hour hosted at APL after several seasons\u2019 similar story hours led by Drag Queens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly 40 people spanning generations filled the room as Gustav, the alter ego of Sare Thompson, led the morning with stories of acceptance, diversity and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Drag Queen and Drag King story hours have seen backlash across North America in recent years, Saturday\u2019s event was protest-free, which came as a relief for Gustav and event organizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am beyond thrilled with the turnout the community gave us,\u201d said Sam Marchello, an information and programming specialist at APL, who took the lead on this event for the first time this year. \u201cI am beyond thrilled with Gustav\u2019s performance. I\u2019m just in general happy to be here supporting the queer community, especially as a queer librarian here in Aurora. It just makes me so happy to see our community being wonderful to everything. I am really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This same sentiment was by Gustav, for whom this story hour was a first for the Toronto-based performer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was so fun,\u201d said Gustav. \u201cI have so many friends who work in the drag scene as Kings and Queens and non-gender specific performers, and it was so nice seeing what they do, seeing what I could take from that and bring into my own thing. It was such a wonderful time \u2013 the kids and parents were so sweet and it was such a wonderful community. I got great books from the library that are all about bring yourself, being inclusive \u2013 it was a lot of fun. I think the people who are afraid of drag performers and think we shouldn\u2019t be around kids, I think, come and watch this because we\u2019re just teaching it is okay to be yourself, it is okay if you\u2019re different, it\u2019s okay if families are different. It\u2019s our differences that make us unique and special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was \u201camazing,\u201d Gustav agreed, that protestors failed to turn up outside of the Library and said it could be the sign of a turning tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think it means that the people in the Province of Ontario are really coming together against people that don\u2019t think drag is right, that don\u2019t think gender diversity is right, and think that\u2019s not appropriate for kids,\u201d said Gustav. \u201cI think the fact there were no protestors today speaks volumes that that\u2019s not a good attitude to have. We\u2019re just people, we just want to have a good time, celebrate pride, read some stories, and have fun \u2013 just like any other story time!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F34652&#038;t=First%20Drag%20King%20Story%20Hour%20a%20hit%20for%20Aurora%20Public%20Library&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F34652&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F06%2F2024-06-06-02.jpg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=First%20Drag%20King%20Story%20Hour%20a%20hit%20for%20Aurora%20Public%20Library\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F34652&#038;text=Like%3F\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=First%20Drag%20King%20Story%20Hour%20a%20hit%20for%20Aurora%20Public%20Library&#038;body=Like%3F:%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F34652\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Magna Room at the Aurora Public Library was the scene of joy and inclusion on June 1 as the APL hosted its first Drag King Story Hour. Held in conjunction with Pflag York Region, this was the first Drag King Story Hour hosted at APL after several seasons\u2019 similar story hours led by Drag [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-06-06-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-90U","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 08:47:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}