How Montreal’s drag scene evolved into the lineage scene today.
In the 1940s, the drag scene started to bloom in Montreal as interest in drag queen performances drew the public’s interest. From drag queens performing at Montreal’s Black jazz nightclub, Rockhead’s Paradise, to others, down the line, competing on RuPaul’s drag race television show.

Popular performers at the time were Dick Montgomery, Malva Boda and Billie McAllister — all performing at the popular nightclub during the late 1940s.

Anna Wintour has been the editor-in-chief of U.S. Vogue and influencing fashion since 1988. Recently, she stepped down handing the job to Chloe Malle, formerly editor of Vogue.com and co-host of The Run-Through With Vogue podcast.

“[Anna Wintour is] such a figure of popular culture, which only amplifies her supposed impact and importance,” said John Potvin, a Concordia university professor of art history that specializes in design and fashion.

Wintour may no longer be the editor-in-chief, but her booming popularity beyond the fashion industry helps maintain her influence.

“My grandfather, after the Nakba, [like] most of the Jewish people stayed there. So he had the right to keep, in the colonial context, his artworks,” said Haidi Motala, a visual artist and one of the curators of the exhibition. “While Joel’s grandfather, who was expelled together with most of the Palestinians from Haifa, lost [his painting], [as well as] his family.”

“It’s not just what you paint but how you paint… it’s an expression of yourself as an artist, and it’s what makes the painting special because it’s yours,” said Isabel Yong, artist and Concordia student majoring in Honours Psychology and Painting and Drawing.


Yong has been drawing her whole life, but it wasn’t until she took a painting class back in 2020 that she decided to pursue art educationally and professionally. Since her only degree option after that class was a major in Painting and D...