Meet Clarity Amrein

Today we’d like to introduce you to Clarity Amrein. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Smoke & Queers began in January of 2019 when two queer people didn’t see themselves represented in the local drag scene. With a background in performance art and event production, friends and artists Clarity Amrein and Christina Coobatis put out a call for burlesque and drag performers of all kinds. Using a connection to a venue called Mixwells in Northside, Cincinnati, we hosted Sunday night auditions and hoped for the best. We advertised that any person who auditioned would be accepted into the troupe. Not a single person came to the first audition. 

We kept promoting, kept flyering, and kept hoping. Performers came to the auditions, and rehearsals began. An amazing, diverse, and talented cast was born! Our first show was April 20th, 2019, and we had over 150 audience members! All of us were elated that it was such a success. Everyone told us, “I’ve never seen myself represented onstage like that.” We were inspired to continue. 

Throughout 2019 and early 2020, we continued performing, packing Mixwells and other venues in Cincinnati. We gained more and more performers from around the region and added two more producers, Jace Rubino and Ruby Bachemin. We hosted regular Sunday night rehearsals and rented our own studio. We threw events, performed for benefits, and gained popularity in the city. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit, we were forced to cancel our biggest events, leave our studio, and go on hiatus. During lockdown, we all stayed in touch and even created TikToks together. We created a virtual show in the fall of 2020. 

Christina, Ruby, and Jace left for other opportunities during the pandemic, but as soon as venues opened again, Clarity restarted the group, and we hit the ground running. In summer 2021, Smoke & Queers Burlesque and Drag troupe began a summer residency and performed regularly for the rest of the year. Since then, we’ve been invited to perform in some of the most prestigious art spaces in the city, including the Weston Art Gallery, the Contemporary Arts Center, Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and more. We’ve been mentioned in Movers & Makers, the Buckeye Flame, and we were listed as a Staff Pick for Cincinnati City Beat’s 2022 “Best of Cincinnati” Awards. We now have a rotating cast of over 30 performers from 10 different cities! 

Though we’ve grown so much. We are still the same. We’re a group of friends, artists, and queer people that share a stage and a passion. We still allow performers of any style, background, body, ability, or experience to join our troupe. In fact, we literally let anyone (21+) join our troupe or perform with us. There are no auditions. We have open-stage style shows for newer performers and larger, produced shows for more experienced performers. We now produce and host the one and only Drag King Night in Cincinnati and perform more than any other group in the city! 

We still prioritize community, belonging, and freedom of expression and celebrating LGBTQ+ people and causes through our artform. We’ve maintained our status as both a community group and a performing arts group – and we perform everywhere from bars, patios, theaters, and galleries to charity benefits, teen Pride proms, and festivals with a dedicated following of queer folks and allies around the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana tristate region. 

Since the beginning, we’ve stayed true to our mission “Smoke & Queers is a queer-led, co-ed burlesque, drag, and performance art troupe that encourages all weird and wild expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality. As a budding nonprofit arts organization, our mission is to help connect and unify the LBGTQ+ community in Cincinnati (and beyond!) and to create a space where those outside the typical standard of beauty come to feel sexy, celebrated, and empowered.” And we don’t plan to stop! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has never been a smooth road for women or queer folks trying to find visibility! For the most part, our community has welcomed us with open arms and helped us grow. However, it’s always been difficult to find a way into venues to perform in. So much of our LGBTQ+ community is still dominated by men, and in this case, most cis gay men. Gay men are the only venue owners and casting directors in town, it seemed. It was hard for us to not only be taken seriously but to get booked and find venues. Once we started proving that we could draw big crowds, we started to have more opportunities. Now, it’s my personal philosophy as a producer to never rely too much on one venue. I want us to always be adaptable and flexible! 

It’s always a struggle as artists who might be considered more “fringe” or “alternative.” We aren’t like traditional burlesque and have a hard time being accepted by audiences who like classic burlesque because not all of our performers are feminine or gender-conforming. We aren’t like traditional drag and have a hard time being accepted by audiences who are exclusively into glamor drag rather than performance art. We have political messages, oddities, and stunts that challenge traditional styles of performing arts – which makes it even more difficult to find places to perform and producers who are willing to take a chance on an unconventional artist group. 

Despite it all, we’ve managed to perform at many venues around the city and find support from community members. With time and tenacity, we seem to make it through! 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
In my professional life, I’m actually a local history librarian. I work at the Cincinnati Public Library, and my role is called the Community Content Coordinator. I answer genealogy and local history questions, I find and prepare historical items for digitization, I work with people in the community to collect stories, and I turn artifacts into shareable content for others. I’ve always had a passion for literature, history, technology, and art. It really is a dream job! 

I also sit on the Library’s LGBTQIA+ work group, where I do programming, story times, events, and more for LGBTQ+ people in the community through the library. Through this group, I developed a special reference tool for specifically LGBTQ+ youth library users, the only one of its kind. It was featured in several publications, including Public Libraries online. 

A lot of librarians I know are also artists of some kind, and a lot of us have a passion project outside of our work. My love for history and access definitely informs the way I perform in and produce burlesque and drag shows. 

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I’m so happy when I do burlesque. It’s an escape into another world. You can be whoever you want. I love the costumes, the music, the atmosphere, everything. I’m always really happy when I see other performers slip into that blissful escape and find things they really enjoy. I love watching performers grow and fall in love with burlesque and drag, just like I did. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.smokeandqueers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smokeandqueerscincy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smokeandqueerscincy/

Image Credits
Alyssa Moore
Johnny Hubbard
Kyle Chaney Photos
Lola Vuitton