Persona

This album of drag queens, performance artists, and female impersonators offers up both the magic and the motivations of these "gender illusionists," revealing the early influences of the members of this community and the reactions they elicit in audiences, family, and friends. Lypsinka, in his thoughtful foreword to this book, tells the story of his rise from a small town in Mississippi to the glittering streets of Manhattan, and how he ended up devoting himself to flinging his "outrageous, passionate performances into sold-out audiences." Why do people do drag, and why have they done it all over the world and throughout history? Persona explores this question in an astonishing number of ways, in words and images. It's the variety of drag experiences represented in Persona and the sophistication and beauty of Susan Brown's portraits that set this book apart and makes it unique.