(gentle music) (clicking sounds) - Welcome to season four of Monograph.

I'm your host Jackie Clay.

I'm gonna sit down with my friend Bo McGuire and Gadsden, to talk about his recent film, poetry, and being a creative in Alabama.

After that, I'm gonna hang out with Birmingham drag queen Sharon C, to learn about the art of drag.

(gentle music) Hello, and welcome to Monograph.

Do you mind introducing yourself?

- Yes, it's so great to be here.

My name is Bo McGuire and I'm a poet, and filmmaker from Gadsden, Alabama.

- Tell us about how you started as a poet filmmaker.

- That sort of era about being a poet, and being a storyteller really begins, like laying on the floor, listening to my mother on the phone, talk to her mother and her sister.

That's the sort of like sense of language, and the particular ways in which Southern women voice things really probably is the base of my artistic practice.

And then went into undergrad in Montevallo, skipping a bunch of years.

And I ended up in a creative writing class.

I was there to like be a teacher.

That's what I was going to school for.

And I realized that I could write good poems, or that I had an ear that I probably had inherited from the women of my family.

And I realized I didn't wanna do anything else, really except create.

I went to school in the university of Arizona for poetry to get an MFA in poetry.

And there, I was sort of realizing that contemporary poetry didn't have the audience I was really looking for.

I wanted more for my characters and my poems, you know, I'm of the mind that contemporary poetry for better or worse, unless, I mean not counting Beyonce or Dolly Parton of course, but a lot of poetry is written for other poets and not necessarily for the people.

And I'm talking about popular culture, which is something I'm very interested in, and very interested in having my hands in.

- So wait, those influences you, throughout Beyonce and Dolly Parton.

Tell us more about that and like how you see them as not just pop divas, but you know... - Yeah.

They're tale makers.

- Bards.

- Yeah.

They're poets.

They're making the stories.

And I guess it's like Dolly Parton is a big influence on me because when I realized that she was a poet, and like sort of her history of cultivating her imaginative sense, and her creative sense out of the world, she grew up in and the people she was surrounded by, and putting that to lyrics, I realized that I could be a poet.

That it wasn't this sort of like thing to be wrapped up in a book.

I think when you see Beyonce on stage, and through the lighting and the production, and her moves and just her resonance, she can stop time or alter it so that it slows down.

I've seen it, I've witnessed it.

Like that's poetry.

- Tell us a little bit about your choice to be a filmmaker here in the South.

- The three things that are really conducive to me being a productive creative person, which is time, space and quiet are three things you spend most of your life fighting for in a place like New York.

And I knew that I had a choice to make, I could sort of like work in production there, and figure that out, or I could move home, renovate this house and sort of think about what kind of stories I wanted to tell.

Moving back here was the only thing that made sense to me.

'Cause it connected me with the land, and connected me with the people.

I'm really about trying to make films that have the people in them that they are for.

I really feel like, there are stories here, but also the filmmaking itself, the production of it gets so much easier here because people are very excited about it.

And you can get away with a lot, and you call in all kinds of favors.

It's like, you know, there's that scene in Socks on Fire, where uncle John is singing in a broke down factory, with like water dripping in from the roof.

And that just happened to belong to somebody I knew and was like, do you mind if we go here and shoot.

And so that sort of like working with what you have mentality, which was very Southern, also very queer, also directly from nanny to me has really served me in filmmaking.

- So you mentioned Socks on Fire.

- Mmh hmm.

- Tell us about the film.

Tell us about your process, and again, how like this geography shaped it.

- Mmh hmm.

So Socks on Fire, is my first feature film.

It's what I call it, trans-generational docu-drama.

And by that, I mean, it does not operate under the normal rules of documentary filmmaking.

We use all the colors in the crayon box, and make up a few of our own.

It's a love letter to Southern femininity, but that love letter is couched in the battle between my family members, as they fight over of my grandmother's estate.

- If you could like increase opportunity for Southern filmmakers, yourself included, what is the thing that you wish like we could move the dial on?

- I would say that, just like the dominant story about creatives and successful people from the South, a lot of the time and especially queer people from the South is about leaving this place.

Is about getting out of this place.

So I think it's really important to tell the stories about people returning here and about people staying here.

I think that's where their wisdom is.

- You know, when we were opening, we were talking about audience and how, one of your draws coming back here was being amongst the people that you both wanna be writing about or wanting to be making film about, but then also like in conversation with them, and they to have access to the projects.

What does it feel like right now?

And like what has been the audience's response to your work?

- It's been a particular joy to experience this film with queer Southern audiences.

I've heard a lot of people say, I've never seen myself in a film before, and now I can see myself here.

So that means a lot.

'Cause that was the work we set out to do.

Was to create something different, to really show the South as a place of queerness.

And I think that there's no blueprint about how to be an artist, especially in the South, especially in Alabama.

But so much of that blueprint for me has been created through acts of kindness and community.

- Thank you Bo, for having us here.

- Thanks for coming.

Such a pleasure to have you at the slack shack.

- Well, I'm headed to Birmingham to see our friend Sharon C. - Oh, I'm jealous.

- Now let's watch a segment on mobile designer, Pat Richardson, who makes elaborate trains and gowns, for Mardi Gras royalty.

(epic music) - I love beautiful things.

I love the rhinestones, I love the bling.

The more that rhinestone shine, the better I like it.

(gentle instrumental music) But Mardi Gras is a period of time of feast before Ash Wednesday.

You go into celebration of carnival, and partying and fat.

That's why I see Fat Tuesday, which is a French word.

Basically because that's when you eat fat foods, and party and have a good time.

(gentle instrumental music) The queens and kings, they reign the city, going through the city on their floats, and the big parade all day on Mardi Gras day.

But to just have a queen and king over with the organization is just awesome.

- My name is Richard Edwards.

I am king Alexis the first of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association.

(upbeat music) I've known Miss.

Pat for quite a some time now.

I met her a while ago when I was in middle school.

Her husband, Mr. Richardson, used to tutor me for math.

So we built that relationship, and I always used to say that I wanted to be king one day.

So I would come in and look at her work, look at the decor and stuff in the home, and it just gives you a thrill or like a rush and you get excited because it puts you in the mind frame of you actually being a Royal king.

And so to actually witness this moment, and to be able to take place and fulfill this position is something that I could have never imagined.

Like it's a, a great feeling.

(upbeat music) - I'm an only child.

And my mother was a seamstress.

So I would hang around my mother back in the day, we didn't have daycare centers and all these things that young people have now.

You stayed at home with your mom.

So when she's sewing, I'm around there and I'm always around her, around her leg, watching her do things.

So we talk and I watch.

Until then I said, well, I gotta go shopping, we gotta have some new clothes.

She says, "Nope, you gonna make, make whatever you wear."

I said, oh no, I can't do that.

"Oh yes.

I have a room full of fabric out there.

You're going out there.

You're gonna pick some fabrics, and you're gonna make your outfits."

And from there, I started making clothes all the time, making my clothes and enjoying designing, and creating different designs that other people didn't have.

I'm still that way.

I'll go shopping, not to purchase what everybody else's purchasing, because I'm kind of eclectic, and I like things different.

I like to stand out and be my own person.

I don't like to have the what everybody else have.

(upbeat music) And I started working with MAMGA, Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association, which is the largest African-American Mardi Gras organization here.

And then my niece was in the court, and my sister-in-law say, you must make Pam train.

I said, oh, no, not ready to make... "Oh yeah, you have make Pam's train."

So I made Pam's train, and ever since then, I've been making train.

that was 37 years ago.

So I've been making trains ever since.

And so now I do very little work that's not rhinestones.

I like a lot of beading and a lot of crystals, and Swarovski crystals and Austrian crystals.

I do use some sequins but everything is hand sewn now.

I don't do any gluing.

(gentle upbeat music) It's a long process.

It's a very long process.

Takes good Six months to really make a quality, quality king or queen's train.

(gentle upbeat music) I don't do all this by myself.

So I'm not an island.

There's a group of people who work with me, like I was telling you, my ladies downstairs, we all get together and we work together and create.

(gentle upbeat music) I've cut back on the number of trains I make now.

I think this year we made, two, four, five six.

I think we made six trains this year.

Now we've made up the 13 trains in a year.

I do it because I love it.

And I enjoy it.

Watching my subjects.

I enjoy going to the coronation, watch the lights and see them moving and everything.

Just dancing and blinging, moving all over the place, and everybody saying, "ooh, and aah", and they're my clients.

They're so proud and they're walking and you can tell they're proud of their attire.

And it just makes me feel so good.

That's probably the most real rewarding part of it.

Is watching them and watching all the bling bling.

(gentle music) - So hello and welcome.

So tell us your name.

- My name is Sharon.

- Thank you for being with us, Sharon.

And what are we gonna do today?

- So today we are going to get you in drag, and you're gonna get to know me a little bit more.

- Okay.

- But I'm super excited about the drag part.

First of all, because you already have a beautiful bone structure.

So we're just exaggerating every single feature.

(Sharon claps) - If you had to describe the process of drag, like what are the ingredients.

- It's a process that starts with, of course, clean face.

Just like you should start every makeup.

There's a lot of glue.

School glue.

Don't worry about it.

It washes with water, but it's a process of just creating this character.

I've been doing drag for nine years.

And so I still don't have her pinned down exactly to who Sharon is.

- Okay.

- Because she continues to evolve and change.

So I allow the makeup to pretty much just take me there.

So sometimes you'll see me with different lip shape.

Sometimes you'll see me with different eyebrows.

My favorite part is doing the color on the eyelids, but yeah, it's one of those things where I just kind of let the brush do the talking, and then sometimes you make mistakes like that one time I didn't draw eyebrows on.

We won't talk about that part.

But yeah, it's creating a whole new character to pretty much bring entertainment, and bring joy to people.

So... - So should we get started?

- Absolutely.

Okay.

So we are going to start by covering your beautiful black turtle neck.

We use a lot of powders, to set a lot of the cream makeup that we're using.

So we want to make sure that we don't mess anything up on you.

So I'm gonna start with your eyebrows.

This is Elmer's glue stick.

- School.

- School glue.

It is water soluble.

So we'll be able to wash it right off.

But the idea for this is to lay down your brows.

So it's flat so I can create a whole new higher brow.

Okay.

So we're gonna go against the grain of the hairs.

And what I love about this glue is that it's purple and it dries clear.

So you're able to see when it's dry and ready to go.

- How would you describe your... You said funny.

- Mm hmm.

- would you say campy?

- I'm definitely campy.

I'm a clown at heart, but with makeup skills.

With mad make makeup skills.

I like to pride myself in knowing how to do makeup.

I worked at Sephora for a very long time, so I just...

I love makeup.

I grew up drawing and painting.

So, the idea of makeup is pretty much the same thing.

Right now I'm putting a little bit of powder on it to dry the glue, so we can put foundation over it.

So I'm gonna do your eyebrow , and we're gonna go very dramatic.

- I love it.

- We are not here for the glam.

We are here for the drama.

We're gonna let the hair do the glam.

- Do you feel like your performance self...

Your singing performance self, your drag performance self, and your design creative self, do they tap into different parts of you, or are they all kind of like... - So for a lot of people, drag is that moment where they can become a different person.

So they're shy when they're at drag.

And then they're like, "Aah!

", when they're...

I'm the same person.

Might be a little louder in drag.

- Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

(Sharon laughing) - So right now I put a little bit of base on your eye to just kind of get the colors the chance to pop a little bit.

So the colors that I'm gonna be using is purple.

We're gonna blend it in with a little bit of pink.

I think we're gonna do a little pop of grain in the bottom.

A little Mardi Gras moment.

All right.

So we're gonna start in this area right here.

And as you can tell, we have covered your brow.

So that's where we gonna go with the purple.

So like normally your brows right here, this is where I'm putting on your eyeshadow.

- Mm hmm.

- We are going in.

And with a lot of these pigments, you want to kind of place them and then blend, because a lot of these pigments can be what we call fallout, and we don't want that.

We want it to stay in there.

- You've mentioned before, that you did have a pass as a painter, and I know you're a designer also, do you feel like the way that color works in those formats translates to what you do with makeup?

- A little bit.

I think that we have to also take in consideration that when we do paint, we work with a blank canvas, that has no undertones, right?

We're looking at a white canvas.

- Mmh.

- Skin has different undertones.

Skin has very beautiful shades, and learning makeup theory is very important, especially when you first start doing drag.

Because you wanna make sure that you are getting the right colors.

For men, our five o'clock shadow shows sometimes through the makeup.

So we have to do an orange concealer.

Orange concealer is going to take care of the blue under light that your beard would give you.

So there is a little bit of color theory that you can use when you're mixing paints and oil, to doing this.

- How long does the face take?

- So face could take about 45 minutes.

And then, I allow myself about 15 minutes for hair, costume, and body.

That allows me time to kind of retouch anything if I feel like something went wrong.

But yeah.

When I first started, it would take me four hours to do my entire face.

So the more and more that you do it, the more agile you become with a brush, and the more you kinda find shortcuts and just kind of work with them.

Will you let me do something creative?

- Absolutely.

- All right.

So this is something that I used to do about three years ago, where I used to bring my blush all the way around.

It was very 80's and it was very amazing on my face.

Not many people liked it.

But I think I just started are doing this, and I was like, her face is telling me where to go.

And you see, this is exactly what I was talking about.

You let the face kind of tell you where you need to go, and how you need to do it honey.

So you're gonna bring it all the way around here.

So the lashes never go on the lash line.

I know that's weird to think about, but normally when you're doing your beauty makeup, you want to put 'em as close as possible to your lash line.

We're just gonna go about centimeter... Like a little millimeter away from your lash, 'cause we wanna make sure that they're like... (Sharon makes slurping sound) okay?

And I want you to look at my chin again.

Actually look at my mic.

There we go.

Perfect.

(faint upbeat music) I'm gonna bring this down just a little bit.

There's a lot of tugging and pulling in drag.

Sorry.

I just touched your eyeball.

I felt it.

(Jackie laughing) I apologize.

That wasn't part of the contract.

We're gonna do the other one.

Right.

(faint upbeat music) Okay.

Look at me.

We're trying to get that powder off of your face, without having to mess everything up.

(faint upbeat music) So for lips, we're gonna do a simple nude lip.

I'm gonna go with a brown for your lip liner.

And this is an orangey-brown, so it has a little bit of color in it.

So it's not gonna be completely muted.

(faint upbeat music) That's big.

We're working with it.

All right.

So now, we're gonna take this beautiful nude, and we are just gonna fill that in.

(faint upbeat music) All right.

Press your lips for me.

I mean these lips girl.

Yes.

(faint upbeat music) Those lips don't tell a lie.

I'll tell you that.

Okay.

Miss ma'am.

I think we're ready.

You're ready for your hair.

Okay.

All right.

So this has a cap right here.

Okay?

- Mm hmm.

- You're gonna place this on your forehead... - Mm hmm.

- And then you're gonna pull this back first to the back of your neck and then we're gonna pull the back.

Okay?

- Okay.

- And I will help you place it.

So we're gonna place this first.

We're gonna make sure the lace is... - Wait a second.

Before we unveil my new persona, take a look at this short film by Monograph alumni, Lily Siegel, titled Boom.

( bright upbeat music) - [Director] Cut.

Cut.

Cut, cut.

Boom, and shot.

Reset.

(loud boom) - [Narrator] This is Fischer.

He will teach us about being a boom operator and recordist.

What's a boom you ask?

It's this thing.

(Beeping sound) This is the microphone that records the audio to your favorite TV shows and movies.

We'll get back to this technical bit later.

- Sure.

- [Narrator] So let's start with auditory muscle exercise nowledge, also known as A-M-E-N. AMEN.

This is the absolutely fundamental acronym of the boom operator's job.

(whirling sound) (bright upbeat music) The first letter in AMEN, is A for auditory.

(Narrator clears throat) So Fischer stop what you're doing.

(Narrator sighs heavily ) Take a moment to listen.

Let's count the sounds as we hear them.

(Humming sound) Humming of electrical equipment.

(footsteps pattering) Footsteps.

(indistinct conversation) People talking.

(beeping and whirling sound) And lunch being served.

But it's also important to get rid of extraneous noises that could interrupt the recording.

Some are simple, such as, (buzzing sound) killing an annoying bug.

(zapping sound) Quieting the crew, and finally, taking out the noisy cat, (meow sound) and shutting the door.

(door shuts) (cellphone vibrating) Hey, come back.

Oy vey!

This guy's a piece of work.

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

(bright upbeat music) Okay.

We're back.

Oh, excuse me.

I'm back.

(Narrator clears throat) This is muscle exercise or M, E, in AMEN.

The most common position to hold the boom pole, is the H position.

Due to budget limitations we'll only cover this.

Keep a firm grip on that pole lad, and squat, squat, squat.

(Fischer breathing heavily) Keep going.

Do you feel it?

(Fischer breathing heavily) Squat?

Keep going.

Feel the burn Fischer.

This is how I feel during this job.

- Yeah.

- Squat.

(Fischer making random noises) Squat, squat, squat, and squat.

(Fischer making random noises) I think someone's getting enthusiastic.

That's great.

(Fischer making random noises) Keep going Fischer.

(Fischer making random noises) Okay.

You can stop.

(Fischer panting) You can stop now.

(Fischer panting) You can stop.

(Fischer panting) (bright upbeat music) By now, you're probably wondering what makes up the boom operator's equipment?

Just remember, AMEN.

N for nowledge.

This is the Tascam DR60 DMK2.

A four channel portable recorder.

It's perfect for all your needs.

Connected to this Tascam, is the XLR cable.

This connects the Tascam recorder to the lovely microphone situated on our beautiful Rode Boom pole.

This boom pole has three sections, (beeping sound) able to extend further, than any other boom pole on the market.

And it has a soft cushioned grip to ease your fatigued hands.

Magnificent.

Finally, we make our way to the king.

The grand finale, the microphone on top of the boom pole.

Point that baby at your talents, general neck area, and bam!

You'll be hearing some beautiful dialogue.

Well, get yourself on up there.

You need boom polers, you got this.

(gentle music) And boy, am I ready for this job to be over?

(upbeat music) Who wrote this?

(upbeat music) (electric crackling) (upbeat music) - All right.

Are you ready for your reveal?

To see what you look like?

- I am.

- Miss Lucy.

- I am.

- You ready?

Turn around.

- Oh my... (Jackie squeals happily) Wow.

Wow.

I am into this.

The eyes are truly unbelievable.

It looks really good.

You are a master.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

- Yeah.

- This is what Sharon looks like every time.

- Yeah, it's excellent.

- Are you ready to perform?

- I'm ready for the photo booth.

(bright upbeat music)