Meesha Peru was out in her Sunday best.
Outfitted in a yellow ballroom dress, large sparkling pendant earrings and acrylic nails, the veteran drag queen of nearly 40 years stood before a crowd of people in downtown Portland’s Darcelle XV Plaza with a smile on her face.
But Peru — whose out-of-heels name is Carlos Quezada — wasn’t out in style for a runway drag show. Instead, almost half of her audience were young children with parents and, in some cases, strollers in tow.
It was the newly opened Darcelle XV Plaza’s second-ever drag story time, and Peru was ready to sing, dance and most of all, read children’s storybooks in both English and Spanish, which she grew up speaking in her hometown of Lima, Peru.
“You can clap, don’t be shy,” Peru said after introducing herself and briefly detailing her drag bona fides. “We’re gonna have so much fun.”
Poison Waters, an acolyte of legendary Portland drag performer Darcelle XV, the plaza’s namesake, was also at Sunday’s reading. She told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she and Peru started doing drag children’s book readings at the Multnomah County Library almost eight years ago and had only this year transitioned the event into the newly opened plaza.
“It’s so great,” Waters said of the readings and other events at the plaza so far, which she called “well-attended and well-received.”
Sunday’s crowd brought several dozen children and parents, who watched as Peru first launched into a bilingual reading of P.S. Eastman’s “Are You My Mother?”
She then transitioned into a reading of “Carlos, The Fairy Boy,” about a Panamanian child who longs to participate in the traditionally all-female ensemble of the queen’s float at a carnival.
“My name is Carlos, so when I saw this book I was like, ‘Oh my God, should I read it to the kids or not?’” Peru told the rapt audience. “Because I’m a fairy boy.”
After the last reading, Peru closed the roughly hourlong event with a song and dance before making herself available by the stage for family pictures.
Kyoko and Mieko Kopp were two of the young children who went up to get their picture taken with Peru, and Kyoko told The Oregonian/OregonLive that her favorite reading was of “Are You My Mother?”
The sisters’ mother, Stephanie Kopp, added that she had never been before but learned about the event’s readings after Poison Waters performed at the International School, where her kids are students.
“I like that it’s inclusive,” she said. “It’s fun.”
If you go: Drag story times are scheduled for every Sunday from 11 a.m. to noon through Aug. 30 at the Darcelle XV Plaza at the intersection of Southwest Park Avenue and Washington Street.
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