We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bertha Vanayshun. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bertha below.

Alright, Bertha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I’ve been an artist my whole life whether I realized it or not at the time. When I was a kid, I loved playing online video games but my parents (understandably) had no interest in dropping cash on them – so I found my own workaround. I would make graphics and designs and sell them to people for in items and valuables in the game. Maybe this was must me doing a little tax evasion or maybe it was the birth of my creative process, who’s to say.

For drag specifically, I got the bug near the end of my time in college. I was in a dual degree program for fine art and international relations and I grew really frustrated with Fine Art and the way the industry would pigeon holed and confine people and then pat itself on the back for being progressive about it. There was a running joke in my year that if you were a woman and drew a flower it was about your genitals, if you were Latino the flower was about the border and if you were black the flower was about slavery. But if you were just a random white dude the all of a sudden the flower was about form, function and our society at large or whatever.

I ended up feeling really out of place in the capital F capital A “Fine Art” world as I enjoyed creating and making but not enough to honestly deal with that sort of environment. At the same time, I was wrapping up with my International Relations degree and somewhat on a whim decided to see if there was some sort of global connection between nyc migration and drag – I had just recently started going out to see drag shows in the city with friends and I was enamored that these queer artists, often of color, could build a whole new persona and control whatever narrative they chose to perform. The thesis ended taking a different direction but having spent so much time studying drag through an academic lense I was absolutely obsessed and was itching to put my toe in the water.

Unfortunately that coincided with the beginning of 202o.

I ended up working in a job in non profit for the next two years and while I’m grateful for the position for what it was, it didn’t really allow me to creative or be artistic which began to eat away at me.

When I decided to leave I had a bunch of vacation time saved up and had a little cushion that allowed me to go in head first into drag which I quickly found to be the most satisfying artistic experience I’ve ever had. And I was good at it!

My initial plan was that I’d have a few months if drag time and then I’d find a “real job” but it wasn’t long before the drag I was doing started bringing in money, and while definitely not big bucks but enough to get the job done. Now I have a part time for the added financial security and then drag takes care of the rest!

I’m not sure I could change the path I took to get where I am today even if I tried but I’m happy with where I am and ecstatic about where it’ll take me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My brand of Drag I think from the outside in would be described as beautiful, with a lot of body and lot of comedy and charm. And while I don’t disagree with that, for me personally, it’s really just whatever puts a smile on my face or makes me excited. Sometimes that’s a silly number about Eric Adams to the Cell Block Tango, other times it’s just me throwing ass to Beyonce drag daughter, Chloe Bailey. Other times its me doing a bollywood number or doing an educational drag show about pirates and lesbians.

I’m happy that I’ve been able to sort of let the wind take me where it may and that people have been down for that ride. My crown jewel of my drag career so far would definitely be Drag History Hour – which is where I have a wonderful cast of drag artists perform while I do a mini lecture on a piece of history. Every now and then I’ll have someone stop me in the street or while I’m having a panic attack trying to decide between Orange Juices at the grocery store and they’ll tell me that they learned something fun about queer history and that it stuck with them! That always brightens my day.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I have a goal of moving my drag into new spaces and using my drag to bridge spaces. I have a background as an educator (I have a TESOL certification and before the pandemic started I taught English classes to adult migrants) and I think as a society currently we are in a really fraught time pedagogically. There’s a disconnect that I’ve been seeing that people have with history that I personally think brings them isolation even if they don’t realize it.

If I can manifest my drag to be the conduit between communities and their history that would truly be the most amazing thing. I think I’m in the works of that but I still have long way to go.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have a modest following that’s been created mostly through performing in clubs and venues around the city. I wouldn’t say I’m super social media savvy but I’m happy that whenever I get on stage and do my thing people leave with wanting to follow me and see what I’m up to next. My biggest advice is that sometimes people will stop themselves from doing something because they want every piece to be perfect but you just gotta throw that worry out and just dive into things. You’ll always in retrospect giggle at the mistakes you made when you started out but you’ll never learn from those mistakes if you don’t make them first!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @berthavnyc
• Other: Tiktok: @berthavnyc

Image Credits

Phot credits: Kyle G Bryant, Zihao, Brandon Dean, Omar Abreu