We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gigi Supernova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Gigi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
When I moved to Austin, I was holding myself back the person the I was when it comes to my sexuality and it was not until I met my first boyfriend that I started to experiment what being part of the LGBTQ+ community was like. I signed up to volunteer for my first pride festival and it was at the volunteer meeting that I got to meet my first drag queen. Ever since that moment I started doing research and playing around with makeup. It was 2019, when I signed up for an amateur competition at Rain on 4th and I did my first drag performance. After seeing all the performers and being received with open arms by the host I found my passion to start doing drag.
Gigi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Jordy Balderas and I perform as Gigi Supernova. Gigi Supernova is a Latinx Drag Queen from Austin, TX, also known as The Jump Rope Queen of Austin, who loves serving sexy and bringing you in her fantasy. Gigi loves expressing her culture by performing Spanish songs and music from Latinx artists . Her inspiration comes from artists like Selena, Jennifer Lopez, as well as Gloria Trevi.
Gigi has been a drag artist since 2019 and has been performing consistently since 2021. She started her drag career after participating in a drag competition called “Diva Academy” hosted by Diamond Dior Davenport at Highland Lounge. Ever since she’s has the opportunity to be part of many different shows in and out of state. Within her first year, she’s been able to perform in many different stages including Las Vegas, San Antonio, Marble Falls, and other cities around Austin.
Currently, Gigi Supernova performs locally at venues like Oilcan Harry’s, Swan Dive, Cheer Up Charlie’s, and if requested she can perform at any special occasion and events you may be hosting.
One of the thing I am really proud of is to be able to represent the Latinx LGBTQ+ drag community through my platform and inspire others to follow their dreams.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being a drag artist allows me and others to express ourselves, share our culture, and inspire others to follow their dreams. In my opinion, drag artistry is about expressing what your feeling and allow others to understand that feeling by creating a fun environment. No matter your background drag artistry is not what the norm says but it is what you make it to be. This form of art allows us to be ourselves and free ourselves from the oppression that Pat of us get for being part of the LGBTQ+ community.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
A lot of times drag artistry is used for entertainment but people do need to understand that being a drag performer means more to some people than anything. Anyone attending a drag show should be considerate about the performers and respect the work that we are doing.
Some of the ways that you can support drag artists are:
•Attend their shows and being mindful. Some drag show rules for anyone attending a drag show for the first time are: 1. Make noise. 2. Do not walk on stage while anyone is performing. 2. Keep your hands off the performers. 3. Tip the performers. 4. Make noise. 5. And have fun!
•Follow their social media and share their flyers.
•Provide a space for them to perform
•Hire them for your events.
Although, we do this for fun and to entertain you some drag performers do this work for a living so be mindful of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dot.cards/itsgigiatx
- Instagram: Instagram.com/itsgigiatx
- Facebook: Facebook.com/JennyV512
- Other: Email: [email protected] Venmo: @itsgigiatx CashApp: $itsgigiatx
Image Credits
Photographer: Tino Salinas (Instagram: @Kapturingmomentsbytino) Designer: Adrian Hernandez (Instagram: @sashitalauren) Makeup: Myself