We were lucky to catch up with Shea D’Heaux recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I originally planned on starting my drag career my in 2017, my senior year of college. But juggling graduatin college, working 2 jobs, being a part of my college’s cheer team, as well as being a part of a world champion winning dance team located 2 hours away didn’t leave much time to start drag. Luckily for me the time that I waited helped me not only fully develop my character, but myself as a person. I would not be the dynamic artist and performer I am now I didn’t let myself fully bake!

Shea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Shea D’Heaux is the ultimate culmination of sex, horror, glamour, and blackness rolled into one. Shea comes from my love of black culture, and the things that need to be celebrated about being unapologetically black, accompanied with my love horror and everything spooky! And as we all know, sex sells! I have been a dancer and cheerleader all of my teenage years into my early adult life. In 2017 and 2018 my dance team Pittsburgh Poison: King Cobras won the dance world championships becoming the first team in our division to win gold 2 years in row. After my dance career ending I was looking for another outlet to express myself and my perform, with most of my friends being drag queens it wasn’t that hard of transition into it! Now we have this gorgeous monstrosity you have before you now. A Shea show is a full experience! You get high energy dancing, you get campiness, you get tricks, all wrapped up in a sexy scantily clad package! The thing that brings me the most joy is knowing that I am forcing my way through the drag community and making a name for myself, the way I want to. Knowing that I’m doing this and being a positive strong role model and point of reference for POS, queerlings, and queerdos brings me total joy.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The biggest way for society to support the drag community, and all artists and creatives is to stop the spread of negatives stereotypes, stigmas, and the hateful threatening that has been circulating the entire queer community. Drag is an outlet that has saved the lives of many performers, and brought an endless amount of happiness and joy to those who can appreciate the art. The negative press that has been circulated the queer community, put on by various hate groups, is setting a narrative for a community that just isn’t true. Not every one has to love or be a fan of drag, but that does not give any the right to spread hate, harm, or threaten people for the simple fact of disagreement.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Aside from the outward rewards, the most rewarding this is my personal self growth. Doing drag I have learned so much about myself as a person, and being able to accept and love myself for who I am. As many queer people know, self discovery is a journey that is never ending. Having drag as an outlet to express the things about myself that I was told to hide growing up is an eye opening experience, that I will forever be grateful for,

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shea.dheaux/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shea.dheaux/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shea.dheaux?lang=en

Image Credits
Argonian Photography & Eerie Horror Fest