Funeral Queen

The link between grief and drag performance is, perhaps, not an obvious one. But things are not often what they seem in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The ghosts of Santa Fe wander it’s winding streets, as if they never left. And, so it is with drag performer and Funeral Ambassador, Paul Valdez De Polley and his drag persona, Marie Antoinette du Barry who learned to sew in his grandmother’s dress shop and prepared for her death by creating an elaborate a Victorian funeral gown to wear to her funeral, only to be pushed off by the priest celebrating her funeral mass. But, what starts as a story of prejudice and pain transforms into a timeless tale of love and tradition and how that one special person can transform a life, even from beyond the grave — touching their hearts, filling their souls and, even, inspiring their art.