Congratulations –

CITR-FM: Max Collins - Dragged Out

Dragged Out is a series, first and foremost, about drag in Vancouver. It follows the sudden disappearance of about a half-dozen drag venues over the span of a year. Host and producer Max Collins spoke with over 20 performers, venue owners, city planners, and others involved in the community to understand why, in a time where drag is at its most popular, no space is being made for the art form in a city that claims to be a refuge for queer folks. The series is, at once, a multi-episode documentary series and a mini-documentary per episode. It takes several deep dives into topics that explain the current state of drag culture in Vancouver - things like the new-found popularity of non-binary drag, the rich history of Vancouver’s queer and trans activism, the nuanced rivalry between two drag neighbourhoods, and the defiant, resilient nature of DIY drag venues. Each episode unravels a unique piece of the history in Vancouver’s drag community in order to give listeners a deep understanding of drag’s place in queer artistic expression, and to outline the struggles that queer folks and their allies still face today when trying to uphold space for queer artistic expression. The episode submitted for this category is an in-depth analysis of the rise and fall of one such space-making ally. In this episode, we hear the story of club owner Jenn Mickey and the two clubs she owned in the heyday of drag in Vancouver’s gay village. To keep with the theme of uplifting queer voices, Dragged Out producer Max Collins focused on telling Jenn’s story through the perspectives of drag performers who worked out of Jenn’s clubs instead of going directly to the source. This allows for a more intimate, well-rounded look into how the establishment (and ultimately, the demise) truly affected the livelihood of queer performers in the city. All-in-all, this episode is a perfect example of how Dragged Out does a documentary-style deep look into a specific storyline to explain how gentrification and displacement of queer spaces is a pressing issue in Vancouver. To hear more episodes, listen online at draggedoutpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. -- Max Collins is an award-winning Calgary-born producer and podcaster based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada. During her first four years in radio, she has created and overseen production of over a dozen podcast series. Her background in campus and community radio gives her a unique perspective on storytelling, while also having experience with high-quality, commercial audio production. Max takes a keen interest in recounting niche stories in digestable pieces, and her reporting on alternative culture has won accolades on the national level.

Check out the award-winning submission!