Now in its third year, the Creative Exchange Fund, curated by The Medium in Springdale, supports local artists by providing financial support and a space to take creative risks. KUAF is partnering with The Medium to profile some of this year's 37 multidisciplinary artists. We'll hear about their art, their process and what it means to be a creative person in Northwest Arkansas right now.
Jasmine McMasters started performing as their alter ego JasMania at drag shows in Austin, Texas, in 2023. Now, as part of the Creative Exchange Fund, they are bringing their signature performance art piece Banned Bodies to The Medium this weekend.
"So my name is Jasmine McMasters, or Jas. I perform under the name JasMania. I'm a drag king, but I also have a background in art education. In particular, the last two years I've been focusing on drag in relation to gender identity in the body as a tool for learning.
"So the event that I'm producing is called Banned Bodies. I describe it as a punk mutual aid party. So it combines local punk music with local alternative drag. And I began the project in Austin 2023 with my drag mom, the Trans Era. It also always has a mutual aid component to it. So we aim to bring together people who face persecution based off of their bodily status or their identity. And we always raise money for a local organization. So local music, local drag and local activism.
"So I began doing drag in 2021, I believe, so about five years ago. And before that, I had a background in painting and 2D arts. And then I moved to Austin and COVID happened and my art practice really dropped off simultaneously. At that time in my adult life, I came out as queer and non-binary. But I was presenting still socially in my life as a woman. And I hadn't been able to experiment with my gender very much or get to exercise my queerness or feel comfortable in that.
"And so I started going to drag shows in Austin and got really interested in the form because it combined comedy and performance, but also you can make your own costumes, your wigs, your props. And it also is a form of storytelling, which really interested me because I've always been into that kind of form. When I got into grad school, it became a research methodology as well. So it's become really integral to who I am as a person and as an artist. And I find that the line between me and JasMania just gets more and more blurred.
"I began teaching drag king workshops in graduate school. And when I was doing that, that's how I saw it, was I was trying to lead somebody through a process of self-selection within their gender identity or presentation. And when I am performing, I see myself as using that as an educative platform, because in that moment, I'm showing somebody a different way of existing queerly, because for me, when I was going to drag shows, it's a very powerful moment when you see somebody on stage, not only showing up in this other way of being, but also being celebrated by the crowd.
"When you're at a drag show and people are making it rain on a performer, it's more than just, it's a really fun action. But I felt really moved in those moments too, because as a community, we're showing we're putting value in stock in that, you know. And in these moments, in these drag shows, we're also building a world where we get to determine what our values are in that space. And temporarily in that space, we can be free on our own terms.
"Banned Bodies is definitely a political show that reads itself in the idea that all drag is political. And it was born out of noticing an overlap between punk scenes and drag scenes. And DIY anarchism and DIY, not just being do it yourself, but that you don't have to do it alone, that you're building this community together. Self autonomy, basically.
"Drag kind of exists in this other territory outside of, I feel like, art and performance, because it's not theater, it's not necessarily always considered a formal art practice. And so it's this third other thing that granted a lot of freedom, but also a struggle I feel like I've had is to legitimize it in a way and to make people recognize its worth beyond a form of entertainment.
"To me, it also can exist in a publicly accessible space. So for me, drag, one of the wonderful things about it is that it doesn't remain in a gallery or an institution. It's happening in bars and nightclubs, also in community spaces, when you have pride. This one is happening in a theater and arts organization space. And so it's more accessible, I think, to people, and it's approachable. And so in that way, you get to be exposed to an art form that doesn't have a lot of gatekeeping to it.
"And so if I was able to craft my research into a drag show, then it was able to be put in front of people that weren't going to go and log into a database and read a 100 page document. It's an art form that isn't formalized, for better or for worse. And so it can be tapped into by all sorts of people. And I feel like it's kind of a great equalizer.
"Another thing with it is that it kind of breaks down the hierarchy of a room, because with theater, you have the audience and they're watching a performer on the stage. But with drag, you're doing a lot of crowd work and you're going into the audience, you're interacting with people. I see that paralleled with teaching as well. You know, I don't want to be a teacher who stands in front of a room and teaches to my students as if they're an audience. I want to go and interact with them. So I think that crowd engagement with drag also models different forms of relationships.
"Drag is a very hot topic right now and it gets wrapped up. We've seen a really big explosion in anti-trans legislation right now that bans teaching the subject in K through 12 and even higher ed banning DEI, things like that. But drag gets wrapped up in that as well because it is this public subversion of gender and is seen as unnatural. And so it gets put into that mix too.
"Luckily, I feel like in Northwest Arkansas, I've found a lot of spaces where I can do this work. And I haven't faced a lot of pushback. And I had a really awesome experience in grad school where my professors embraced everything that I brought to it.
"But this show was created because I wanted a space of queer rage and joy and those kind of being side by side. And it's based in platforming trans artistry in the music and the drag, but also recognizing that our struggles are interwoven across trans rights, immigrant rights, disability rights, different people who face persecution based off of, like I said, the bodily status or identity, because most of this is driven towards trying to create a heteronormative image that is rooted in white supremacy. And so we are all kind of subjected to this oppression.
"You see this in ways. It comes with anti-trans bills, where people who don't subscribe to, their gender presentation doesn't align with an ideal, they are also affected by these bills as trans people too. So people being thrown out of locker rooms, people being approached in bathrooms. So it's limiting how you can go about and how you can exist. And so those bills aren't really necessarily protecting you from the scary image of trans people that's being created. It's also dictating and limiting how you can be.
"And a lot of these bills are targeting education and educative spaces. And so it's not just saying you can't teach these subjects, but it's limiting the ways you can teach in the classroom in terms of what you can imagine being, it limits how you can teach a way of life and living, not just we can't say gay in the classroom. So it bleeds into a lot of different subject areas.
"But in the past, Banned Bodies has raised money for abortion access, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, transgender affirming care funds. And then this round, this is the first time we're doing it here in Arkansas. We'll be donating all the proceeds to Alliance for Immigrant Respect and Education.
"One of the catch phrases for Banned Bodies is banned bodies band together. And that simple phrase kind of sums up what Banned Bodies is about, which is bringing folks together, uniting us over a shared cause, and recognizing that our struggles are interwoven."
Jasmine McMasters, or JasMania, presents Banned Bodies at The Medium in Springdale on Saturday night, beginning at seven.
The Creative Exchange series is produced by KUAF Public Radio in partnership with The Medium. Support for this project comes from the Tyson Family Foundation. The Medium and the Creative Exchange Fund are projects of the Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange, or CACHE. For more about this project and for more about the 2025/2026 recipients, you can visit themedium.art/cxf.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
