Tag: Sweet Gum Head
Remembering Atlanta drag legend Charlie Brown
Mr. Charlie Brown, the reigning queen of Atlanta drag queens, has taken her final bow. The performer died Thursday night at Piedmont Hospital from complications following heart valve replacement surgery. He was 74. For 50 years, the self-proclaimed “Bitch of the South” entertained Atlantans with his bawdy brand of comedy, withering audience monologues, and risqué musical numbers on stage at Lips Atlanta, the Atlanta Eagle, Underground Atlanta, Illusions, and dozens of other nightlight spots.
In A Night at the Sweet Gum Head, journalist Martin Padgett tells Atlanta’s overlooked queer history during the disco decade
In A Night at the Sweet Gum Head, released this month by W.W. Norton, journalist Martin Padgett sutures this context into the accounts of two main subjects: Bill Smith, who helped lead the Georgia Gay Liberation Front, worked as a city commissioner, and published the South’s leading gay newspaper, the Barb; and John Greenwell, who rose to drag stardom performing as Rachel Wells at the Sweet Gum Head nightclub.
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