Color photograph taken by Chris Attig Blue Bus Photos showing Arkansas Drag Queen Melanie Masters performing drag during an entertainment intermission at the 2023 Miss Gay Central Arkansas America Drag Pageant in Conway, Arkansas, while carrying dollar bills in one hand and wearing reflective jewelry on the other hand.

“Dimensions.”

To me, Drag is fully-integrated performance art.

It is multi-dimensional self-expression, story-telling, character-building, and costume-design of the highest order.

Around my way.

In this project, I seek out in my neighborhood what Talib Kweli wrote of his:

“…this is a legacy and we a part of that, the ‘hood is where my heart is at, catch me around my way.”

Black and white photograph of old wooden doors covering new windows on house restoration in Dunbar neighborhood in Little Rock, Arkansas

The blue bus is callin’ us
Driver, where you taking us?

The killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived
And then he paid a visit to his brother
And then he, he walked on down the hallway
And he came to a door
And he looked inside

“Father?”
“Yes, son?”
“I want to kill you”
“Mother, I want to…”

color photograph of a scene from the movie Champions the Film about a special needs basketball team

Counting.

On July 19, 2022, I began counting. I started with the number 1…

“Sabbath for the Forest.”

For 2 years, I sought refuge from the cruelty of Arkansans in the beauty along the Arkansas River.

color photograph of sunrise on the Arkansas River from the junction bridge near the Bill Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas