The “reading is fundamental” jokes write themselves with this story.
RuPaul has shared a lot about his life and his philosophies in interviews, on TV, and even in past books, but now he’s getting ready to put it all out there in even greater detail.
The Emmy and Tony winner has announced his definitive memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings, slated to drop early next year.
The TV star took to Instagram to announce the book, revealing the exciting project via a video that sees him speaking to the camera without any makeup or fantasy lighting, perhaps mimicking how raw he’ll be in the tell-all.
“After two and a half years, it’s finally here: My memoir,” the host stated in the short clip, adding that he is both “so excited and so anxious at the same time, because I really reveal so much of myself. You know, this world today. It feels so hostile and such a scary place to be vulnerable in. But I did it, so get ready.”
RuPaul had some fun talking about the memoir in the video’s caption. “Writing this book left me gooped, gagged and stripped raw,” he wrote.
The queen of all drag queens also opined that “I’ve learned that vulnerability is strength, but so far, all I feel is nervous as hell, yet super excited to share it with y’all. When all is said and done, it’s just me, Ru.”
“RuPaul strips away all artifice and recounts the story of his life with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography,” reads a synopsis of the book. “From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his life-story, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history.”
One very important topic is missing from that description: the TV show that catapulted him to superstardom, taking him from the gay world to the main stage at the Emmys and beyond.
Apparently, The House of Hidden Meanings only focuses on the first several decades of RuPaul’s life and career, and it stops before he launches RuPaul’s Drag Race. This is an odd choice, and one that fans buying a copy should be aware of.
The House of Hidden Meanings is expected to be released on March 4, 2024 through HarperCollins.
The title will be RuPaul’s fourth book, following Lettin It All Hang Out: An Autobiography; Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style; and GuRu.
"We're expecting it to be more of a local crowd than typical, just because we have WorldPride around the corner," says Sean Morris of next weekend's Cherry -- dubbed The Cherry Element -- which is aiming for a more intimate vibe than usual.
"And since it's going to be a more local crowd," the board president of the Cherry Fund continues, "we wanted to embrace the local DJ community and give our local DJs more opportunities. So Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all have a local DJ that will be doing the opening set for the big names that we're bringing in."
DJ Jake Maxwell kicks things off Friday, April 11, at DC9 (1940 9th St. NW) along with headliner Oral Sabag. DJ Tezrah will get the party started Saturday, April 12, at BETTE (1235 W St. NE), a relatively new medium-sized space in Brentwood complex that once housed BET Studios.
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Arts & Entertainment
Bethesda Fine Arts Festival
Mosaic Theatre: cullud wattah
Signature Theatre: In the Heights
The Smithsonian Craft Show
Washington National Opera: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
"This is the first time I've had a role for this long," gasps Ryan Bernier. "We just hit our 300th performance of the show in Detroit in January!"
The show is Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue, a warmly loving, gut-bustingly funny stage parody of the hit NBC series that ran for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992, and lives on in perpetuity in reruns. Bernier portrays Dorothy, made iconic by the indomitable and legendary late Bea Arthur, for whom the 6'3" actor is also a dead ringer.
To prepare for the role, which Bernier plays in full drag, he "consumed everything that Bea Arthur had ever done -- and we're talking from Maude to her brief gig on the Star Wars Holiday Special to her brief voiceover role in Futurama. She was a performer who really found a way to bring all of the tools in her toolbox to every project that she picked up.
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