Here are 20+ awesome happenings in our biweekly event guide for the end of January 2024
Bi the Way is our biweekly event list where we share all the best local LGBTQ+ and queer-inclusive happenings in Memphis and the Midsouth in the next two weeks. This round, we’re closing out January with powerful plays, a Paris Is Burning screening, the Pegasus Ball, and more!
Ongoing
Greater Illinois | TheatreWorks | January 12th – January 28th, 2024, various times | All ages | General Admission, $25 | NewWorks@TheWorks winner of the season, Greater Illinois, weaves two stories about fear, race, and homophobia into a poignant play that challenges what justice can look like when you consider intersectionality.
Drag Race Watch Party at DRUS Bar | Fridays, 7PM | 21+ | Free | Join host India Taco as you cheer on your fave drag performers every Friday, til’ RuPaul crowns season 16’s winner!
Two Gallery Shows at Crosstown | The West Gallery at Crosstown Arts | Tuesday–Friday, 10AM – 8PM; Saturday 10AM – 6PM; Sunday noon– 6PM | All ages | Free and open to the public. | Artist’s Coe Lapossy’s show, “But Then, Suddenly, I Was Looking From the Inside Out,” and Ahmad George’s “The Molasses Man & Other Delta Tales” are on view through Sunday, January 21, 2024. Check them out while you still can!
Drag Mondays | Lamplighter | 21+ | No Cover | Come see local drag performers every Monday at Lamplighter. Don’t forget your cash tips!
Thursday, January 18th
Shantay You Play Drag Queen Bingo | Moxy | 7PM – 9PM | 21+ | Free | Every month, Bingo Queen herself, Imagene Azengraber, hosts a fabulous night of bingo at the Moxy. Come for the singing, dancing and fun, and you might even win a prize!
Friday, January 19th
Men In Black | OUT Memphis, YEC | 5PM | ages 18-24 | Queer folks 18-24 gather for a fun movie night at the Youth Emergency Center. And get ready for MIB 2 Friday, January 26th!
National SnowQueen and SnowKing Revue + Pageant | DRUS | Jan 19th Revue at 7PM, Jan 20-21 Pageant, 6PM| | Revue, free – Pageants – $25 | Find out who will be crowned in the 2024 National Snow Court! First, join the 2023 court for the inside scoop at the Revue, then watch drag performers Lauren St. James, Tanner Shiver, Tareal Davenport Phillips, Freak Nasty and Kiera Mason strut for the crown, closing out with awards for the 2024 National Snow Queen and Snow King at Large on Sunday, January 21st.
UTOPIA | DRUS | 21+ | 9PM to 12AM | $10 | Brinka HoneyDew, Mariah Dagoat Kelly, Imagene Azengraber, Eliza Meow-Onyx Davenport and Krystal Karma star in an amazing drag show hosted by Moth Moth Moth!
Sunday, January 21st
LgbTV, Queer Cinema Night | Black Lodge | 18+ | 7PM | Free to all | This monthly showcase features some most iconic LGBTQ+ movies from across time. This month, host Mars Mckay brings us the award-winning, culture-shifting documentary Paris Is Burning.
Wednesday, January 24th
Focus Meet & Greet Happy Hour | DRUS | 5PM – 8PM | 21+ | No Cover, RSVP here | Join us for mocktails, cocktails, and tasty food as you get to know the new staff and learn more about our vision for 2024.
Friday, January 26th
Coe Lapossy: School of Ool opening reception | Clough-Hanson Gallery (Rhodes College) | 5PM – 7PM | All ages | Free | Multimedia artist Coe Lapossy revisits artifacts of queerness wedged within a seemingly straight world in their new show, on view at Rhodes through March 22nd.
Men In Black II | OUT Memphis, YEC | 5PM | ages 18-24 | Maybe you caught the first MIB first one, but if not, no worries! The Youth Emergency Center is hosting another movie night for this funny alien sci fi’s sequel.
Rainbow Rumble REMIX: Part 3| Black Lodge | 8:00 PM | 18+ | Tickets start at $15 | Moth Moth Moth, AKA Magical Miss Mothie, brings a champion showcase of drag performers co-hosted by Season 1 Champion Shiklina.
Winter Ball | 901 Event Center | 9PM – 3AM | 21+ | Tickets start at $23 | Wear your best at the 1st Annual LGBT Winter Ball brought to you by Memphis-based DJ Raccz.
Saturday, January 27th
In the Words of Langston Hughes | Opera Memphis | Saturday, January 27 at 7:30PM and Sunday, January 28 at 3PM | All ages | $25 | Variations on a Theme presents “In the Words of Langston Hughes,” an evening of opera, musical theater, and vocal music in all its forms.
Mardi Gras Ball XXI The Mystic Krewe of Pegasus Ball | Minglewood Hall | 7 PM |18+ |General Admission, $65. | Tables start at $800. | Tickets | The Mystic Krewe and host, Action News 5’s Kym Clark, are bringing us a night of Memphis LGBTQIA+ celebration that will raise funds for the local nonprofit, Friends For All, as well as the Tennessee Equality Project. Learn more!
Big Top Tease: Time Warp | DRUS | 10:30PM | 21+| Starting at $12.51 | Head to DRUS after the Pegasus Ball for a night of drag, burlesque, live singing, fire shows, circus acts!
Sunday, January 28th
Breaking the Rules: Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown | Dixon | 2PM – 3PM | All ages | Free | These two artists, based in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1940s and early 1950s, met and became a couple in 1952. Paul Wonner (1920 – 2008) and William “Theophilus” Brown (1919 – 2012) both began as practitioners of a style that came to be known as Bay Area Figuration. Learn more.
Seniors Out for Coffee | Withers Collection Museum | 1PM – 3PM | For LGBTQ+ Seniors | Free | Fellowship with the OUT Memphis Seniors committee at the Withers Museum, a gallery and archival center on Beale Street (that features nearly 2 million images!), this month. Email seniors@outmemphis.org for more.
Rising Star ReVue | DRUS | 6PM | 21+ | No cover | This show features some seriously talented new ‘Broadway Babies,’ including November’s Rising Star, ZOLOFT!
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