Jessica L'Whor
"I would consider 2024 to be the best year of my career," says Jessica L'Whor.L'Whor is one of those people you instantly gravitate to — and not just because of her extravagant lewks and vivacious, welcoming personality. L'Whor has that unidentifiable star quality, and she's used it not only to her own advantage, but for the good of others. A preeminent drag artist, she's amplified the local scene year after year, and in 2024, she says, "I feel like I had multiple successes every month in some way."
Actually, in many ways. She started the year by being named an artist to watch by South by Southwest; in February, L'Whor hosted her annual Drag Initiative and Variety Awards (DIVAs), an event she created in 2018 that celebrates the "freshest faces" in drag as well as the tongue-in-cheek "not so fresh faces," honoring longtime drag artists. The annual affair set the perfect tone for a busy year, which for L'Whor included constant performing, curating, event producing, networking, content creation, marketing and so much more. At this point, L'Whor's work goes far beyond a full-time job, and she's cultivated a team of ten-plus people who help make it all possible.
L'Whor has also widened her reach with her "Ask a Queen" video series on social media, in which she gives passersby a dollar if they ask her a good question. "We tried it, and it ended up really taking off so well that we started doing them every month," she says. "We've taken it on the road to Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Longmont, Boulder, Greeley, here in Denver on the streets or at events — anywhere that we can go.
"I did want to take it to the Trump rally when he was here," she adds with a laugh. "It didn't work out...but I'm not scared to go into any space!"
By then, though, she already had a successful summer under her bejeweled belt. L'Whor was included as a guest on Eric Andre's tour stop here in June, then performed for the tenth time at PrideFest, which was celebrating fifty years. And all year long, she had sold-out performances and events at such venues as Meow Wolf, where she appeared consistently with members of Haus L'Whor. Yes, Jessica is (obviously) a mother: More than eleven years into her career, she now has four drag children — Sassalina BlueChilde, Talia Tucker L'Whor, Foxxy L'Whor, Krisa Gonna L'Whor — and "two on the way," she says. "Jessica has been feeling the mama bug. I'm always on the lookout and scouting."
That's easy to do when you're as immersed in the scene as L'Whor, who is also bringing performers together in a new series she launched last year: Colorado's Next Drag Superstar. The series saw eleven drag artists, including kings and queens, performing at X Bar each weekend from August through September to win the titular crown, accompanied by an array of prizes. "The feedback that I got was overwhelmingly positive, with the amount of people that are excited for a second season," she says. "This is probably one of the first competitions I'd say in our state that there hasn't been an uproar of people at the end. They were positive and reciprocative and just energetic about the winner — no drama. It made people excited for season two."
L'Whor is already planning this year's DIVAs as well as Colorado's Next Drag Superstar and, "of course, I'm somebody that can't keep it the same," she says. "I have to level up and make it bigger and better."
She'll also have a tour of her own: "I am planning an Ask a Queen a Question Tour, where I'm going to pop up in a couple cities each month and do a show and Ask a Queen and encourage people to come and find me. I was also really thankful to sign with a grand management company, and they're already setting up so many amazing opportunities for the next tour."
That means more red-carpet moments, premiere events and travels around the country. But no matter where she goes, L'Whor's heart is with the Denver drag community.
"I think that Denver gets overlooked a lot when it comes to artists that we have on an out-of-state-representation level," she says. "But I feel like in Denver, we push each other. ... Everyone's supportive of everyone. Everyone's leveling up. I think it's something that makes Denver special. There's so much talent here. Somebody just has to really put a spotlight on it a bit more."
And L'Whor will do just that in 2025. — Emily Ferguson
Chloé Duplessis's Sister Rosetta was at the Blair Caldwell African American Research Library.
Courtesy of Helen H. Richardson
Chloé Duplessis
In December, Chloé Duplessis received the Mayor's Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture...just five years after she moved here with a fresh diagnosis of Stargardt disease, which rendered her legally blind. But Duplessis quickly made her mark. As a historian who's worked in higher education and government, her projects center on history and accessibility; before winning the Mayor's Award, she designed the city's first accessible "I Voted" sticker, which used Braille, a high-visibility color scheme and ASL; she also co-created the "Holding Hope" mural in the alley behind Denver Central Market. But that's not all: In March, Duplessis installed a fiber-art piece of nearly 300 handmade flowers at the Center for Colorado Women's History called The Prayer Closet, which honored the tradition of creating sacred spaces for praying; in June, she unveiled an installation about Sister Rosetta Tharpe at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, which included multimedia images, a garden sculpted from records by Tharpe and her contemporaries, an Afrofuturist dress that Duplessis sewed with twine, and more. At the end of the year, Duplessis was named History Colorado's Colorado Black History Research Program Manager, a role that will see the artist/historian further engaging with the community she holds dear. — Ferguson
Joshua Emerson
Before she passed away in 2019, Joshua Emerson's mother urged him to follow his heart...and to write. So he moved to Denver from the Western Slope, founded DeadRoom Comedy a year later, and is now an established presence in the local comedy scene. But he hasn't left his Navajo roots behind: He continues working to create a bridge between the Native and comedy communities, producing all-Native comedy shows here and in Los Angeles for the Netflix Is a Joke festival, a journey that is covered in a new documentary he created with Jeff Stonic called Bad Indian. The film screened at the prestigious Native American film festival LA Skins Fest in November, generating buzz before showings later in the year. During just five years in the Mile High City, Emerson has become a real force. As he notes: “Storytelling leads to empathy, which leads to community.” — Ferguson
Taylor McFadden is a rising Denver filmmaker.
Taylor McFadden
Taylor McFadden
Denver filmmaker Taylor McFadden has been a star in the local scene for years, thanks to her steady output of short films and music videos — including work that has been featured in Rolling Stone (her video for Nicole Atkins's "Domino") and won a Rising Star award at the Canada International Film Festival (her short "Loose Ends"). McFadden made her biggest splash last year, though, with Lovers. Her debut feature, it screened at the Denver Film Festival in November, and its tender portrayal of old friends reuniting in a fictional Denver dive bar (which looks suspiciously like the hi-dive) portends much promise for McFadden's second feature, which she'll be working on throughout 2025. — Jason Heller
Danielle SeeWalker next to her newest painting, which will be shipped off to a show in Philadelphia.
Christian Hundley
