FLAMER muse: ARIEL, HARSH BABE
“i love being a woman,”says 27-year-old Ariel,“but more than that i love being a high femme hairy fabulous loud and nasty dyke and i love the spaces created to celebrate women and femmes of all kinds!”
as seen in DAZED: Doll Invasion 2024
35mm photos by Matías Alvial
Q+A with arts educator + community organizer + drag queen, Ariel aka Harsh Babe
women's history month edition
;)
women's history month edition ;)
★ what does being a flamer mean to you?
Ariel: loud, gay, fabulous, long nails, lots of sparkles, hot, hot pink, annoying, colorful, political, funny, bold, smart, but also not afraid to be stupid, confident, honest, a down bitch.
Chlomosexual Presents…Pride Eve 2024
35mm photos by Paloma Huntington-Ortega
★ dream blunt rotation?
Ariel: Lady Gaga, Rupaul, Jennifer Coolidge, and Them's new Editor-in-Chief, Fran Tirado
FLAMER 420 picnic 2024 (from left to right) Ariel, Fran Tirado, Justin J. Wee
35mm photos by Matías Alvial
★ what is it like working with Gender Liberation Movement (GLM)?
Ariel: i love being in an organizing space where i am never expected to compromise on my values, where in fact, i am respected for my political integrity. at GLM's core, we are all encouraged to be brave and loud about our beliefs, even if its seen as the politically unpopular thing to do: whether it's standing up against complicit establishment Democrats, tell the people not to comply in advance to fascism, or unapologetically stand in solidarity with our Queer and Trans Palestinian siblings.
35mm photos by Paloma Huntington-Ortega
★ what was your drag journey like?
Ariel: the first time I ever went out in drag was for a college protest I was putting on with a group called RAD FUN (Radical Anti-Capitalist Deviants For a United something or other???) in 2018 where we basically paraded around the entire University of Michigan campus up in drag with signs yelling about whatever the fuck we wanted: "Queer Liberation, Not Rainbow Capitalism," "Hands Off Syria," "Queer Commies," and the like, while chanting "Out of the closets and into the streets" as we crashed the army's ROTC graduation ceremony and other college happenings around the town with our runway walk of baby drag queens, a stolen shopping cart, a bluetooth speaker blasting gay pop, and our fun radical dreams. this was my first time trying out daytime drag, poppers and where I met my drag mother, Ariana Grindr. it was a formative event for all those reasons!
after that, i performed under the name Daya Bee-Dee around Michigan with the Haus of Grindr. even though I now perform as Harsh Babe, the name taken from my mom's college girl group, being a type one diabetic still has influence on my art. it's what started my obsession with cakes and baking at a young age, since after my diagnosis my mom stopped baking with me at home for fear it would wreck havoc on my blood sugars. i used to just be really into baking and cake decorating, which i still am.
FLAMER THE PARTY 2023 (from left to right) Luke Michalak, HAZYL, Ariel
35mm photos by Paloma Huntington-Ortega
“now i like to make fake cakes-and-sweets-inspired-fashion and home decor, almost as immortal idols to the sugary gods in my mind.”
★ what woman inspires you the most?
Ariel: Lady Gaga - they can never make me hate her!
Chlomosexual Presents…Pride Eve 2024
35mm photos by Paloma Huntington-Ortega
★ how does your identity impact your work?
“being an organization somewhat infamous for their white male image, i sometimes found it hard to be the only loud young woman in the room. but over the years, i learned to feel more proud of my femininity in the organization.”
Ariel: for many years, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) NY was my organizing home before i found GLM. if you look around at the lasting leadership still present in ACT UP today, its primarily people of color and women of color leading the way, which i think shows a testament to the power of marginalized voices in queer organizing spaces, even though they are often erased by contemporary discourse and false historical narratives of what these movements really look like.
35mm photos by Matías Alvial
★ how does your creativity + art tie into your activism work?
Ariel: i like to consider myself a card carrying member of the party party. as I was taught, "the role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible." i truly believe that it is impossible to build our queer utopia without creating those small moments and spaces of queer liberation into our movements, direct actions and other protests, and this is where i come in. maybe inspired by my drag queen origin story that kicked off both my drag and political trajectory, i work best in activism camps where my fun-loving, artistic, queer-as-hell-heart can shine. this includes bedazzled banner drops, wheatpasting the lesbian bar, drag queen sign language interpreters, organizing with queer nightlife icons, and any other moments of queer creativity i can weave into our work.
FLAMER x Creative Time Gala Afterparty 2023
35mm photos by Matías Alvial
★ any last words?
Ariel: remember to D.R.E.A.M, girl and gays! aka don't Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor!
follow Ariel on social (@harsh__babe) + stay tuned for more stories about our FLAMER muses ;)
