By Kevin Ferrisi –
For Rozz Aura, the essence of drag has been in her blood from a young age. She has been doing makeup since around the age of thirteen. Her first time ever trying out drag was in September of 2018 while attending college at Florida Atlantic University in Florida, and her first time performing in drag was in April of 2019. She considers herself doing drag for four years now, but more seriously for the last two, as her first two years, she started off slowly because she was still attending school. Once she graduated from the university, she decided to sink her teeth directly in and really put herself out there as a drag artist.
Rozz started dancing when she was only ten years old, but even before then, her mom and aunt recognized that she had something special and often tried to persuade her into dance classes, until one day she finally agreed. She fell in love with the art of dance very quickly and loved how she felt when she would perform. It came naturally to her and she would often be reprimanded for lip-syncing during her dance numbers. Rozz recalls, “I can remember my dance teachers being like ‘stop lip-syncing, we love your expressions but stop lip-syncing’ and have been lip-syncing since.”
One day, Rozz had a realization that her passion for doing makeup was just as significant for her passion for dancing, so much so that, in 2018, she decided that she would combine the two and start performing as a drag artist. Rozz thinks back on her childhood and recalls always being expressive, and dance was the first thing she latched onto, always loving to perform. Rozz shared, “I used to think I started drag just because I love to dance and truly love to perform and entertain but looking back as like this more grown person now, as a trans woman, now I’m like, oh my God, I had all these underlying issues that I didn’t really know was happening.” Drag was the accumulation of all the things that Rozz felt made her strong and it helped her to realize that “drag was kind of my way of just being like, okay, this is me; this is who I am.” She always felt she might be a transgender woman but drag helped her to say it out loud and face it.
The name ‘Rozz’ is an homage to her grandmother. Rozz explains, “I didn’t know what named to pick and one of the fiercest women, one of the most beautiful souls I know is my grandmother whose name is Roz.” Rozz looked up to her grandmother, who was a big influence on her growing up, “she used to take us to school and have on her full mink coat and have the nails done and the leather gloves ready. She’s a diva. So I was like, who better.” Performing at an open stage here and there, she went by the name Roz Rimm, yes with one z and two m’s. When Rozz first starting doing drag in Florida, she was raised into the world of it by her drag mother, Ariel Rimm.
After moving to Connecticut, Rozz felt she had grown as a person and decided to drop the last name and have more of a one word name to make a greater impact and went by Miss Rozz. Shortly thereafter, Miss Rozz and her first drag daughter, Xiomara A. Aura, started the Haus of Aura, and she then took the name Miss Rozz Aura. Last year, she entered the local drag competition Chez Legends during season 10 and went on to win the finale. Winning such gave her a spot in the following Chez Legends All Stars 2023 and she won the crown and title as Mx. Chez Est 2023. It was at this time she decided to officially dub herself as just Rozz Aura. She explained, “I worked very hard. It was very awesome to see my efforts pay off finally and even if I didn’t win, I was proud of myself. From then on, I felt this new sense of self, if you will, and assurance of who I am as a performer, so Miss Rozz, to me, is like a different bitch to me now. I’m Rozz Aura now and I very much feel like the mother of my house.”
Mother of the Haus of Aura, Rozz has four drag children: her first born Xiomara A. Aura, followed by Vypra Aura, Moxie Angel and her newest drag baby Onixx. This drag family also includes Astra, drag sister to Rozz. Rozz is proud of her drag family, “I couldn’t be more grateful for them. We truly are family. I very much feel that my house is like my family. We’re involved as much as we are in each other’s drag lives as we are outside of that in our everyday lives. The dolls and my other kids are all always at my apartment and we all just like hanging out, stoning outfits, and doing hair.” ‘The Dolls’ referring to Rozz, Astra and Moxie who dubbed themselves the name. Looking back on her drag career, she feels her drag family and the Haus of Aura is her greatest pride and doesn’t know where she would be without the love and support of her drag family.
Rozz would describe her drag as being very feminine because she always felt very feminine growing up. Her drag emphasizes bold movement through dance that she described as show-stopping. While these attributes excite an audience on the outside, Rozz speaks about the emotion on the inside, “Not just dance movement but like feelings movement too, and emotion. During a lot of my drag performances when I’m on the stage, I’ll go through these instances, where I’m like, oh my God, the energy is so high right now and I look pissed on stage but it’s literally because a lot of my numbers are dedicated to things I’ve gone through, so I’m releasing trauma and whatnot. I’m so in tune with my emotions when I’m on the stage that sometimes I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Drag has allowed Rozz to heal from certain things in her past such as heartbreaks, societal conditioning and childhood trauma. It has helped her to become more self-aware, which has allowed her to be there for someone else who may have or are experiencing the things she went through. When she is on stage performing and sees the crowd is living for her performance, she says, “It’s a lot of emotion. When I see people smiling at me and cheering for me, like I don’t want to seek validation from other people but that validation just makes me feel like I’m doing something right in a world where I’ve been conditioned to feel wrong about everything that makes me who I am as a whole human being.”
The art of drag has also taught Rozz to be more sure of herself and to put herself first by not neglecting her needs before others. It has taught her to be proud of her work, to push through and keep at it, and has given her a new sense of work ethic. She has learned through drag to hold herself accountable, “Drag taught me such a new sense of hard work and how refreshing it is to work hard and hold yourself up to a certain standard, because you’re just going to keep pushing yourself, more and more, and then reach it.”
Rozz offers some great advice for a newcomer to drag. She suggests someone trying out drag for the first time to take it slow. She says, “Take it slow and try out different kinds of music and feel it out. It’s not all about being fish or being all rhinestoned-out. While it is a part of it, I feel like it’s very much about finding who you are and what you want to express. So, I think finding what you want to express or portray with your drag is one of the first steps to move forward in becoming a stronger performer.” She suggests continuing to perform over and over, make those mistakes that will turn into learning moments, and build a thick skin.
Rozz is determined to keep growing as a performer and ultimately hopes to one day make it onto RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her biggest goal is to be able to elevate her drag to the next level in the entertainment industry which would provide her a platform to travel abroad and share her art on a larger scale. She is also proud to be able to continue to share her evolution as a drag artist and as a proud trans woman, as she is rediscovering what drag means to her and how being trans influences how it is she does drag. “My drag has very much changed a lot. Like there’s going to be a lot of ponytails. There’s going to be a lot of hair pieces, no more wigs. I’m growing my hair out and I’m just really proud to have the family base and the personal security to put my transness on the platform that I do.”
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