By Kevin Ferrisi –
Hella Swagg comes from a time before drag became popular on television. She entered the world of modern pop culture, the era of burning CDs, and a generation of drag that came right before RuPaul’s Drag Race. From accepting the role as Middletown PrideFest 2023 Grand Marshall, to being featured on the local NBC news in June of this year, not to mention the endless roster of shows she hosts, Hella is a seasoned queen, to say the least. She has proven to be a true professional and is here to stay!
Hella Swagg has been doing drag for over twelve years, starting in January of 2011, where she got into drag for the first time to partake in a photo shoot. Back home in Massachusetts, where Hella is from, on a cold day in January, she was spending time with her close core group of friends and asked if someone would take pictures of her in drag for fun. Just a few months later, Hella found herself on stage performing for the first time as a drag queen. She often went to amateur drag shows at the former club Divas in North Hampton, MA. One night, her friends challenged her to perform on stage and a few weeks later, Hella conquered that challenge and performed for the first time, never looking back.
Having gone to school for hair and makeup, Hella was working as a hair stylist for a while, but decided it wasn’t something she wanted to do any more. However, she knew she still wanted to work in the field of beauty and fashion. She then went on to pursue a career as a professional makeup artist working on photo shoots and found she really enjoyed it.
When Hella relocated from Massachusetts to Connecticut almost three years ago, she moved to Middletown. Back home, she was always very heavily involved with her community, having a passion for political awareness and community outreach. So, when she found herself in a new home in a new state, she looked for ways to get involved and started attending the local Middletown LGBTQIA+ Commission meetings regularly. From there, she naturally grew an organic relationship working with the commission and volunteered her time in and out of drag. She would partake in the drag artist story hours, flag raising ceremonies and other special events. Hella’s dedication led to her nomination for the Middletown PrideFest 2023 Grand Marshall, for which she proudly represented this past June.
The inception of the name ‘Hella Swagg’ came from an oddly unique origin. Her sister, at the time, was dating an inspiring rapper who would describe things by using ‘hella’ as an adjective. She explained, “Everything was hella something to him, like that was just part of his thing, everything was like hella cool or hella this or hella that.” One night while Hella was out with her sister, her sister and her boyfriend were dancing and he said, “Damn baby, you got hella swag.” Hella thought that was the coolest way to compliment your significant other. Once it was decided that she was going to do drag, she knew she needed a name, and the moment stuck out in her mind. She wanted her name to be cool, sexy and to be somewhat of a pun and just loved Hella Swagg.
Hella describes her style of drag as a combination of being elegant and luxurious, but also having an element of fluidity. She explains, “I have a hard time with labels or kind of really putting a pin on what I think my drag is. I tend to go more for what it feels like as opposed to trying to look like something. I think my drag feels elegant at times and feels lux, sometimes expensive but then sometimes I like it to feel kind of hard and rough around the edges. I like to think that when I want to be really pretty, I can be really pretty, but then, when I want to be sort of the antithesis of that, I can easily do it. I’m very much more about the vibe than I am the aesthetic, more internal than external.”
For Hella, drag is really addicting. She describes doing drag as a threshold between fearfulness and fearlessness, dancing in between on a fine line. She tells us, “I know for myself, right before they call me, or before the lights go on and they’re giving me the microphone, I’m like, ‘what the hell, yeah, why did I agree to this? This is not a good idea’ while freaking out and then after I’m just like ‘oh my God, I could do this all day every day.’” When Hella is on stage giving everything she has and sees the crowd is living for her performance, she describes that moment, “When I see people interacting and enjoying my drag, I instantly enjoy my drag. It sort of kind of does it for me, my favorite part about drag isn’t even necessarily the performing aspect. I love it and okay it feeds something inside of me, but what I love more is hosting and walking around talking to people.”
Coming from a generation before social media became prevalent and a time when drag was more covert, to market drag shows you had to be more face-forward and promote yourself in person. “I’m Hella and my job is to entertain. And for me, it’s so much more than the five or six minutes on stage. I love talking to people and getting them excited about coming back to the shows and to see the other entertainers, especially in Connecticut, there is a plethora of talent here.”
Hella comes from the Casa De Tragedia, which, in Spanish, means ‘house of tragedy.’ Mother of the house is Jenayah De Rosario, close friends to RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni JuJuBee from season two and Katya from season seven. Hella had been doing drag for two years when she met Jenayah during a community outreach. They really hit it off and Jenayah asked Hella to be her drag daughter. The drag family is large and is very extended, including queens Twatiana Smashbox, Nicolette and La Changa to name a few. The family is very much like an actual family, spending a lot of time together and getting together for holidays.
It is so important for new drag artists starting out for the first time to receive advice from seasoned queens as opportunities to grow as a performer. For newcomers to the drag scene, Hella Swagg says, “Just do it!” She feels that as drag has become more mainstream and more people are getting involved with the art form, what happens is that people feel they need to emulate what they see on television. Hella says, “I would say, just do it. Just slap the makeup on, put the wig on, grab some clothes, pick the song that you want, and do it. I think a lot of what people try to do with drag, and then they feel like there’s this disconnect, is they create this character that they can’t live up to.” Hella also suggests doing what makes you feel good, “because when I feel good doing it, people will feel good responding to it because they’re going to see me having a good time on stage.”
Drag has been a great teacher for Hella Swagg. It has taught her to trust herself and trust her intuition. It has allowed her the space and freedom to explore gender identity and gender expression in a way she can’t naturally do outside of drag. Drag has helped Hella to become confident and live more authentically and unapologetically, with no fear. And above all, the art form has taught her to have fun. She explains, “I just want to have fun doing drag. I don’t really care about the money. I don’t really care about any sort of accolades or anything like that. I just want to have as much fun with as many people as I can until I can no longer.” Drag has also taught Hella to seize an opportunity and chase after what you want. She believes nothing in life is handed over to maximize every opportunity.
Keep your eye on Hella Swagg. In the future, you can continue to see her heavily involved with politics. Outside of drag, Hella works for the city of Middletown as the Assistant Democratic Registrar of Voters. Hella’s drag draws inspiration from her everyday life. She explains, “You have to live your life because it informs your drag, like my drag is political because I am political.” With so many anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being presented to Congress all the time, Hella uses her stance in and out of drag to be able to host elections, voter outreach, register voters and help people to become educated.
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