Founded in Namibia in March 2021 by Miss Mavis Dash, Gigi Has Arrived and Mo’Nick Critique, Drag Night Namibia is an LGBTQI+ arts and community organisation that uses drag, performance, music, fashion, and ballroom culture as tools for visibility, empowerment, advocacy, and social inclusion. The organisation creates safer and affirming spaces for queer creatives and community members through live events, workshops, artistic development programmes, and regional collaborations. The organisation works with queers, allies and cisgender heterosexual Namibians and World Citizens, and the movable middle.

Its core work includes:

• Producing drag shows, ballroom/vogue events, and queer-centred cultural programming;
• Supporting emerging LGBTQI+ performers, artists, DJs, designers, and entertainers through mentorship and performance opportunities;
• Using artistic activism to challenge discrimination and increase LGBTQI+ visibility in Namibia and across Southern Africa;
• Facilitating workshops and skills-development initiatives in areas such as performance, makeup artistry, fashion, MCing, and creative production;
• Building regional and international partnerships that strengthen queer artistic exchange and transnational solidarity;
• Creating community-driven platforms that promote dignity, inclusion, mental wellbeing, and creative expression for LGBTQI+ individuals.

Through projects such as Drag & Vogue Beyond Borders, Drag Night Namibia has also expanded its work into regional advocacy, international cultural exchange, and cross-border collaboration, positioning drag and ballroom culture as important tools for storytelling, resistance, and community-building in Africa.

The organisation is registered in Namibia and is currently led by Rodelio Lewis aka Miss Mavis Dash, Founder and Co-CEO, and Lize Ehlers aka DJ Rise Elders Co-CEO & Technical Director Drag Night Namibia.

Vision

The vision of Drag Night Namibia is to build a vibrant, inclusive, and empowered society where LGBTQI+ individuals, especially queer artists and performers, are free to express themselves safely, authentically, and creatively without fear of discrimination or exclusion. The organisation envisions a Namibia, and broader African creative landscape where drag, ballroom, and queer artistic expression are recognised as powerful forms of culture, storytelling, activism, and community healing. Through artistic excellence, visibility, and regional collaboration, Drag Night Namibia aims to create sustainable platforms that uplift LGBTQI+ voices, celebrate diversity, and inspire social change across communities and borders.

Mission

The mission of Drag Night Namibia is to create safe, inclusive, and empowering platforms for LGBTQI+ individuals through drag, ballroom, music, fashion, and performance arts, while advancing visibility, dignity, community wellbeing, and artistic freedom in Namibia and beyond. A central part of the organisation’s mission is to expand economic access and inclusion for queer performers and creatives who have historically faced discrimination, unemployment, exclusion, and limited professional opportunities. Drag Night Namibia works to ensure that artists are not only celebrated culturally, but are also able to access paid performance opportunities, professional development, mentorship, regional collaborations, and sustainable creative income streams.

Through events, workshops, partnerships, productions, and advocacy initiatives, the organisation seeks to:

• Develop and promote LGBTQI+ talent;
• Create pathways toward financial empowerment within the creative industry;
• Support entrepreneurship and artistic careers for queer creatives;
• Build sustainable platforms where performers are compensated fairly and professionally;
• Strengthen representation and ownership of queer African narratives within arts and culture spaces.

By combining artistic activism with economic empowerment, Drag Night Namibia aims to contribute toward a more inclusive creative economy where LGBTQI+ performers can thrive both socially and financially.

Main objectives

The goals and objectives of Drag Night Namibia are centred around artistic empowerment, LGBTQI+ visibility, community development, and economic inclusion through creative expression and performance culture.

Key goals and objectives include:

1. To create safe and inclusive spaces
   Establish affirming environments where LGBTQI+ individuals can freely express themselves through drag, ballroom, music, fashion, and performance arts without fear of discrimination or exclusion.
2. To increase LGBTQI+ visibility and representation
   Promote positive and authentic representation of queer identities in Namibia and across Africa through public performances, cultural programming, media engagement, and artistic activism.
3. To support artistic and professional development
   Provide mentorship, training, workshops, and performance opportunities that strengthen the creative, technical, and leadership skills of emerging and established queer artists.
4. To advance economic empowerment for performers
   Create pathways for LGBTQI+ creatives to access paid opportunities, sustainable income streams, entrepreneurship, and professional growth within the arts and entertainment industries.
5. To strengthen drag and ballroom culture in Namibia
   Preserve, develop, and celebrate drag and ballroom as important forms of African queer cultural expression, storytelling, and community-building.
6. To build regional and international partnerships
   Foster collaborations with organisations, festivals, activists, artists, and cultural institutions that support cross-border solidarity, exchange, and advocacy.
7. To use art as a tool for advocacy and social change
   Challenge stigma, discrimination, gender-based exclusion, and harmful social narratives through creative expression, dialogue, and community engagement.
8. To empower LGBTQI+ youth and marginalised communities
   Support young queer people and vulnerable creatives by creating opportunities for participation, leadership, confidence-building, and belonging within creative spaces.
9. To contribute toward a more inclusive creative industry
   Advocate for greater access, recognition, and fair treatment of LGBTQI+ artists within Namibia’s cultural, entertainment, and creative sectors.
10. To create sustainable community-driven programming
    Develop long-term artistic and community initiatives that continue to uplift queer voices, strengthen networks, and promote collective wellbeing across Namibia and the region.

Focus areas

The focus and thematic areas of Drag Night Namibia centre on LGBTQI+ visibility, artistic activism, creative empowerment, community wellbeing, and economic inclusion through drag, ballroom, music, fashion, and performance culture.

1. Drag and Performance Arts Development

Drag Night Namibia creates platforms for drag artists, performers, DJs, vocalists, and entertainers to showcase and develop their talents through live productions, competitions, showcases, and mentorship initiatives. These programmes strengthen professional opportunities for LGBTQI+ creatives while increasing queer representation within Namibia’s arts sector.

2. Ballroom and Vogue Culture

The organisation actively supports the growth of ballroom and vogue culture in Namibia by creating learning spaces, performance opportunities, workshops, and regional exchange programmes connected to the African ballroom community. This work promotes self-expression, confidence-building, identity affirmation, and community solidarity among queer youth and performers.

3. LGBTQI+ Visibility and Advocacy

Through artistic activism, public engagement, storytelling, and cultural programming, Drag Night Namibia challenges discrimination and promotes greater social inclusion for LGBTQI+ individuals. Performances and public events are used as tools for dialogue, awareness-building, and human rights advocacy.

4. Economic Empowerment and Creative Inclusion

A major focus area is creating economic access for LGBTQI+ performers and creatives who often face barriers to employment and financial stability. The organisation provides paid performance opportunities, skills development, mentorship, production experience, and access to regional and international artistic networks.

5. Youth Development and Skills Training

Drag Night Namibia facilitates workshops and educational programmes focused on MCing, makeup artistry, lip-sync performance, fashion design, stagecraft, music, branding, and creative entrepreneurship. These initiatives help emerging artists develop both artistic and professional skills.

6. Regional and International Cultural Exchange

Through projects such as Drag & Vogue Beyond Borders, the organisation builds partnerships with regional and international LGBTQI+ organisations, festivals, artists, and advocacy spaces. These collaborations strengthen transnational solidarity and increase visibility for Namibian queer creatives globally.

Trans and gender-diverse inclusion

Drag Night Namibia is deeply committed to creating affirming and empowering spaces for trans and gender-diverse performers within Namibia’s LGBTQI+ community. Trans artists continue to play a central role in the organisation’s programming, leadership, and visibility efforts.

Notable trans and gender-diverse performers within the Drag Night Namibia community include Coco, Miss Diamond and Queen Cleopatra. These artists have contributed significantly to the growth of drag and ballroom culture in Namibia through performance, mentorship, representation, and community engagement. Their participation within Drag Night Namibia initiatives has helped increase visibility for trans performers while challenging stigma and exclusion faced by gender-diverse individuals in both artistic and public spaces.

The organisation continues to prioritise inclusive participation, safer creative spaces, leadership opportunities, and professional development pathways for trans performers as part of its broader commitment to dignity, representation, and equality within the arts and entertainment industry.

Contact

dragnightnam@gmail.com
Facebook
Instagram

Watch our interview with Drag Night Namibia founders, Rodelio Lewis aka Miss Mavis Dash, Founder and Co-CEO, and Lize Ehlers aka DJ Rise Elders, 12 June

Drag Night Namibia in the media

On 30 July 2000, “Metamorphosis: The Remarkable Journey of Granny Lee”, directed by Luiz De Barros and produced by Underdog Entertainment and Marc Schwinges, a documentary about iconic South African trans icon, Granny Lee, was released. Granny Lee, formerly known as Leonard Malcolm Christian Du Plooy and was born on 18 March 1919 and died in 1989.

Born to a mixed race (“coloured”) family in 1908, he spent the first part of his adult life teaching at the Christian Brothers’ College in his hometown of Kimberley. Then he changed his mind. Moving to Johannesburg in his sixties, he became the club scene’s most famous drag queen known as “Granny Lee”. She lived out the rest of her life as a white woman, notorious party animal and when she died at eighty-one she became the first person of color to be buried in Johannesburg’s West Park cemetery. Granny Lee’s story merges the personal with the political, a unique and fascinating story set within the racially and sexually repressive era of apartheid South Africa. The winner of numerous awards in South Africa, Metamorphosis has been screened at film festivals throughout the world.

“Hello you bitches. You want to know about my life do you? Well I’ll have you know — like no woman or man ever have done it, I have done it all. I’ve seen it all. They called me Granny Lee — Queen of the Discos, the white queen of Africa. I was infamous! Like the star that I am I shone through them all. Stick around and I’ll tell you the real story of Granny Lee.” — Granny Lee

“METAMORPHOSIS is a documentary that explores the life of one of South Africa’s most outrageous and vibrant characters — Granny Lee. By outfitting herself with over the top costumes, heavy makeup, a foul mouth and a passion for the nightlife she became the most notorious denizen of Johannesburg’s decadent clubland in the seventies and eighties. The story of Granny Lee is a fascinating journey that merges the personal with the political. It is a life of illusion, glamour and struggle in the shadow of the racial and sexual repression of Calvinist Apartheid. Come on in, have a drink and discover the legend of Granny Lee — the granny you’ll wish you had.”

— From the Underdog Entertainment website, written by Herb Klein

“Metamorphosis is a documentary that explores the life of one of South Africa’s most outrageous and vibrant characters — Granny Lee. By outfitting herself with over-the-top costumes, heavy makeup, a foul mouth and a passion for the nightlife she became the most notorious denizen of Johannesburg’s decadent clubland in the seventies and eighties. The story of Granny Lee is a fascinating journey that merges the personal with the political. It is a life of illusion, glamour and struggle in the shadow of the racial and sexual repression of Calvinist Apartheid. Come on in, have a drink and discover the legend of Granny Lee — the granny you’ll wish you had.” — IMDB

“In 1989 an eighty-one-year-old white woman died in a car accident on a highway to Durban, South Africa. A not altogether uncommon occurrence — except for the fact that the victim was in reality neither white, a woman nor eighty-one. When Leonard Malcolm Christian Du Plooy was born on the 18th of March 1919 to a mixed race (“coloured”) family he embodied all the contradictions of a country ruled by racism and hypocrisy. The first part of his life was spent in his small hometown of Kimberley, the diamond capital of the world, teaching and becoming the dandy about town. Renowned for his dancing, piano playing and his curious habit of knitting Lee was accepted by the ladies of Kimberley but viewed with suspicion by the men. But in his thirties he’d had enough of the small town mentality. He left for Durban where he taught once again briefly, but really began to throw himself into the city’s gay seaside subculture. Soon the flamboyant Lenny was running a brothel. He was also suffering from a skin condition, which was slowly turning him white. In his fifties, tired of the constant harassment by the Durban police he moved to Johannesburg. Here in the thriving gay clubland, during the height of the apartheid system, he was accepted as a white man, which allowed him to go where he wished. The transformation into Granny Lee began when a liberated Lenny started wearing woman’s clothing when going out. Soon the persona of Granny Lee became a full time occupation. Abandoning any sense of restraint Granny Lee, now a pensioner, soon became the city’s most famous club goer and drag queen. Her outrageous antics, sharp tongue, constant boozing and self-made outfits became a staple of the city’s nightlife. Lee was now an Icon, claiming to be in her eighties, who drew the crowds to clubs, bars and parties. He was living dangerously as a white woman in a country ruled by the racial and sexual repression of Calvinist Apartheid. When she died at the age of seventy she was still a notorious party animal. But Granny would still have the last laugh. At her wake the many mourners were shocked to hear the voice and laughter of Granny Lee insulting them all. She had recorded a farewell message to be played at her wake, resulting in confusion, elation and horror at the event. She became the first non-white person to be buried in Johannesburg’s Westpark whites-only cemetery. Even in death Granny Lee continued to break all the rules.”

— Herb Klein, Underdog Entertainment

Upcoming adaptation of the film, featuring South African trans activist, Simone Heradien

Announced in 2025, there will be an adaptation of the documentary, which will feature South African trans activist, Simone Heradien. Read more.

“For me, this film is not only my big screen debut, but a deeply personal celebration of trans visibility, legacy, and love. Stepping into this role honors the resilience, glamour, and defiance of LGBTIQ+ lives sought at times to be erased from history.”

— Simone Heradien, Hollywood Reporter

Simone worked together with Estian Smit and Sally Gross, who made Parliamentary submissions in 2005 to the alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act (Act 49 of 2003). Simone also has a chapter in the book of “Trans*: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa“. She is also a former Board Chair of Gender DynamiX (GDX).