RuPaul sends a rainbow bus to give away banned books

In an age of book bans and attempts by state lawmakers to ban drag shows, the recording artist and television producer who is perhaps the country’s most famous drag star, RuPaul, is the co-founder of a new online bookstore that will send a rainbow school bus from the west coast south to distribute the very books covered by these bans.

He announced Monday that he is one of three business partners behind the bookstore Allstora, which will promote underrepresented authors and give writers a larger share of profits than other online booksellers.

RuPaul said these types of book websites would fill an important gap, especially in “these strange days we live in,” to support the ideas of people “who are willing to move the conversation forward.”

Enter RuPaul. Drag has been a fixture in popular culture for decades, but his reality competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which is in its sixteenth season and has more than a dozen international editions, has brought the work of hundreds, if not thousands, of drag artists to the world brought. home crowd.

For those who want to limit access to LGBTQ culture in the United States, RuPaul said he offered a prayer.

“They’re in so much pain and it’s being projected outward,” RuPaul said. “And the truth is, I just hope that the child that lives inside each of them will rise up and have a voice and say, ‘I want to use all the colors in the crayon box. I will not be limited.’”

“My heart goes out to them because they are clearly in a lot of pain,” RuPaul continued. “Pain that you and I couldn’t even imagine.”

He said efforts to ban books and drag shows would ultimately “fall by the wayside.” History has shown that the more people try to limit access to something, the more people are drawn to it, RuPaul said, adding, “You can’t stop the imagination.”

He mentioned several books that had influenced him, including Eckhart Tolle’s ‘A New Earth’, George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Curious George’, the children’s classic by Margret and HA Rey.

“I wasn’t very good at school, but I read books and watched TV, and those are the ways I was able to find my way in this big world,” RuPaul said.

At Allstora, RuPaul will curate a monthly book club, which will also feature themed playlists and author interviews. The first selection, fittingly, is his memoir “The House of Hidden Meanings,” which will be released Tuesday.

RuPaul founded Allstora with Adam Powell, a drag performer and actor, and Powell’s partner, Eric Cervini, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated history book “The Deviant’s War: The Homosexuality versus the United States of America.”

Allstora is the new version of a company Cervini and Powell officially founded in October 2022 called ShopQueer.co, which sold books by LGBTQ+ authors and aimed to give writers a bigger share of their income. book profits. The couple first ran the business out of the garage of their Los Angeles apartment, but they quickly outgrew it. Last year, Cervini said, they sold more than $1 million worth of books.

“We did everything on our own and realized we needed help,” Cervini said.

They were in the middle of fundraising when they came into contact with RuPaul, Allstora’s Chief Creative Officer. The new company sells books from all kinds of authors and offers authors a share of the profits from book sales on the website. Cervini is the CEO and Powell is the director of the company’s philanthropic arm, the Rainbow Book Bus, which began operations before Allstora was founded.

As part of Allstora’s kickoff, the Rainbow Book Bus will travel south from Los Angeles in March to fight book bans. In these cities, including Birmingham, Ala.; Tallahassee, FL; and Baton Rouge, La., Allstora will partner with local LGBTQ organizations to distribute thousands of books. The goal is to give away 10,000 books from the brightly colored, 20-foot-tall former school bus by the end of the year.

The local organizations have also provided the company with advice on how to hold the book fairs safely. “They have been so helpful and have worked with local police and volunteers to make sure everyone is full of joy and not afraid to be seen,” Cervini said.

Cervini, who grew up in Central Texas, said it would be important for young people to see that there was a space for them even if they didn’t live somewhere with LGBTQ bookstores or if they were banned from selling those books. read. at their schools or public libraries.

“There’s an organization, there’s a community, there’s a family for them,” he said. “And even if we’re not always there, there are always books. They are always available. They are always a safe place.”