Withstanding Podcast Season 4

Withstanding returns with a new season!

The fourth season of FCINY’s podcast focuses on highlighting and honoring Indigenous practices in art, architecture and design. This program is made possible with support from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Envisioning a brighter future, Withstanding continues to bring together art professionals from both sides of the Atlantic to share and speculate, care and criticize, and to dream of more just and sustainable conditions for artists and art practitioners at large.

Make sure to check out also season 3, season 2 and season 1 of the podcast.

Listen to Withstanding on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or Soundcloud.

Episode 11: Indigenous Drag Excellence

In February 2025, FCINY organized an evening of performances and a discussion titled Indigenous Drag Excellence at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City, in collaboration with Riddu Riđđu Festival and the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute. The evening featured performances by drag artists Aunty Tamara, Feather Talia, Randy River, and Ritni Tears.

The performances were followed by a joint discussion touching upon a variety of topics from the soup of gender to drag herstories and histories, and to the significance of drag to Queer Indigenous communities. The discussion was led by New York-based artist and educator MX Oops. The first episode of the new podcast season features this discussion in its entirety.

Ritni Tears is a Deanu river Sámi drag king, storyteller, and all-around gay™ superstar. Known for his electrifying dance moves, intense facial expressions, and an unshakable love for heavy metal joik and gay boys, he effortlessly blends raw energy with heartfelt storytelling. Whether commanding the stage or captivating audiences with his unique artistry, Ritni Tears is a force to be reckoned with—bold, unapologetic, and utterly unforgettable.

Aunty Tamara is fierce, ferocious and fabulous all in one. A true power house performer, bringing the classics of soul and RnB like a true diva! Aunty pulls performance inspiration from her ancestral roots of Aotearoa, New Zealand - bringing that cultural flame to drag, unapologetically! She stands proud in her culture as a Māori, whilst standing tall in her 8" heels. Get ready to feel all the emotions as you witness the power and combination of DRAG x CULTURE!

Randy River is a drag king from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and is a registered member of Couchiching First Nation in Treaty 3 territory. Randy satirically shines a light on toxic masculinity in the late 90s and early 2000s, and his favourite pastimes include (but are not limited to) wheeling around town on his Heely's, listening to nü metal, and drinking Monster energy drinks for breakfast. He's the uncle we all love to hate!

Feather Talia is the pride of Muskowekwan First Nation and a well-known drag artist and advocate for her kin. Feather, being Two-Spirit, shares her storytelling and fun humour on and off the mic. She has a fire that no one can tarnish and dance moves that are... ok. When you come to a Feather Talia Show, you will get beauty, grace, stupidity and most of all... a fun auntie who thrives and does her own thing!

MX Oops is a transmedia performance artist and educator whose work centers hybridity, encouraging ecstatic disobedience as a path toward embodied wellness. Their interdisciplinary practice combines dance, video design, costume/textile design, djing, rap, and guided meditation. Through this multisensory approach, their work questions whether consciousness itself is the primary medium. The party is the point of departure, a queer site of transnational Afro-diasporic imagining. MX is the founder of Complex Stability, a research and multimedia production company, and an assistant professor in the Dance Program in Lehman College's Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre & Dance.

Riddu Riđđu Festival is an international Indigenous festival, which takes place annually in Gáivuotna in Northern Norway. For more than 30 years, Riddu Riđđu has worked to create a stronger awareness and pride about the Sámi. In 2024, the festival put a spin on their annual project “Northern people of the year” by choosing to honor Queer Indigenous and invited LGBTQ2S+ artists and knowledge keepers at the festival. The commissioning of “Indigenous Drag Excellence XXL” was part of this celebration.