Drag Queen Story Hour with Emoji Nightmare & Nikki Champagne!

Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is just what it sounds like—drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real. This event was made possible with support from The Vermont Community Foundation Samara Fund. Books will be available from Everybody's Books! Read an article about this event in The Commons.

For our very special story hour,  our hosts Emoji Nightmare and Nikki Champagne will be reading from the following children's literature:

-King and King (Stern Nijland and Linda De Haan)

-A Big Guy Took My Ball (Mo Willems)

-Red: A Crayon Story (Michael Hall)

-This Day in June (Gayle Pitman)

-The Day the Crayons Quit (Drew Daywalt)

-Just Add Glitter (Angela DiTerlizzi)

-Bad Seed (Jory John)

-Bodies Are Cool (Tyler Feder)

-C is for Country (Lil Nas X)

About the Hosts:

Emoji and Nikki (known together as NIGHTPAGNE) are two of Burlington's best and brightest drag queens. Both are headline performers in Paint: A Drag Cabaret and have hosted and performed at some of the Queen City's biggest drag shows including New Queers Eve, Pride Ball, First Friday, Glitter & Duct Tape, The Vermont Pride Festival, Queer Pop-Up Dance Party, and SASS. Nikki was the winner of 2014's Vermont Drag Idol, while Emoji was second runner-up in 2015. The two founded the Vermont Chapter of Drag Queen Story Hour in 2017, and Emoji became a national board member in 2021. Outside of drag, the two center much of their lives around the intersection of arts and activism.

Emoji grew up in Cambridge, VT on a dairy farm where they still reside. They are an alum of Northern Vermont University. In 2012, they ran as an independent for Vermont House at the age of 23. They are a published editor (Tasteful Traditions, Red Barn Books, 2014), and have held or currently serve in several positions on other local non-profit or municipal boards. In 2016, they helped write the grant known as The Silo Project, which transformed two abandoned concrete silos into the largest outdoor public art installment in the state of Vermont. They are a previous board member of Outright Vermont and still spends time volunteering for the organization as a Friday Night Group co-facilitator in Lamoille County. They have been the lead organizer of the Pride Vermont Parade & Festival since 2018 and work for Pride Center of Vermont.

Nikki graduated from the University of Vermont in 2016 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development & Family Studies, and a minor in Gender Identity and Sexuality Studies. She is committed to community building and youth empowerment, as seen through her previous work at the Howard Center, Spectrum Youth & Family Services, Northwestern Counseling and Support Services, and a previous Board Member at Outright Vermont. She has a clear passion and drive to support the larger LGBTQ+ community of Vermont and to increase queer and trans visibility. In 2020, she was elected as State Representative in the Vermont House, representing Winooski and Burlington. She is the first elected transgender state representative in Vermont and the fifth in the entire nation. Her first co-sponsored bill, H.128, banned LGBTQ+ panic defense in Vermont.