Sasha Colby, the winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 15, returns to Atlanta for her Stripped II tour on Nov. 8.
From February to April 2024, Colby embarked on a 22-city North American tour, making history as Live Nation’s first headlining tour with a drag artist. Riding off the Stripped success, Stripped II is bigger and better than ever, with more cities and more of Colby’s iconic world-building and performance.
Whereas Stripped was an overview of Colby’s life, all the way from her childhood to winning “Drag Race,” Stripped II delves deeper into the fantasy, with every number being “a different world” based on high femme archetypes like the siren, the showgirl, the goddess, the queen, and even the “Conjuring” witch.
“There’s all these cool, strong archetypes that I channel when I feel helpless and scared, and hopefully everyone who is watching can fit themselves into these fun, powerful roles and then feel activated to go and [make] their own art,” she told Georgia Voice.
Colby says she’s “really excited” to return to Atlanta, crediting the Black drag performers of early 2000s Atlanta like Stasha Sanchez, Necole Luv Dupree, and Niesha Dupree as introducing her to the drag scene early in her career.
With anti-LGBTQ+ legislation targeting transgender rights across the country, the trans drag performer says she hopes Stripped II is an opportunity for people to escape into a world of magic.
“I really wanted to take it up a notch and really go into a lot of magic and fantasy and a lot of escapism, because right now it’s really hard,” Colby said. “The world is crazy and it’s really scary for, like everyone, for queer people, for trans people, for POCs, for women with their own autonomy over their own bodies. So, we’re fighting the good fight constantly for our rights and for our humanity, and I just wanted to make a show that allowed people to have a little bit of celebration and a little bit of respite in all this fighting so then they can go back and fight more.”
Along with creating this joyful world of escapism, Colby credits her drag community with helping her find joy amidst a politically fraught landscape.
“I really value and cherish cultivating my chosen family with not just my own drag kids, [but] with my drag mom, my drag brothers, people that I’ve grown up with in my dance studio who are still my closest friends for the past 25 years,” she said. “I think that’s what keeps me grounded, what keeps me excited, what keeps me motivated when I don’t see it.”
Stripped II comes to the Buckhead Theatre on Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. Purchase tickets at sashacolby.net/tour.
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