Kareem McJagger: Fire Island, The Rona And The Bubble Wrap Dress

Late June of 2020 was a tough time for me. Covid had closed the bars in NYC where I’d worked in for years. Things were getting tense with my roommates, which made it significantly tougher to produce content from home. Between the peak of violence at Black Lives Matter protests and the local and national chaos around the pandemic, my anxiety was at an all-time high. I had more trouble focusing on tasks than I’d ever had in my life.

My boyfriend, Jack Aaronson, lives and works in the Fire Island Pines every summer, and we decided to give living together a shot for the abridged season. Normally, he’d be Airbnb-ing the other bedrooms in the small house he rents, but we agreed that it wasn’t worth the risk to rent to random people. The house’s pool wasn’t heated, so Jack bought a solar pool cover a couple of weeks after my arrival in early July, which ended up being far too large. Of course, my first thought upon seeing the yards upon yards of excess colorful material was to make a look out of it!

I immediately thought of my nightlife sister Ronie Reives (aka Viki Villainess) who had made my performance look at the 2019 Glam Awards. I’d been listening to The Shade Parade podcast, which Ronie hosts with fellow NYC drag queen Ari Kiki. One of the remarkable things about their weekly conversations was the contrast between how much Ari was going out and being social (mostly outdoors) and Ronie was staying more isolated, which made me feel safe about inviting him to stay with us. So I hit Ronie up and asked if he’d be up for a casual unconventional materials challenge in The Pines for a few days. He happily agreed.

Over the corse of 4 days, we established what the various silhouettes would be and Ronie worked at a leisurely pace draping, fitting, adjusting, heat-moulding, and constructing the 3- in-1 look. My experience with having looks made usually revolves around my ability to perform high-energy numbers, and there’s usually a looming deadline for which the look is a single bullet point on a list of logistical elements. In this case, however, the look was the show.
On the final night, we planned to shoot the look on the pool deck. We woke up to an overcast morning and a rainy afternoon. While shooting indoors was an option, it definitely wasn’t the ideal context for the look. And delaying wasn’t an option because Jack had his piano bar show the next two nights. Plus, I wanted Ronie to be present to drape the various looks properly: extra eyes to clock stray hairs and proper seam placement never hurt at a shoot.
With a heavy heart, I prepared my mind for an indoor shoot. But as luck would have it, the rain had cleared up by the time I’d finished my makeup, and water on the deck gave it a luminous shine in the lighting.

As we were setting up the second shot, our friend Julie James, who was also staying with us for the week and collaborating with Jack on the Broadway performance series they’d started at the beginning of the season, arrived home from dinner. It was her look of shock and the above- the-staff note she hit upon entering that really solidified in my mind how well this project had come together.

“And you’re getting in the pool, right?” *nervous laughter*

As we shot, we came to the realization that water made the material sparkle under the light. Ronie’s boyfriend, Maxwell Broadwater, had the idea of pouring a goblet of pool water down my body. Awesome.

“You have to shoot in the pool, though!” *eye roll*

Y’all, I’ve had doctors describe my iron levels as “slightly anemic”. I’m the friend on the beach trip that poses on the towel and watches your stuff when you go swimming in the ocean. I got angry at people growing up who told me, “It’s only cold for the first few seconds. You’ll get used to it,” because I never got used to it. Did I mention the pool wasn’t heated? I took two shots of whiskey and proceeded with the involuntary tucking portion of the photo shoot and ended my night with a well deserved soak in the hot tub.
While the pandemic has caused some of the most difficult circumstances many of us have faced in our lifetime, a silver lining has been the art that would have never happened otherwise. From this project to Jack and Julie’s performance series to the drag shows in the Pines and Cherry Grove to Max Konner’s Beachouse adult film series.

All of these spectacular artistic productions and more happened on Fire Island in the midst of a global pandemic! We found ways to take precautions, collaborate safely, and express ourselves in ways we never thought we’d have to. And the content that creators are making is as integral to our wellbeing as it is to the audiences who consume them.