Latest news with #Heklina
CBS News
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
San Francisco Drag Club Oasis plans to close at the end of 2025
Famed San Francisco drag club Oasis announced it will be closing for good by Jan.1, 2026. Co-founder D'Arcy Drollinger said they've been struggling with razor-thin margins and can no longer afford to operate. "I feel heartbroken, but I'm also overwhelmed by the outpouring of love," said Dollinger. Dollinger was emotional as he spoke about what Oasis has meant to him over the years. "This place is my life, and we've been around for 11 years, and it took blood, sweat, and tears to make this space and community viable," Drollinger explained. Despite being a top destination for drag and queer entertainment, the club always struggled with finances. "We always didn't quite make a profit. We were always a net-zero, but after the pandemic, things just got harder and harder," Drollinger said. Recently, he has been subsidizing the club, even cashing out the majority of his retirement to pay the bills. "It really made me realize what we do here, as fabulous as it is, isn't sustainable anymore," he said. But Monday night, just hours after the news of the closure, the club was full. Drollinger says it is a happy coincidence that the announcement fell on the same day as the "Heklina Tribute Show", an event to raise money to digitize and organize tapes of her work. Drollinger co-founded Oasis with Heklina, and people gathered at Oasis back in 2023 when she died. "This has been a place for people all the time to show up when they needed a space to meet together," said Drollinger. "I feel like there's a lot of people here for Heklina, but there's also a lot of people here who just need to feel a sense of community tonight." J.A. Valentine has been both a performer and patron of the club, even calling it a home away from home. He said the community is something special. "This audience is like nothing else," explained Valentine. "The camaraderie that happens backstage, the theatre that gets produced, and I think what I like best about the shows here is no one is ever satisfied with where they're at, and it always has to be the best laugh possible." Valentine and Dollinger are hopeful those laughs will live on. Drollinger plans to continue programming shows through his nonprofit, Oasis Arts. "That isn't going to go away," said Drollinger about the shows he's produced. "I'm hoping that it can continue to support artists in some shape or form. It might be at other venues or other events." Drollinger announced the closure early so people could come out and say one last goodbye. He hopes they'll have enough support to keep the club open for the rest of the year. "We're only going to get there if people show up, so I'm hoping that people do show up and can get our ticket and bar sales to where they used to be," Drollinger explained about the efforts it will take to get to their proposed Jan. 1, 2026, closure date. The club opened on New Year's Eve in 2014, and he feels it would be poetic to have their last night be New Year's Eve as well, but he does hold some hope that maybe a miracle could still happen. "The mayor called me today, and was concerned about the news, so you never know what could happen," Drollinger said. "I'm profoundly grateful and so proud of what we've done, and I wish that it could continue, and I hope that this inspires someone else to create a space that can be this for so many people."
San Francisco Chronicle
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
If San Francisco's drag laureate can't make a drag club work in the city, who can?
If Oasis and its proprietor D'Arcy Drollinger are drag mothers to San Francisco's LGBTQ nightlife, the children are in mourning. 'D'Arcy has helped put Bay Area drag on the map and supported countless artists in the process,' said Oaklash drag festival and nonprofit co-founder Mama Celeste, who performed early in her career at Oasis' Daughter night. Now, with the nightclub and cabaret's closure at the end of the year, that map is losing its lodestar. It's 'a huge loss for the queer and trans community,' Mama Celeste said. The news, announced Monday, July 21, underscores a stark reality in this post-pandemic era: even the most beloved and high-profile landmarks of queer nightlife are not immune to the pressures threatening the city's cultural fabric. Drollinger, as San Francisco's Drag Laureate and the creative force behind community traditions like 'The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes,' brought star power, ingenuity and an unwavering following to the club. For performers and audiences alike it's not just a loss — it's a warning. 'If a great room with great live entertainment, and a strong, supportive, deeply connected community can find itself forced to shut down, we're all in danger,' said Jim Sweeney, founder and host of the Hubba Hubba Revue at the neighboring DNA Lounge. Drollinger founded the award-winning nightclub and performance venue with fellow drag entertainer Heklina and business partners Jason Beebout and Geoffrey Benjamin in 2014 at a time when 'we were desperately in need of something like Oasis,' said drag performer Peaches Christ. 'There really isn't anything like it,' she went on. The loss is especially painful, she added, because it also marks the end of a venue co-founded by her close friend Heklina, who died in London in 2023. (Peaches Christ is hosting a benefit for Heklina's archives at the club on Monday night.) Michael Phillis, whose 'Baloney' burlesque review (with Rory Davis) and 'Patty from HR' character both found cult followings at the club, said that he and many performers 'cut our teeth here, honed our craft here, made a name for ourselves here, celebrated wins and losses and the everyday struggle of being gay, being fabulous, being alive.' 'Running a business is so demanding and requires constant effort and attention, and then throw a wig on top of it — D'Arcy used the club to unify our community with open arms,' said drag queen and community activist Juanita More. Throughout its decade in operation, Oasis built a reputation for attracting queer celebrity clientele and in the last few years has become a destination for 'RuPaul's Drag Race' stars. It's also been known for creating programming with an emphasis on racial, ethnic and diversity such as 'Reparations,' which focuses on Black performers. Breonna McCree, the co-executive director of the Transgender Cultural District, called it 'a vibrant cultural hub for queer and trans artistry.' Drollinger, who became sole owner in 2020, guided Oasis through the COVID-19 pandemic by launching Oasis TV, which streams past performances at the venue, and 'Meals on Heels,' a food delivery service featuring drag performances that drew national attention. 'I know D'Arcy and the entire team at Oasis worked so hard to hang on through the pandemic,' acknowledged District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. 'I obviously root for the success of all our LGBTQ+ community institutions, but we were especially rooting for Oasis in the District 6 office.' Dorsey said he's already contacted Anne Taupier, director of San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and plans to convene a meeting with all Oasis employees to ensure they're plugged into job placement and workforce services. Drollinger said the decision was painful but unavoidable. After two years of shrinking audiences and declining bar sales, the financial pressure became too great. Costs have continued to climb, especially for insurance and security following an armed robbery at the club in July 2024. He's holding on to the hope that a surge in support could carry Oasis to one last celebration on New Year's Eve, which would mark the venue's 11th anniversary. But even if Drollinger reaches that goal, the permanent closure of Oasis has broader implications. As Devlin Shand, founder of the community gallery Queer Arts Featured, noted on social media, it's 'a loss that will have reverberating consequences for our performance art scene.' Without the club, the South of Market's 11th Street corridor becomes 'less of a broader destination,' Sweeney said. The area has already suffered the loss of Slim's, its successor YOLO, Paradise Lounge and Studio Z. 'One of the best things about nightlife is that the more bars and venues in a neighborhood, the better we all do,' said the Stud Collective, the group behind neighboring South of Market queer bar the Stud, in a statement. Their own history is a testament to that resilience; after four years without a physical home, the Stud reopened in 2024 on Folsom Street. 'If there is one thing the Stud has learned in our 70 years is, it's not over till it's over,' the collective added. The Stud's revival serves as a reminder that queer spaces can bounce back— but only with sustained community support. 'We can't just talk about how much the arts matter, we have to be there. In the seats. At the shows,' said Shane Ray, founding artistic director of Ray of Light Theatre, which produces 'The Rocky Horror Show' at Oasis each fall. 'Showing up now, not just when something's at risk of disappearing.' To that end, drag performer and Stud Collective member Honey Mahogany issued a call to action: 'Oasis isn't closed yet! I hope to see many of you there over the next few months.'
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Peaches Christ says she's been 'retraumatized' by police investigating drag icon Heklina's death
Almost two years to the day after legendary drag queen Heklina was found dead, her close friend and fellow queen Peaches Christ still feels traumatized by her death and the lack of answers provided by the London Metropolitan Police Department, who she has accused of 'homophobic bias.' Peaches Christ, also known as Joshua Grannell, was the one who found Heklina's body in a flat the two were sharing together as they prepared for a two-week run of the musical parody 'Mommie Queerest' at the Soho Theatre. While finding her friend dead has left Peaches with emotional scars — for which she is still in therapy working to heal — it's the lack of real answers that continues to haunt her, Peaches Christ tells PRIDE. 'There's the trauma of finding her, which was — it was like a horror movie and I'll spare you specific details, but it was horrific,' she says. 'It was bad and then not to be listened to or to be communicated with by the people who are supposed to be giving you answers, who assured you that they would keep you in the loop and communicate with you. It just felt so retraumatizing and created a whole other layer of nightmare to the situation.' Heklina, born Stefan Grygelko, was a beloved drag star in San Francisco whose punk aesthetic influenced a generation of drag queens. She was also the co-founder of the 'Trannyshack' drag night at the iconic Stud bar in 1996 and helped transform Oasis into a drag and cabaret club. After years of working to keep Heklina's name in the headlines in the hopes of pressuring the police into action, investigators have finally released new information in the case, but Peaches Christ says she still doesn't have an official cause of death. She was beginning to lose hope that there would ever be progress made in the case — it took the police 21 months to release CCTV footage of three unnamed men leaving Heklina's apartment building on the night of her death — until a new team of five investigators traveled from London to San Francisco to get more statements. On March 17, London authorities visited Peaches Christ and dropped a bombshell about her friend's death. She was told that Heklina had a 'lethal combination of drugs in her system' when she died, but the police still refused to confirm her cause of death. The authorities reinterviewed Peaches Christ and asked for her cooperation in locating people Heklina had slept with and done drugs with who might have information that could help in their investigation. They also traveled to visit Heklina's next of kin and executor of her estate, Nancy French, to speak with her and retrieve Heklina's iPhone, which Peaches Christ alleges the police had in their possession two years ago, but never unlocked despite being told that Heklina had been setting up dates Grindr shortly before her death. 'Heklina had no shame about her casual sex life, it's something she talked about on stage,' she says. "I knew what was going on, it's why I went and stayed at a hotel [on the day of her death]. I didn't want to be there while my friend was hooking up.' Just a few days after the London police came to California, Peaches Christ, still determined to get more answers, was in London leading a protest against the police's alleged 'homophobic bias' in Heklina's case. 'The idea of the protest was to call attention to the case of Heklina, but just as important was to create change, institutional change, so that this sort of homophobic bias wasn't brought to other cases in the future,' she says. Peaches Christ has been told that drugs were found in Heklina's system and that there was 'no foul play,' but the fact that investigators have picked up the case again and feel strongly enough about it to fly to the U.S. leads her to believe there is more to the story. 'If she had a lethal combination of drugs in her system like they say she did,' she wonders aloud, 'then why not just wrap it up? Like why didn't we wrap it up immediately? You would have known that before you cremated her in 2023. So why, if that's how she died? What's going on? Why is there no death certificate?' Peaches Christ felt from the very beginning that Heklina being part of the LGBTQ+ community and a drag queen meant that her case was never taken seriously. It took '10 months of unanswered emails and phones calls' before an anonymous source from inside the Westminster morgue told her that there 'was a coverup taking place' and that there was still disagreement over Heklina's cause of death. Stranger still, Peaches Christ alleges that in a Zoom meeting, investigators told her and French that the police officer first assigned to the case had a 'conscious or unconscious negative bias.' 'So that was the point where I was like, 'Oh wow, they're saying it's homophobia,'' she says. While in London for the protest to demand more action in Heklina's case, where fellow drag queens and activists marched holding signs reading, 'We Deserve Justice, Not Discrimination,' 'Queer Safety Over Police Power,' and 'End Met Police Homophobia Now,' the police asked Peaches Christ to provide a new DNA sample (she previously provided one to rule her out of samples they collected from the scene) because the old one had 'expired.' Combine that with the fact that the CCTV footage was only released after the press contacted them, and she says it started to look like negligence on the part of the Metropolitan Police. 'So all of this stuff is just really angering me because it does feel intentional. It's either extremely sloppy or just truly intentional negligence,' Peaches Christ says, explaining that she thinks the police only started to act once they found out she is well known in the drag world. 'I think before they just thought I was just some trashy drag queen, who just should go away and leave them alone. And it probably was a mixture of homophobia and probably the fact that we're not there, we don't live there, we're all the way in California,' she says. Two years ago Peaches Christ would have settled for just being provided with a cause of death, but now she wants The Met to be overhauled and homophobic bias to be weeded out so that no other loved ones have to go through what she has. She explained that in her experience, being LGBTQ+, using drugs, and having casual sex means that the cops will treat your case like it doesn't matter. 'My hope is that maybe we can move the dial and change their viewpoint on us institutionally so that they see us as human beings and treat us like people in the future,' Peaches Christ says. 'My really big hope is that the terrible, terrible service that Heklina has received from these folks— by us blowing it up and getting angry — maybe it'll change the next time they get a case like this.'
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Justice for Heklina' rally and march in London and San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO - It's been nearly two years since the death of Heklina, a beloved San Francisco drag queen who left her mark on not only the Bay Area, but on drag culture at large. While many questions remain about her death, a rally in London, the city where she died, and a march in San Francisco on Monday, demanded more action into the investigation of her death from officials. Nearly 100 people rallied across the pond for Heklina. It's a case where no official cause of death has been announced by the police. Fellow drag performer Peaches Christ, who co-starred with Heklina in a production that was on tour in London at the time of her death, posted about the rally and march on social media. Heklina died in April 2023. The prolific drag queen helped open the popular nightlife cabaret venue, Oasis, in 2014. "The JUSTICE FOR HEKLINA march and rally in London was so powerful. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support the cause. If you can attend the San Francisco sister march tonight, please do!" Peaches Christ, also known as Joshua Grannell, wrote. Grannell has told media outlets he suspects homophobia, on the part of London's Metropolitan Police, tainted the investigation of Heklina's death. Signs at the rally read: "Queer People Are People. No More Police Hate" and "No Justice, No Peace. Stop Met Police Homophobia." A Justice for Heklina rally and march was scheduled to begin at legendary LGBTQ+ bar The Stud and end at Oasis on Monday evening.
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Scotland Yard protesters demand justice for drag artist found dead in Soho in 2023
Nearly two years after the American drag artist Heklina was found dead in London, her friends and fans gathered outside Scotland Yard's headquarters to protest against the force's handling of the case. Heklina, whose real name was Steven Grygelko, was found at a flat in Soho, central London, on 3 April 2023, by a friend and fellow drag performer, Peaches Christ, real name Joshua Grannell. It was not until 21 months later that the Metropolitan police issued a public appeal, releasing CCTV of three men who were at the 55-year-old's flat on the night she died. On Monday the performer's loved ones organised protests in London and San Francisco, where Heklina co-founded the legendary drag night Trannyshack in 1996, to demand answers. They alleged the investigation into her death had been marred by delays, a lack of communication and institutional homophobia. More than 100 people joined Peaches Christ, the Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic, and the former RuPaul's Drag Race contestants Cheddar Gorgeous and Crystal outside New Scotland Yard in central London with placards reading 'Justice for Heklina', 'Pride not prejudice, hold the Met accountable' and 'End Met police homophobia now!' Peaches Christ said: 'Heklina was one of my oldest and closest friends. We were family and finding her dead in London was truly traumatising, but it has only been made worse by the complete lack of attention from the London Met police. 'For nearly two years, myself and Heklina's next of kin have been ignored. Only when I went to the media was there a response.' She added in a speech: 'Heklina deserves better service and justice and every queer person and every minority deserves to be treated fairly.' Crystal, a British-Canadian drag artist whose real name is Colin Seymour, told the crowd: 'Are our lives worth less? One of us has died. Our institutions shrugged and moved on.' She said the group demanded change as she highlighted the Met's failings in the case of the serial killer Stephen Port and the 2023 report by Louise Casey, which said the force was guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion She urged the Met to release Heklina's cause of death, offer a formal apology to her family and friends, and conduct an internal investigation of the case. Paul Fleming, the general secretary of the union Equity who was at the protest, has written to the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, calling on him to 'raise as a matter of urgency' the investigation into Heklina's death in meetings with senior Met officers and 'ask what is being done to remedy the litany of failings in this investigation'. DCI Christina Jessah, who leads policing in the local area, said a full review of the investigation was under way to establish any missed opportunities. She said: 'We know that many feel deep distress following Steven's death and some feel frustration with the pace of the police investigation. 'We are also aware of the concerns of Steven's next of kin and have apologised to them directly. 'A full review of the investigation is ongoing to establish any missed opportunities. We continue to examine all lines of inquiry in relation to Steven's death and remain steadfast in our determination to establish the facts.'
