This episode of Black on Black on Black features special guest KaiKai Bee Michaels, a dynamic Bay Area drag performer whose work blends cosplay, social justice, and deeply personal storytelling. Together, D. Fantastic and DJ Queen Noir dive into the rich and often overlooked history of AFAB (assigned female at birth) performers in drag, tracing its roots through San Francisco’s underground scenes and exploring how those legacies shape KaiKai’s artistry today. Kai shares their journey from Detroit to the Bay Area, reflecting on how different parts ot the Bay Area bring their own energy, audience, and challenges to drag performance, particularly as a Black performer navigating visibility, reception, and identity.

The conversation expands into the inherently political nature of drag, unpacking how KaiKai engages with activism both on and off stage, and how the Bay Area’s drag scene continues to evolve in response to broader cultural shifts. In the final segment, the crew leans into solarpunk: a hopeful, community-driven vision of the future. There, they start to imagine what it means to create sustainable, equitable worlds through art, performance, and everyday practice versus the often-depicted, highly-capitalist dystopian cyberpunk future. Balancing humor, sharp cultural critique, and visionary thinking, this episode highlights drag as both a form of resistance and a blueprint for building more liberated futures.