KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Family photos line the walls inside Jennifer Ferris' Knoxville home. She collects bird figurines, and tchotchkes fill most of her shelves. She has around 500 birds dressed in different seasonal clothes. She has tattoos of butterflies, working her way toward a sleeve of colors and shapes.
Whether it's tattoos, pictures or figurines — art is a central part of her life. An entire wall of her home is dedicated to art from her children and her children's friends, hoping to support their artistic talents.
She is 52 years old and from Nashville. She moved to Knoxville and almost immediately started a family. She married her husband around 13 years ago and still goes on dates with him, often enjoying a meal at Waffle House off a busy road.
The couple has a sense of humor. The rings at their wedding were candy. He has also built a mirror for her to use while getting dressed and they painted art together, now displayed in the couple's home.
Ferris has four daughters, and she said they are her "everything." She said she makes sure to display their pictures everywhere, so they know she loves and supports them absolutely and unconditionally, even if her children are not enthused to see a collage of themselves in her home.
"I think when they get older, they'll learn to appreciate it. They'll come in, and they love the memories too," she said. "I think you should surround your home with the things that you love, no matter how tacky they may seem."
She's an average woman with a happy family.
"I'm a woman. I'm a wife, a mother and a grandmother," she said.
Then, night falls. She and her husband head out for the evening to The Concourse, a venue in North Knoxville. There, Ferris becomes someone else entirely.
Colin Butte' takes the stage, a campy and award-winning drag performer whose style often features exaggerated sunglasses and a carefully crafted mustache, wearing suits and ties as a caricature of traditional masculinity. He walks the stage amid lights and cheers, delighting his fans with sarcastic jokes and ecstatic preaching, prodding audiences on topics like women's rights and religion.
He also took home a victory in Drag Survivor, a competition where contestants must vote out their drag performer peers live on stage. It lasts seven weeks, and Ferris said her strategy was to be kind enough to win.
The competition is only for people 18 years old and older, but Butte' tailors his performances based on the expectations of the event and the venue. He plans on appearing during SoKno Pride on June 29 for family-friendly performances.
"I have always been the child that, you would walk into a room and you would hear a million different voices. I loved playing dress-up. I loved playing make-believe," Ferris said. "With growing up the way I did, those things were just kinda put on the back-burner ... After my second divorce, I decided I would do what I wanted to do. And that is the French arts."
Ferris started working with a Knoxville burlesque troupe in 2015, the Salomé Cabaret. She said it taught her how to perform, helping her blossom into the performer she is now. It was a change of pace from how she was raised, in a lower-income Tennessee family.
"Growing up poor, when you're having to survive, things like art are suppressed with good reason — you're trying to survive," she said. "I overcame that just by having someone who is supportive of me, and that would be my husband now."
On June 23, she went to The Concourse for the finale of Drag Survivor's fourth season, performing as Butte' and serving as a judge for the show. It was one of many times Butte' appeared on stage after Ferris first drew inspiration from a 2015 Nashville performance.
"There was this beautiful, burlesque dancer named Freya West, and it was the first one that I had seen. And she was just gorgeous, a plus-sized performer and I saw myself in that person, and I thought to myself, 'Oh, I can do that,'" she said. "It's also the freedom to present yourself in front of others and show people, 'I am here. Look at me. Appreciate me. Appreciate my art.' And then I just started looking for burlesque classes."
Butte' took home the victory in Drag Survivor's third season. He earned a crown and Ferris planned to pass it along to a new drag king or queen by the end of the night on June 23.
"In 2018, I got a little bored with burlesque and dipped my toes into drag," she said. "If you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to prove you wrong every single time."
She said besides the spirit of friendly competition, Drag Survivor also lets her connect with people. She said she is around 20 years older than most competitors, and she sees herself in many of them.
"I just want to be that person that goes, 'You know what, you may be in a low spot right now, but you can only go up. Life is made of peaks and valleys, and you're going to be at the peak sometimes but a lot of times you're going to be in the valley, and you just gotta pull yourself up,'" she said. "I want to entertain you. I want to cause something in you — emotion. That is my whole goal here."
In March 2023, Tennessee lawmakers passed a law aimed at banning public drag performances. That law immediately drew criticism as an attempt to silence LGBTQ+ voices and was twice ruled unconstitutional after prosecutors in West Tennessee and East Tennessee tried to enforce it. Those cases are now being considered in federal court.
"We're not trying to corrupt your children. We are merely trying to express ourselves the best way possible," Ferris said.
Drag performances can often have a political tone. Butte's shows sarcastically approach topics like religion, political divisiveness, diversity and justice — all in a deep voice matching the accents and drawls heard across Tennessee.
Ferris also said drag gives people a chance to explore their identities.
"We all want to explore either our feminine side or masculine side. Don't be afraid to do so, even if it's in the comfort of your own home. Don't be afraid to do it, there's more support out there than you think," she said.
Ferris said another character, Brattie Von BeaverHausen, appears on stage to some of her favorite music. She's a burlesque character, appearing in shows for ages 18 and up.
"A lot of people just have a concept in their head, or maybe based on a character, or a book, or something like that. For me, mine is music. I love music. If I find a song that I really, really enjoy — I will build a number around that song," she said.
She said anyone interested in participating in drag performances can stop by an open stage for a chance to try it out. The South Press coffee shop often hosts performances.
"We're healing a lot of trauma that may have happened in the past, and we're wanting to entertain," she said. "Everything's drag if you think about it. When you get up in the morning, do you really want to put on that three-piece suit and go out there and perform for whoever?"