Tommy Greenler (stage name Pam) is a drag performer and musician living in Atlanta, Georgia. They were born into a Quaker Family and raised on a small farm in rural Wisconsin, spending much of their childhood very involved with Monthly Meeting, Yearly Meeting, and FGC Quaker Youth programs. Pam’s keynote address will be Thursday evening, and this interview gives you a sense of the person, performer and Friend you will be meeting virtually next week. A composer, musician, and artist, Tommy/Pam talks about their identity and its expression through performance art.
Q: Growing up on a Wisconsin farm as a Quaker and doing drag could be present as two very affirming forces within Spirit. Were they equally affirming, or did one serve you more deeply than the other?
I would say that both experiences have been equally affirming forces within Spirit. Both my upbringing as a Quaker farm kid and my journey of self-discovery through drag have deeply informed who I am– both how I see myself, and how I make my way in the world. These two parts of myself are difficult to compare, much less decide which was more impactful. I am a birthright Friend, who was raised on a farm in the Midwest not by my own choosing, but by a decision made by my parents.
While today I hold Quaker values as integral personal beliefs, they were introduced to me by others at a young age. My journey into drag and exploration of gender identity was much more self-determined– my first real departure from my parents’ world and into a journey of uncertainty and self-discovery where I got to figure out who I was on my own terms.
These two parts of my identity have also influenced each other quite a bit– growing up in such an isolated place allowed me to explore gender expression in privacy as a teenager, and my drag most definitely takes inspiration from the Midwestern farm and Quaker women I grew up around.
Q: Have you had difficulty balancing the pressures of academics with performing as a musician and/or in drag?
Initially, this was quite a struggle for me. I decided that I wanted to do drag my first year in college and actually ended up dropping out for a year to pursue drag professionally in Chicago. I returned to school in Atlanta after that year but decided I would change my path of study to develop skills that would also improve my drag. Since then, I have been studying music, photography, film, and dance in school, which I have found very conducive, even encouraging, to my desires to continue doing drag.
Q: Many of us have many parts within us, but we don’t always allow all of our parts large voices. Tell us about Pam. What’s Pam’s back story? How did Pam ask to emerge? What impact does that have on Tommy?
Pam has emerged organically for me, and over many years. I began exploring my own gender expression at a very young age and discovered drag as an early teen. Pam was not my original drag name– I first gave myself a drag name at age 13 that I used for seven years before deciding I wanted a more authentic drag persona, as opposed to a drag character.
I chose the name Pam when I was 20– the same year I came out publicly as non-binary. My exposure and interest in drag as a teenager had definitely helped me come to terms with my own gender identity, but as I was preparing to start performing in drag professionally, I knew I wanted to be known by a name that I felt represented who I really was.
Pam is not a character as much as she is an extension of myself– an outlet for me to express my femininity, my confidence, my outgoing side (Tommy is introvert), and my love of performing. Pam has helped me find a self-confidence I carry myself with all the time now, in and out of drag. It’s also through Pam and my pride in my feminine side that I have started to learn to love my masculine side as well– something that has been a much more difficult personal journey for me over the years.
Q: When you dream for the future, what is closest to your heart’s wish? Is that different from your mind’s wish?
I still love drag very much and hope to continue doing drag in the future. After my year pursuing drag professionally, however, I realized that I want to use drag as a vehicle for other art forms rather than attempt to make my way through the LGBT bar scene, as is traditional for most drag performers.
My primary field of study in school is music composition– specifically production and audio engineering. I have found a great deal of passion for this, and believe that making music will be my life’s work, whether or not it’s what I end up doing vocationally. So my heart’s wish would be to have a career in music as Pam, while my mind’s wish would be to have a career in something that is fulfilling enough, and still allows me time to continue creating and practicing my passions.
Q: Have your studies informed who you are today? If so. what teacher, course, book or media, has been the driving force behind your wish to lift up Pam, or Tommy, in performance spaces to Quakers? When the audience isn’t Quaker is that different?
So much of what I have studied over my many years in school has informed who I am today– I am definitely someone who believes in the transformational power of education. Drag is also an art form that is heavily reliant on cultural references, so being widely read and knowledgeable about history is definitely advantageous as a drag performer. I took an LGBTQ History class in university that was especially enlightening in this matter–I believe that drag performers are in many ways ambassadors for the LGBTQ community, and thus that I had a responsibility to know the history of the movement and community.
When it comes to bringing Pam into Quaker spaces, it is more an issue of authenticity and integrity than anything else. Pam is a huge part of who I am, so not sharing that part of myself with my faith community wouldn’t feel right. As for Quaker audiences, the biggest difference is with the culture of tipping,
Drag in most venues is a tip job, where performers are generally underpaid, and audiences are expected to tip performers cash. I would never expect that with a Quaker audience, as transactional relationships are generally avoided in our communities, and drawing attention to money can make Quakers uncomfortable.
