“There was lots of good poetry, lots of spiciness, no shoes. I would come again and again and again,” freshman Sydney Thomas said about the second annual Glam Jam variety show, which took place Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life.

Glam Jam is described by its director, undergraduate student Lydia Bell, as a “queer-centric” variety show that allows students, specifically LGBTQ+ students, to sign up and showcase their talents among others in the LGBTQ+ community.

“October is pride month at Tulane, so it’s a fun thing you can do at the end of it to say, you know, like, ‘This is our community and we’re all a part of it and it’s very fun,'” Bell said.

Acts varied from music to poetry readings to drag. Performances ranged from the risque to the more serious and heartfelt. Snacks were served, and a prize wheel was set up to test participants on their knowledge of queer trivia.

“I think this is a really fun event to both perform in and experience the other performances,” freshman Lilly Jammes, who performed in the show, said. “I really think it shows a great intersection of the LGBTQ+ community.”

In addition, participants performed skits encouraging bystanders to intervene and prevent sexual violence. A booth was also put up by the Well for Health Promotion to promote One Wave, Tulane’s own campus initiative to decrease sexual assault.

The Office of Gender and Sexual Diversity and the Well sponsored the event, and Bell and fellow undergraduate student Elizabeth Griffin directed it. Bell and Griffin created Glam Jam a year ago as a sort of successor to “Ms. Paul Tulane,” Tulane’s past annual drag competition.

“It became clear that, in recent years, Ms. Paul Tulane was no longer a drag show celebrating queer culture … and it became something like appropriating queer culture,” said Bell. “So we were talking like, ‘Oh, we wanna redo Ms. Paul Tulane. We’re gonna remake it into a variety show. We can make it something fun everyone can be a part of.'”

While Glam Jam has less of a focus on drag and competition than Ms. Paul Tulane did, the new variety show offers a more authentic look at the diversity, talents and personalities of the members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“What I like about the direction it’s taking is that it allows for a lot of other types of talent and shows the variety of types of talent in the queer community,” Red Vaughan Tremmel, administrative assistant professor of the Office of Gender and Sexual Diversity, said.

Bell said they were glad people came and enjoyed the event.

“It went really well,” Bell said. “I’m really happy. I love organizing stuff like this and I love giving people a place to do what they’ve done here.”