Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Barney.
Hi Jesse, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I started performing in drag when I turned 21 after being inspired by Sharon Needles, Shawnna Alexander, and Divine.
I chose the name Sextia N’eight (a playful way to spell Section Eight) because I wanted to portray a character that the audience would immediately react to, and that I could use as a vessel to create art to commentate on various subjects and events and hopefully challenge my audiences perspectives. After the MC welcomed “Section 8” to the stage, it was common for some audience members to be offended. I expected that and even embraced it. Some had assumed the worst – that I was picking low-hanging fruit laughing at the expense of the impoverished… some had no idea what Section Eight meant… but some understood immediately where I was coming from.
See, my mom was a waitress and my dad was a residential painter… well, until he started smoking crack that is. It was then, at the young age of 12, that I began my not-always-easy trek through life as… you guessed it, a person living in poverty. I dropped out of school at 16 and started selling drugs for my dad. Eventually, when that didn’t work out, I sold burn bags and panhandled my way through a heroin addiction.
Luckily, I had a friend who encouraged me to get my GED and go on to pursue a degree at the Community College of Baltimore. While attending CCBC, I managed to eventually get clean. This made me the first member of my family to attend college. My experiences there really opened my eyes, and heart, to see the world outside my little borough. And it was while obtaining a degree in mortuary science, that I found a creative outlet within the Baltimore drag scene.
I first performed at The Hippo, for their monthly amateur competition night “New Faces”. I would come back and compete at The Hippo’s New Faces four more times in 2014. I’m now grateful for this experience because the historic Hippo would close its doors in 2015, though it was somewhat discouraging for a bit because I didn’t know anyone on the scene, at the time I took public transportation, and I lacked that initial boost many baby queens thrive off because I wasn’t following beauty standards and I had little support… in other words, I was a ugly drag queen and had no friends (at least none that were willing to show up and pay a cover). So when my fourth amateurs’ night performance resulted in my fourth time not placing in the top three, even I began to question what the hell I was doing.
I went back to the dressing room disappointedly after they announced the top three queens of the night, and while I was packing my things, the glamazonic Iyana Deschanel said, “Don’t tell anyone I’m nice, but Sextia N’eight I live!” And then later Josie Foster, the MC and host, said “Good job tonight.” I also met two other queens during my time at the Hippo whom I competed against who would become my drag sisters and would book me in my first gigs outside of the Hippo. Their names were Veronica Lush and Staccia Tori Raype, and along with Desiree Dik, Whimsy Thrift, and Clarice DuBois, we would form The Haus of Deathglam together and wreak terror and havoc on the scene.
When performing, I am not ashamed to admit that my biggest weapon is shock. A ghoul from Pittsburgh once said, “When in doubt, freak them out.” And I’ve always had an uncanny innate ability to freak people out. However, I don’t do things just because they are shocking. To me, every performance has been an opportunity to develop Sextia N’eight and brand her into existence. But simple shock won’t always leave a lasting impression – it’s just a flower in the bouquet. While using a T50 Heavy Duty Staple Gun to attach dollar bills to my face usually causes a chain reaction of the audience’s shrill screams following the bang from the gun causing the staples to pierce through my skin, there is tons of symbolism in that act and also history dating back to freak show performers.
A big part of my early drag years was making something from nothing – luckily my gimmick matched my budget. This included things like making costumes from garbage, paper, and cardboard or using everyday objects as props like hypodermic needles and mouse traps.
As of 2023, I am coming up with having been a drag performer for a decade, and it has taken me places I never would’ve imagined. I’ve been voted by the Baltimore drag community as the most creative performer in Baltimore three times, I’ve performed in DC, Harrisburg, New York City, and Los Angeles. A filmmaker made a documentary about my life that was in the Maryland Film Festival, The Filthiest People (2021). I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to star in a Hollywood production that is currently making its way around the film festival circuit.
The film, Blue Square Heart (2023), was inspired by a combination of the director’s childhood experiences with conversion therapy and by my drag which he happened to see at a performance in DC a year prior then reached out to me on Facebook. When he called me on the phone and pitched the idea for a film, I thought he was full of shit. But now that film just won the 2023 Jury Award for Best Short Feature from the Seattle Film Festival as well as Best Short Film at the Philadelphia Film Festival!
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Well, certainly the biggest bump in the road would have to be my mother’s passing in 2018 when her fight with breast cancer ended. My drag profile was rising simultaneously as my personal life was in shambles. She was my best friend and my biggest fan, and I miss her every day. This is where I should mention that I used to say the phrase “LGBT community” is a myth… how very wrong I was.
I’ll never forget the feeling in my heart when I performed at a show, the same week my mom had passed, and Anita Minett presented me with a donation bucket that she had collected from the audience throughout the night without my knowing. That moment, even before knowing that there was almost $300, changed my perspective in every single way… so while there were struggles, the community was there for me in such a way that softened the blows.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a performance artist and I also do some rogue taxidermy which I sometimes incorporate into my drag looks and performances.
I am known as the filthiest most punk psycho b*tch drag performer in Baltimore – an ode to John Waters and Divine. Some of my most infamous acts include skinning and eating a rat on stage, using a staple gun to attach tips to my body, and using hypodermic needles in my performances to simulate drug use or to stick through my cheeks and squirt liquid out at the crowd, or adopting the ethos of Jer Ber Jones and Austin Young to create “tranimal” style looks.
I’ve got to say that what has made me most proud over the last several years is when some of the new generations of drag queens say that I helped inspire them to think about drag differently and go outside the box or that I opened doors for them. That’s never something I expected and I don’t think there’s any greater good you can contribute to an art form than that.
What matters most to you? Why?
It might seem generic, but truly family & friendship. And by family, that doesn’t mean just blood. But relationships are our foundation and loved ones are what make our lives richer and more complete.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sextianeight/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sextianeight/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3i-Ja3dUXd3KabQh32Fig
Image Credits
Studio5Baltimore
