The 2026 season of the West Hollywood Drag Story Hour kicks off on Saturday, February 7, 2026, with drag artist Amber Crane reading to children at the West Hollywood Library.
The free program is presented by the City in partnership with the West Hollywood Library and is open to children of all ages. No RSVP is required.
All 2026 Drag Story Hour events will take place on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. in the West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard.
2026 Season Schedule
Saturday, February 7, 2026, 11 a.m. – Amber Crane
Saturday, April 4, 2026, 11 a.m. – Queen Angelina, winner of the 2023 José Sarria Drag Pageant
Saturday, June 13, 2026, 11 a.m. – City of West Hollywood Drag Laureate Pickle the Drag Queen
Saturday, August 8, 2026, 11 a.m. – Drag king and musician Odious Ari
Saturday, October 3, 2026, 11 a.m. – Miss Barbie-Q
Saturday, December 5, 2026, 11 a.m. – Tia Wanna Ross
What makes it work
“Honestly, Drag Story Hour has remained simple: drag performers reading books to kids and teaching the joys of reading, self expression and acceptance,” Pickle told WEHOonline. Pickle produces the West Hollywood series. “However, more and more parents have come out to engage in the program and continue to return because kids love it, we love it and there are so few queer spaces specifically designed for kids.”
Pickle said she looks for performers who connect authentically with young audiences. “I find queens who are passionate about the work—who enjoy performing for kids and know how to speak from the heart in a way they can understand,” she said. “Children can sense authenticity and they respond well to people who show genuine interest in them as thinking, wondering human beings.”
The program runs differently than a typical drag performance. “A good fit for drag story hour won’t just be fabulous and slap on some ‘kid voice,'” Pickle said. “They’ll be present and engaged. That translates beautifully across a wide range of drag styles and identities. Remember, just like all of us, kids want to be treated with respect and they want to be heard.”
Program History
Drag Story Hour started in 2015 in San Francisco when author Michelle Tea, who ran the nonprofit Radar Productions, wanted to create more inclusive library events for LGBTQ families. Tea was a new mother attending children’s readings at local libraries and thought they could be more welcoming for queer parents like herself.
The first event happened at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. The program spread fast. By 2020, more than 50 chapters operated internationally, with drag artists reading at libraries, schools, bookstores, and museums around the world.
West Hollywood’s Arts Division started funding Drag Story Hour at the West Hollywood Library in 2017, making it the first in the LA County Library system.
West Hollywood’s response to controversy
The series drew protests back in 2023. That April, protesters showed up at the library with one guy standing on San Vicente holding a “leave kids alone” sign while counter-protesters outnumbered him about 50 to 1. Things got heated and someone got punched, leading to Sheriff’s deputies making arrests weeks later during Pride.
Later that year, protesters physically blocked library doors at a San Fernando event where Pickle was supposed to read. Police couldn’t get her through and the event got canceled—the first time that happened to a Drag Story Hour in LA County. West Hollywood’s sessions kept going without major incident after that initial problem.
“I think Drag Story Hour broadly faces opposition from misinformed, hate-driven institutions and people,” Pickle said. “Frankly, these people have no clear ideology outside of reactionary violence and hating anything they’ve been told is ‘other.’ I think one of the reasons West Hollywood Story Hour doesn’t face those attacks is because WeHo specifically has made it very clear that the city and its residents are not interested in prejudice or violence.”
The local controversy mirrored what was happening nationwide, where Drag Story Hour events faced protests, bomb threats, and even firebombings in 2022-2023. Some states tried passing laws to ban drag performances in public spaces, with Tennessee actually passing one before a federal judge blocked it.
Impact on families
Pickle said she’s seen the program create meaningful moments for attendees. “I witness fantastic individual moments of kids and families opening up to performers or seeing drag for the first time or seeing themselves in a performer, but I also feel the overall energy of the room,” she said. “Just supportive, loving people engaging in something simple but powerful and tapping in to the beauty of being yourself and loving each other.”
Drag Story Hour is one piece of West Hollywood’s broader arts programming, which includes Art on the Outside, arts grants, the Poet Laureate and Drag Laureate positions, Free Theatre in the Parks, Summer and Winter Sounds concerts, WeHo Reads, and the WeHo Pride Arts Festival.
The City’s Arts Division backed some impressive programming in 2025—845 new artworks created, 183 programs, working with 638 artists and reaching 51,980 people.
More information is available at go.weho.org/dragstoryhour.
My recollection was that in 2023 the ratio was literally 50 counter demonstrators to 1 protestor, who seemed mentally ill and got punched in the head for his efforts by a masked counter-protestor. The Drag Story Hours in WeHo have been joy filled events and there is community consensus. But the notion that these events somehow shape pre-school kids’ views on gender– from either side of the political spectrum– is not based on any credible knowledge of early childhood development.
Hardly protests and backlash, but negative headlines lead.