At nearly 60, Egyptt LaBeija is a living legend among New York City’s drag ball community. One of the leaders of the famed House of LaBeija drag family, her performance career has spanned more than 35 years, and she has graced stages, screens and books around the globe.
Still, when director Kristen Lovell asked LaBeija if she would share a less celebrated side of her past — her years spent doing sex work along West 14th Street at the top of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District — for a new documentary, LaBeija eagerly agreed.
“I was actually honored, because, well, I lived through it, and here I am,” she said. “It made me who I am today.”
That documentary, “The Stroll,” reveals the tough, often bleak and somehow still strongly uplifting stories of transgender sex workers who walked West 14th Street during its hustling heyday from the 1980s to the 2000s, when it earned the nickname “the stroll.” The film, co-directed by Lovell and Zackary Drucker (“Transparent,” “The Lady and the Dale”), debuts Wednesday on HBO and Max.
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