Sierrah Foxx Entertainer "ICON" by Jayden Michaels скачать в хорошем качестве

Sierrah Foxx Entertainer "ICON" by Jayden Michaels

When Sierrah Foxx got on stage, the Orlando drag queen would “catch the spirit” in a way few entertainers can, her friend Darcel Stevens said. Usually to the beat of ’80s and ’90s R&B songs like Shannon’s 1983 hit “Let the Music Play,” the blonde performer in glittering outfits synchronized her body to the music, glitching to the rhythm with her eyes, lips and brows as she danced across the stage. “She proved a force to be reckoned with,” said Stevens, a drag queen who also serves as the entertainment director for Parliament House, Orlando’s LGBTQ-themed resort and club. “She knew how to take every note of a song and channel it through her body with a movement of her hair or facial expression. She would take you on a journey and just draw you in. I thought it was quite remarkable.” Sierrah Foxx, a transgender woman whose real name was Allysia Williams, was found dead at her home on April 2 after complications from cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure, friends said. She was 48. Williams began to decline after a final performance at Parliament House in February and was in the hospital as the coronavirus pandemic reached Central Florida, Stevens said. After being quarantined for about two weeks, Williams was released from the hospital after testing negative for COVID-19, Stevens added. “It’s very sad,” Parliament House owner Don Granatstein said. “She was a great person — one of my favorite people in the whole industry. She’s as sweet as they come.” With her legendary robot-like performances, Williams pioneered a style of lip sync that’s been emulated by popular drag queens from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” like Detox and Aja. In an April 2 post on Instagram to her 1.1 million followers, Detox said she was Williams’ No. 1 fan and friend. “Sierrah Foxx, above everything, was a comedienne with a heart of gold,” the drag queen wrote. “She was also the best hug giver, the quickest tongue, musical master, and hands down the most dynamic, captivating, and phenomenal entertainer I’ve ever seen. … I’ve had asthma attacks watching this woman perform, and I am heartbroken that I will never get that rush again from hearing an emcee announce her name.” A freestyle DJ from Tallahassee who would make her own mixes for performances, Williams was a regular at gay nightclubs in Orlando for more than two decades, including Pulse. Williams was living in a house on the same block as Pulse when a gunman rampaged through the club on June 12, 2016, killing 49 people and injuring dozens. Williams told Orlando Weekly in 2017 she let two people who had fled from the massacre at Pulse take refuge in her home. “I remember saying to God, ‘Why couldn’t it have been someone like me instead of these people that were so young and so innocent? Why did they have to go?'” Williams told the alternative paper. Brett Ashley said he is part of the chosen family Williams presided over as a drag mother, known as a house. Ashley, who often traveled with Williams to shows across Florida, said she was “often imitated but never duplicated.” “I think she paved the road and the way for a lot of entertainers,” he said. “No one was able to echo the craft, energy, and performance she brought to the stage.” Williams won several drag pageants, including Miss National at Large and Miss Florida F.I. at Large, Stevens said. She loved to eat and hang out with friends, especially over Southern cuisine or the late-night drive-thru menus at Taco Bell and McDonald’s, Ashley said. She also loved to “read,” a time-honored tradition among drag queens of wittily insulting each other. “I’m a very straightforward, stern person, ex-military, but Sierrah would come into the dressing room, maybe a little late, and before I could open my mouth, she would hurl a myriad of insults at me that would just make me laugh and change my whole disposition,” Stevens said. “She was a joy to have around,” Stevens added. “She was the life of the party, and she really didn’t give a damn.” mcordeiro@orlandosentinel.com Originally Published: April 15, 2020 at 10:27 AM EDT