Drag performers join Berlin Nightclub employees in protest

Chicago Reader: At 8:30 PM on the first Friday of August, prominent drag performer Irregular Girl was putting on her lashes, making a home cocktail, and waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up for her monthly event, Strapped (Berlin Nightclub’s premiere dance party catering to lesbians of all genders), when she decided to cancel the show. She had just received a call from Jolene Saint, a bartender and security guard at the Lakeview venue, as well as a lead organizer for the recently unionized Berlin employees. Saint asked that Irregular Girl, her show coproducer Siichelle, and her cast not cross the picket line that night as union members protested outside the venue to speed up contract negotiations with Berlin’s owners, Jo Webster and Jim Schuman.