artist
rae takei
Rae Takei (they/them) is a queer and trans Nisei haafu multidisciplinary artist, born and raised on the stolen land of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations, colonially called Vancouver. They are a 2013 graduate of Studio 58.
Rae is possibly better known as Rose Butch (@rose.butch), a continuously evolving non-binary drag persona whose style and sensibility follows the pursuit of gender euphoria. Their drag theatre collective, The Darlings, aims to challenge the boundaries of conventional drag and explores genderqueer, non-binary and trans experience through poetry, movement, dance, theatre, and immersive installation. After flourishing into the East Van drag scene in 2014 with their playful and theatrically-informed drag, Rose has won crowns in bar pageants, was the recipient of the first non-binary title in the International Court System through the Dogwood Monarchist Society in 2017, and is the subject of an episode in season 3 of CBC’s web doc series Canada’s A Drag.