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A highlighter-pink splotch of color visible from half a mile away was the first indication that Tim Berry was walking up Route 2. A massive orange and pink Victorian-style skirt offset by an equally outrageous woman’s hat moved briskly from side to side as Berry came closer, powering his way up a hill. Coming to a halt at the top, he took off his large sunglasses to reveal a tired face showing the signs of a few days without shaving. He chose not to sit while he rested to avoid leg cramps, instead holding his oversized hat against his side with a white satin glove.
And tired he should be, as he was on day seven of the “Walk-Across-Maine-In-Drag-Athon.” The walk has taken him from the University of Southern Maine across his own campus at the University of Maine at Farmington and past Orono, his hometown, last Thursday. He is on his way to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, where he hopes to arrive on Thursday, Feb. 26.
The walk is a hybrid of fundraiser, demonstration and social experiment. It’s also Berry’s senior art project at UMaine Farmington. Berry has been collecting donations for United Way programs in Maine, but has chosen to do so dressed in women’s clothing that speaks – loudly – for itself.
According to the Facebook event profile that Berry created for the walk, “this project is intended as a serious artistic investigation into Maine culture and how it relates to something typically outside of itself (like a drag queen) trying to do something good within/for it.”
“Art can be in a gallery and it works as art there,” Berry said as he caught his breath, “but I think it’s supposed to make people ask questions. It’s like preaching to the choir in a gallery. Art needs to go out into the community.”
In this instance, Berry is both artist and subject, and it’s not the first time that he has combined fundraising with public drag for the sake of his unique brand of art.
Last November he “attempted to seesaw in a huge a– fluorescent hunter orange Marie Antoinette dress for 24 hours on [UMaine Farmington's] library green. I made it 19 hours and raised $1,500 for a heating assistance program and filled two 40-gallon tubs with food for the local pantry,” he said.
But Berry felt the need to take the idea a step further and take his outfit on the road.
“For this project I wanted to get out of the safety bubble of the liberal college campus and be in actual Maine communities … half the people I’ve met wouldn’t go to gallery, and they wouldn’t have met me without me going through their backyard,” he said.
Berry said reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’ve only had about four or five negative shouts from cars and been handed a few ‘how not to go to hell’ pamphlets. Other than that, it’s all been positive,” he said.
After taking Friday off at home in Orono due to the heavy snow, Berry reported a good Saturday on the road.
“Two different groups of women stopped to take their picture with me; one woman who was plowing her drive with an ATV and [holding] a cigarette told me she was proud of me. A woman came out of her house to talk to me … a guy from [the] Bangor Ghost Hunters Society pulled over to talk and take pictures, and two people invited me into their homes for food and coffee,” he said.
Berry was also invited into the American Legion Hall in Livermore Falls for a pancake breakfast and said that the Legion’s group was supportive, considering that he’s “sure that building has never seen a drag queen before.”
The most revealing reaction may have been that of a couple who stopped their truck alongside Berry in Mercer. Berry’s father, David Berry, who was “spotting” Berry while he walked, said that a “huge” 4×4 truck pulled up behind Berry, and a couple got out. As David Berry guardedly watched, he noticed the truck’s license plate: “HICK4x4.”
“I was scared,” Berry said. However, the couple had simply stopped to shake his hand and offer encouragement, saying that the Drag-Athon was “epic” for that part of Maine.
“We stereotyped,” David Berry said.
“Stereotypes are meant to be broken,” Berry added.
Berry’s father has been an important link in the chain of people holding his trip together. For material and moral support, and especially for safety’s sake, Berry urged people on his Facebook event profile to spot him and follow in a car while he walks.
His father has been filling in many of the gaps in the spotting schedule and helping Berry stay positive and healthy. While he expressed concerns about the weather and the general precariousness of being outside for extended periods this time of year, he was confident that Berry had the support he needed to complete the project.
He has taken two “much-needed” days off from his schedule due to snowstorms, but the rest of the time, Berry said “the plowmen of Maine have kept the routes clear and dry,” adding, “so thank you, plowmen.”
When asked about supporting his son, who is gay and has made himself extremely visible through his drag-laden art projects – he was dismissive of not supporting one’s children.
“You gotta accept children for who they are, just like any other person. [Our family has] three children, and they were raised the same way but have turned out totally different. Any parent should be fully supportive,” David Berry said.
This support has been vital to Berry’s walk, not only morally, but logistically.
UMaine Farmington “was concerned about safety, and they were really considering not endorsing this project,” Berry said.
He “would have done it anyway.” Still, after showing them all the planning that he started in December with the help of professor Kate Randall, “they decided to endorse it.”
Berry is still soliciting any and all kinds of support for his cause and hopes to continue raising funds and causing controversy until he arrives in Presque Isle on Feb. 26.
His event’s Facebook profile, “Walk-Across-Maine-In-Drag-Athon,” has an open invitation and contains links to make donations. It can also be used to keep tabs on Berry’s progress and volunteer to spot him along his walk.
Driving up Routes 1 and 2, between Orono and Presque Isle before Thursday, onlookers will find the man in a bright pink dress and hat, wearing a sign that proclaims in electrical-tape lettering, “Walk Maine in Drag 4 Charity.”
