Mermaid, Drag Queen And Oracle To Compete For Miss Subways Title

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — A mermaid, a drag queen tour guide and an F train oracle will compete on Thursday to be named Miss Subways 2017.

The City Reliquary Museum in Williamsburg will resurrect the historic New York City Subways Pageant on Thursday evening when a panel of celebrity judges will decide who best represents the MTA.

“In a night of performances spanning the classy, the trashy, the weird, and the whimsical, contestants will demonstrate their love for their subway line of choice,” organizers wrote on the museum website.

Contestants include Glace Chase, who describes herself as New York City’s only drag queen tour guide, Laura Von Holt, a mermaid with a fondness for the mythological Second Avenue Subway, and Rebecca Leib, the self-proclaimed F Train Oracle who will provide train line compatibility readings.

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Each of the 13 contestants will be asked to give a performance which will be judged by actress Janeane Garofalo, former Troll Museum curator Reverend Jen Miller, NY1 reporter Roger Clark and comedian Baratunde R. Thurston, the author of “How To Be Black.”

Performances will include banjo homages to the MTA, sword swallowing, tarot card readings and a modern adaptation of “Take The A Train.”

The event gives “a wink and a nod” to the Miss Subways beauty pageants — held in New York City from 1941 to 1977 — where straphangers competed for the honor of having their bios and photos posted in the subways.

It was the first integrated beauty pageant in American history — an African American woman was crowned in 1948 and an Asian-American woman won the prize in 1949.

The pageant will be held at the City Reliquary Museum 370 Metropolitan Ave. Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available on through museum’s website and cost either $20, $40 or $60.

Photos courtesy of the City Reliquary Museum