Stormie Daie Painting (The Black Lit Library at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens)

Stormie Daie is one of the prominent drag queens in the Durham community, coming from the House of Coxx. Stormie has a background in science, receiving their B.S. in Ecological and Environmental Science at Elon University. She uses her education in science and expertise with youth education to host “Science with Stormie” and is the local charter leader for Drag Queen Story Hour. Drag Queen Story Hour became a central target in a culture war in 2023, with conservatives throughout the United States attempting to implement anti-drag legislation, all of which have luckily been overturned or were never implemented.  

This painting is part of a greater collection entitled “The Black Lit Library,” created by local artist Claire Alexander. Claire is described as “ a Diaspora child, abolitionist feminist storyteller and student of ecologies who weaves autobiographical reflections with ancestral wisdom. Through mixed media paintings and street art, she infuses detailed portraits with notions of struggles and strength that exist at the intersection of environmental, gender and racial justice.” (Self-Discovery in the Story Circle, Sarah P. Duke Gardens) This is evidenced in her painting of Stormie Daie, which includes themes relating to Black pride and Black Diaspora” and “makes space for queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color to imagine ourselves, in all of our complexities and expansiveness, as belonging to the world.” The painting included magnolia leaves and oatstraw from Good Soil Gardens and Earthseed Land Collective, two local lands “stewarded by BIPOC” individuals. There is also evidence of Stormie’s science education background in the details. Alexander includes themes relating to AfroCarolina, a term coined by folklorist and public historian Michelle Lanier, relating to the heritage and experiences of the African Diaspora in the Carolinas.  

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