Drag and donations have gone hand in hand for a long time. Performers often promote fundraiser shows, food drives and other charitable causes, using their platforms to uplift others. But not many performers give up the stage to devote their life to community service.
Enter Roo Levin of Indianapolis.
She’s a former award-winning drag king who made her first million as an adult model in the ’90s and now runs the First Church of Cannabis with her husband Bill. These days, she’s best known not for performance art or modeling, but for her heart of gold.
Widely known as “Mama Roo,” Levin devotes her time to supporting local drag artists and distributing meals and supplies to the unhoused communities of Indianapolis.
“Roo’s legacy is one of love,” said Luna Magick, producer of the drag variety show RIOT Night. “There are people who haven’t given up on themselves and will live a better life tomorrow because she showed up for them in a way that no one else would.”
From the stage to the streets
Each week, Levin and half a dozen volunteers prepare meals and distribute them to people experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis.
Starting near 38th Street and working their way south to Garfield Park, the group visits anywhere from 12 to 18 camps and feeds as many as 180 people on each outing.
Having fed some of her regulars for more than nine years, Levin, 55, has seen their struggles and heard their stories. People living outside, she said, need healthy meals and stability.
“There are some people who will never go inside. They have had so much trauma in life that they have just dropped out of society for their own mental well-being,” she said. “Camping is one thing, but every day — on the coldest night of the year when nobody wants to go to their mailbox — I can’t even imagine what it’s like.”
Meat Shop of Indianapolis donates 80 pounds of meat each week, Fresh Market donates other ingredients and restaurants such as John’s Famous Stew donate prepared meals.
Levin’s friends in the drag and burlesque community step up to help, too.
In October, the RIOT night crew collected six large bags of warm clothing for Levin and her volunteers to distribute on their weekly outings.
“Chronic homelessness is on the rise in Indianapolis, and preparing our neighbors for colder weather with things we already had and were willing to part with felt like a great way to make a positive impact in our community without creating waste or spending money,” Magick said.
Indy’s Got Talent routinely encourages attendees to bring canned goods, in exchange for extra votes for their favorite performer, and donates them to Levin’s efforts.
Drag me to church
Levin may have retired from performing, but she never took drag out of her heart.
“I’ve done dance and drama my whole life,” Levin said, sitting in the living room of her Mapleton Fall Creek home, surrounded by clown statues with her dog Morticia on her lap.
Levin lived in South Carolina for 12 years, where she first ventured into drag. Randy O’Reilly, Levin’s alternate persona, became Mr. Gay South Carolina twice, was named King of the Sugar Shack, and held his own floats in the South Carolina Pride parade in Columbia.
By the time she moved to Indiana nine years ago, she had mostly given up performing.
“It just kind of ran its course. I didn’t really feel like I needed the validation as much anymore, and started liking doing things for people more behind the scenes. I felt like I was more helpful.” Levin said.
She had known Bill Levin since she was 21 years old, when she worked as a nanny for his first child. They remained friends over the years and started dating long-distance while she lived in South Carolina. She moved back to Indianapolis to be closer to Bill and help him run the First Church of Cannabis, which he founded in 2015.
Roo aided the birth of several drag kings in 2022 when she announced plans to produce a monthly show at the First Church of Cannabis. She wanted to bring kings to the forefront of the Indianapolis drag scene.
“There were no drag kings that were really getting hired at the clubs. People were still saying, ‘What’s a drag king?’” she said.
Today, kings such as Oliver Closeoff and Beelzebabe, who performed in those church shows, have their own productions in Indianapolis and beyond.
“My first time performing at the church was the first time I felt accepted and encouraged to be weird,” Closeoff said. “I think having a woman older than me who I could talk authentically with about queer-related things as well as general life things really allowed me to feel comfortable taking up space.”
Learning ‘kind, not nice,’ from her mom
Levin chuckled while remembering her mom as “kind, not nice.” She said she embraces the same sentiment for herself.
Levin was raised on protests, outreach and doing what’s right. Her family wasn’t particularly religious, but they routinely donated to St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral for Children and spent time serving at the local soup kitchen on holidays.
In the early ’90s, Levin became an adult model and dancer, posing for magazines such as Hustler, Penthouse and Swank.
“I made my first million before I turned 21,” she said. “It was all gone immediately.”
But not for the reasons you might think from a 19-year-old model.
She spent her money making sure her friends were fed, fridges were stocked, heads had roofs over them and memories were made. She recalled a group of six to eight people that she cared for in those years.
Now, with the help of the community she’s built in Indianapolis, she’s extended that circle to Indianapolis’ ever-growing homeless population.
Black Ivy, Indianapolis burlesque performer, has taken her own leap into outreach and mutual aid after working with Levin.
“Everybody has a story,” Black Ivy said. “If you take the time to get to know these people, you will realize you are a lot closer to losing everything than you are from, you know, the top 1%. A lot of people are just a couple of paychecks away from food insecurity or housing insecurity.”
Levin encourages anyone who is physically able to come out at least once to help feed folks in the camps, challenge your perceptions and understand their needs. You can reach Levin via Facebook or through The First Church of Cannabis to volunteer.
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Dylyn Rose is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach them at daggercollectiveindy@gmail.com.
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