With Upcoming Tour and 'Fire Island' Role, Peppermint Makes Her Mark

Peppermint is on a roll lately. While making it as a finalist on "RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 9, the iconic queen has been an essential part of the New York City nightlife scene for years. The activist, trailblazer, and all-around legend became Broadway's first out trans woman to originate a lead role with her 2018 debut in The Go-Go's musical "Head Over Heels." She's still all over television, appearing in "Pose," "God Friended Me," "Schmigadoon" and more recently, cameoing in the gay romcom "Fire Island," and it's nothing short of spectacular to see Peppermint take over the world. Frankly, it's what she deserves.

With her first-ever solo tour "Letters Live" kicking off later this year, EDGE talked with the amazing Peppermint about performing, activism, Janet Jackson, and what we can expect from her upcoming tour.

EDGE: "Moment of Weakness: Letters To My Lovers" is such a lovely, sexy, and vulnerable album – it's hard to choose, but I think "Stat" or "Moment of Weakness" is my favorite. Can you talk a bit about your inspirations and your process of putting it all together?

Peppermint: I was in a relationship, and although it ended rather unceremoniously, I got a chance to feel a lot of the joys a relationship could bring. That's so normal and humdrum for the average person, but for queer people, we're not necessarily taught how to be in relationships that are healthy and supportive. I wanted to put all my feelings down sort of Taylor Swift and Adele style and I thought I'd just have a measly poem, but three albums later, I have a whole trilogy!

EDGE: What can fans expect from your "Letters Live Tour?"

Peppermint: It's important for me to be able to talk about the things that affect our community. In the past, it's always been coded and super hidden, but this time I wanted to do an R&B album about what it is like to be a Black trans woman in a relationship, and I don't think a lot of people have heard that before! I don't think a lot of people have bought a ticket to a Black trans woman's concert before either. This will be a chance to show the real side of me, an opportunity for them to really get to know the real me.

EDGE: You had so many amazing moments on "Drag Race," including legendary lip syncs, with some of the best reveals and moves we've ever seen. Is there any song you wish you could have lip synced to on the show that you didn't get to?

Peppermint: Well, it seems like Whitney Houston was a running theme on my season, so I'd have to say "I'm Your Baby Tonight" by Whitney, it's one of my favorite songs to lip sync.

EDGE: Recently, you made an amazing, and very sexy tribute video to Janet Jackson, lip syncing her song "If." What is it about Janet Jackson that you love?

Peppermint: Janet's an icon. I've always been a fan, some of her songs and music videos are very iconic. She's very influential in the dance world. You don't have to go far to see the influence Janet has had on those who have come after her. So naturally, I've always been inspired by Janet.

The video itself was 20-something years in the making...I learned that choreography right away. The moment the video came out I was enthralled. There's not a single person who's been with me through the many stages of my life who doesn't know that choreography, because I forced them to learn it. Whether you were in my family, my babysitter, or my school teacher, you were learning that choreography, and we were doing it. So, I was always able to live that fantasy in my mind, though it was always just my friends and I doing the choreography in a parking lot or in a field somewhere.

I wanted the chance to do something real, and make it official. Janet has a real connection to her backup dancers – it adds to what you see on stage, and I wanted to emulate that kind of performance and have that kind of connection. I figured why not do something nice for Janet's birthday? It was a surprise that she retweeted it!

EDGE: Have you got a top 5 Janet songs list?

Peppermint: "If," "That's the Way Love Goes," "Rhythm Nation," "Together Again," and "Throb."

EDGE: How did your role in "Fire Island" come about, and how was your experience in that film? It felt like a big moment, as it's a film that celebrates not only queer people but queer people of color, which is such an incredibly rare thing in movies.

Peppermint: It was a great experience, all in all. The only thing I regret is that I was unable to keep my outfit. They snatched it right back. The cast was great, the crew was fantastic. When they told me it was a retelling of "Pride and Prejudice" I was kind of like, "Oh no!" But it was done in such a wonderful way, and everyone was perfectly cast. Working with Andrew Ahn, the director, was fantastic, he was so deeply involved. It was great to be with people who were very professional, had lots of experience, but also definitely knew the life of living and being on Fire Island. Everyone in that group for the most part had had those experiences. A bunch of gays on Fire Island with their lesbian den mother if you will, is a very specific story, but the way it's told is very universal.

A fun fact: I did not film my scene on Fire Island. The nightclub we were shooting in, called the Ice Palace, they actually built a scale replica of it!

EDGE: You've done some pretty incredible things in your career as an entertainer, and also as an activist. Do you feel like those two parts of your life are intertwined?

Peppermint: Yeah, they are. The drag class that I graduated from was very much influenced by performers in the '90s. There was a tinge of advocacy in a lot of the work that even rock stars were doing. Getting music listeners on MTV to be involved in voting as a young person really helped put Bill Clinton into his presidency. People were vocal about HIV prevention and awareness and trying to erase the stigma.

It was instilled in me that entertainers are storytellers and advocates. Some of the best activists are great storytellers. I think a lot of the same ingredients it takes to be a good entertainer are the same it takes to be an activist.

EDGE: As an incredible activist, and with things being so tumultuous at the moment, what do you suggest for people who are looking to start their own journeys in activism?

Peppermint: I think the first thing is being able to recognize that things are intersectional. It's not just one thing or another that affects people. When we're looking into things, a lot of people think in terms of single issues, but a lot of these things are intersectional. You can't be concerned with job security and not being concerned with having healthcare, because those two things are intertwined. So, try to look at things in your life through an intersectional lens, which will allow you to see the connections you have to other people fighting for their life, even if at first it seemed like their fight was different.

It is easy to get involved with everyday activism. I don't necessarily consider myself an activist by trade. I'm not a professional activist. I'm just a person with a platform who is willing to use it when I can! There are some people in our community who [aren't] speaking out on certain issues which I think is unfortunate. Certainly, everyone can't do it or necessarily has to do it – I think we'd be a lot further along in certain issues if we did do it. Since I do think I have some of the skills to do it, I'm happy to do it. It just feels natural to me. Having witnessed so many others using their platform, it seems really easy to me. I think we're all fortunate that post-2020, it's not hard for even the average person to understand a lot of these issues, and understand how to use intersectional thought when they are thinking about a lot of these issues.

If people are looking for advice, we want people to do more than just outrage on the internet.