Cookie Diorio
(mother)
(she/her) Philadelphia-based drag performer, a classically trained vocalist, a songwriter, an activist, a husband, music teacher and lover of all things sparkly.
She mastered walking in 5 inch stilettos in the night clubs of Boston, achieved her hair fantasy by studying vintage videos of Grace Bumbry and founded the giving project Art of the Heel.
Cookie grew up in historic Auburn, NY with gospel in her ears, civil rights in her blood and many songs in her heart. She trained at Ithaca College in the voice studio of Angus Godwin and learned the many different skills of western classical music from master teachers such as Carol McAmis in vocal pedagogy, Lawrence Doebler in choral arts, Dana Wilson in composition and Patrick Hansen in opera coaching. While Cookie has been in and out of the drag scene since 2002, she began performing regularly in the Philadelphia area as host of the Art Song Repertory Theater Company’s salon series “Saturday Afternoon Drinking Songs” in 2013.
Since, she has produced the shows Fire In My Bones: A Gospel Jubilee, Beauty From Our Sorrows, Telling Herstories, Forces of Nature, Music: The Food of Love and I, Too, Sing America. She has also been soloist for events, galas, concerts and on the cabaret stage.
What’s your drag superpower?
“I’ve always had superpowers. As a kid, I didn’t just play—I conjured entire universes from thin air. While other children were building forts, I was architecting empires, complete with their own mythologies and mood lighting. That power never left me. These days, I wield it differently: I walk into a room and reality gets a little bendy. People pause. They tilt their heads. I captivate, I confuse, I delight—and sometimes, I leave them wondering if I was real or just a particularly fabulous fever dream.”
Late Night Snacks
Cover of Chaka Khan’s Through the Fire
If you could wear one pair of heels for the rest of your life, which would they be?
“If you’ve caught my song Heel Talk, then you already know: heels are non-negotiable; they’re not just footwear, they’re gospel. I like mine tall enough to qualify as a minor architectural feat. But my heart? It belongs to the block heel with a peep-toe. It’s sturdy enough to strut with conviction, and it lets my pedicure do the talking—because yes, even my toes have something to say.”
Heel Talk
Music and words by Cookie Diorio and Amina Uqdah
If you could bottle the feeling of walking onstage, what would the fragrance be called?
“For me, stepping onto the stage is nothing short of a religious experience. I’ve spent hours preparing—meditating, manifesting, maybe shedding a glittery tear or two in the dressing room. I’ve summoned my muse like a high priestess with contour sharp enough to cut doubt. That moment is ritual, sweat, and glam distilled into a single stride that could part oceans. “Strutified” Not a scent. A state of arrival.”
Look at Me
Two songs of self-discovery from the gospel of Cookie Diorio
