Bringing “Drummers and Dreamers” to life has been incredibly rewarding. In researching, I found my way back to emblematic voices of Aita—Fatna Bent Lhoucine, and Bouchaib El Bidaoui, who often performed in drag—figures who once mesmerized me as a child in the early 1980s. I remember the heavy makeup, the sequins, the theatrical swagger, and I can’t pinpoint when this type of performance faded from the mainstream.

At school, I learned that in Molière’s and Shakespeare’s eras, men played women on stage; in Japan, Kabuki only lifted the ban on women at the end of the nineteenth century. Gendered performance, I realized, is a moving historical target. Then, in the mid-2010s, Kabareh Cheikhats arrived: a troupe of men performing Aita in drag, honoring the cheikhates while reviving the repertoire for new audiences. It felt less like novelty than return. May this book invite my readers to a broader musical world.

In the photo: Bouchaid El Bedaoui