We Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise

Queer Colombian Salvadoran Alejandro Varela is one of my favorite living writers. His work weaves together comedy and tragedy as if it was the easiest thing in the world. His first novel, The Town of Babylon , is about growing up queer and brown in a place where neither is possible. His second book, The People Who Report More Stress , begins with a short story about gay hookups at the U.N. I had t...

Charles A. Bush is a Black queer writer from West Philadelphia. In this interview, we dive deep into their first book, Every Variable of Us , a love story between two high school girls, one Black and one Indian American. Listen in to find out how much of the story is based on Charles' real life. It's much more than I expected. Find Charles at @Charles_A_Bush on Instagram and TikTok and @CharlesBus...

Bangladeshi Irish novelist Adiba Jaigirdar writes love stories with queer brown girls as protagonists. In this interview, we discuss risk-taking in the publishing industry, racism in Ireland, and do deep dives into three of her novels. We discuss the interracial (Brazilian-Bengali) relationship in The Henna Wars (2020), the interfaith (Hindu-Muslim) relationship Hani & Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating...

Gay Iranian author Abdi Nazemian joins Nia to drop some intergenerational wisdom. We dive deep into his queer young adult novels: Desert Echoes, about addiction and grief; Only This Beautiful Moment, about three generations (two queer) of an Iranian family; and Like A Love Story, about coming of age at the height of the AIDS epidemic. In the process, he explains what it was like growing up in the...

Lamya H., the author of Hijab Butch Blues (she/they) is a bit of an enigma. In the memoir (and this interview), she never reveals which South Asian country she was born in or which Middle Eastern country she grew up in, and Lamya H. is a pen name. However, the book is not sparse on details when it comes to their experiences of racism, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia, or in chronicling their a...

Comedian Tan Hoang discusses moving from Vietnam to the Philly suburbs at age 9, transitioning at acting school, and how training as an actor made her a better stand-up. She also tells stories of hosting Pride events in small towns, being recognized when she's out with her mom, and being a "peacocky-ass kid" and an aspiring rock star in a dying genre. If you live near Philly, catch her at Tattooed...

Jonny Garza Villa (they/them), author of three young adult novels, discusses growing up queer and Mexican in a small Texas town, how getting into astrology helped them develop characters, and how pettiness can serve as inspiration. This is a deep dive into their books Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun (2021), Ander + Santi Were Here (2023), and Canto Contigo (2024), with a teaser for their forthc...

Growing up, reading and writing were things that made Sonora Reyes feel "dumb" in school. So how did they get from there to writing the Lamba Literary Award-winning, National Book Award-nominated Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School ? In this interview, Sonora discusses healing their relationship to writing through fanfiction, growing up with a combination of brown pride and gay shame, and receivin...

A panel featuring four of Nia King's favorite artists: Sawyer Lovett , Joe Hatton, Vo Vo , and Cristy C. Road . Zines played a crucial role in reducing social isolation for many of us, whether we were one of the only punks of color in our scene (Nia in Boston, Joe in the Dakotas, and Vo in Sydney, Australia), or the only gay in our rural Virginia town (Sawyer). Cristy C. Road discusses growing up...

We Want the Airwaves celebrates 10 years with a panel featuring six of the artists from Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume Three : Anthony J. Williams , Kamal Al-Soylaylee , Joamette Gil , Venus Kii Thomas , Qwo-Li Driskill , and Osa Atoe ! (This is the first part of a two-part episode, so you will only hear Ant, Kamal, and Jo on it.) This panel is co-hosted by Maliha Ahmed, co-editor of Queer...

In this very special CROSSOVER episode, I interview the hosts of the Mexican podcast No Hay Tos (in English after they interviewed me for their own show in Spanish). Beto and Héctor, both long-time Spanish teachers, discuss their own language-learning journey, what they love about podcasting, and some of the challenges of teaching. Check out their podcast at nohaytospodcast.com. Read the transcrip...

Sri Lankan-American Tamil trans woman reporter and martial artist Simi Kadirgamar is the guest on this month's podcast episode. In it, we discuss her reported/illustrated zine on the Indian and Pakistani occupation of Kashmir, a family that peddles Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training to police all over the world, and why she chose hate groups and the far-right as her beat. Shout out to my BFF Amirah for...

Singer, dancer, actor: Briyana Clarel is a triple threat! In this episode, the Black, nonbinary theater artist discusses growing up in South Jersey, racism at Princeton, and learning to love musical theater, sketch comedy, and a capella. Read the transcripts at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Afro-Latina trans woman essayist Princess Harmony stops by the podcast to discuss her writing for Black Girl Dangerous, Wear Your Voice and Workers World. We also discuss what's missing in reporting about the opioid pandemic, the different types of medication-assisted treatment available and whether rehab is a scam. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.c...

In part two of my interview with Afro-Peruvian Brazilian filmmaker Gabriela Watson-Burkett, we discuss her second film, Baobab Flowers and her new organization, Presente! Media. Baobab Flowers follows the parallel lives of two Black women educators, one who lives and teaches in São Paulo, Brazil and another who lives and teaches in Philly. At the end, we discuss the new media org Gabriela co-found...

Filmmaker and producer Gabriela Watson-Burkett makes work to connect people across the African diaspora. Her first film, Nosotros Afroperuanos , discusses Black history in Peru and its erasure. Her second film, Baobab Flowers , draws parallels between a Black woman educator in São Paulo, Brazil and a Black woman educator in Philadelphia. Her most recent project, ¡Presente! Media, is an activist me...

How has coronavirus impacted the fitness industry? In this episode Nia chats with two queer Black business owners, athletic trainer Mike Watkins and Pilates instructor Teresa Ellis, to find out. They also discuss creating fat-positive fitness spaces, working with disabled clients, and ways they try to make their services accessible to low-income folks who want to work out. Read the transcript at s...

At the intersection of political art and environmental science, queer nonbinary Chinese-American F èini Yĭn is a celestial presence in a static world. Their work ranges from enthralling pieces in The New York Times , to art processions designed to shake up science communities, to short stop-motion films about the natural world — a praxis that challenges the status quo and engages the people, cuts...

To say that Vo, a nonbinary trans masc Vietnamese immigant, is an artist is to dance to the arrhythmic tune of understatement: they are a traveler, social worker, and wizened anarchist soul who not only dabbles in various artistic media, but transforms each discipline they encounter. Their galvanizing work in the zine underground with the international BIPOC [Black/Indigenous/People of Color] zine...

Black Boricua Taíno queer and trans artist Ignacio Rivera is a poet, performer and activist working to end child sexual abuse, or CSA. They are also a grandparent. In this interview, featuring their baby grandson, Ignacio discusses growing up in Brooklyn, becoming politicized in Massachusetts, and the connections between sexual liberation and ending CSA. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivi...

Bisexual Latina writer, comics artist and musician Suzy X has gone from making zines to drawing comics for Rookie Mag to writing for MTV Iggy (RIP) to being the Latin music editor at Rolling Stone in the short time (approx. 7 years) I've known her, and I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this success. In this interview we discuss her zines Malcriada and Chronicles of an 8th Grade Mallgoth ,...

Queer Indian-American author Rahul Mehta discusses his award-winning collection of short stories, Quarantine; growing up Asian in Appalachia; and how LGBTQ audiences in India have received his work. We also try to sort out why he's so drawn to unlikeable protagonists. Photo by Matthew Hamilton. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

Alex Smith is a queer, Black sci-fi writer, musician and visual artist. In this interview, we discuss his collection of short stories, ARKDUST , as well as his many influences, ranging from Public Enemy to Nirvana and Marvel Comics to the Black Panther Party. Photo by Shane Jenkins. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at Patreon.com/artactivistnia .

BL Shirelle of Die Jim Crow Records discusses the challenges of recording and releasing music by incarcerated artists. She also shares stories of dealing drugs, doing time and raising kids with her wife. (Photo by Verse.) Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia . Transcript coming soon.

Black queer Philadelphia-based musician and visual artist Oliver Spencer (known musically as St. Sol ) discusses growing up between North Carolina and Okinawa, how their dad's military service impacted their life, and finding the space to be weird in (an arts) high school. We also talk about the whiteness of art school(s), not letting perfectionism hold you back, and using music to assert your hum...