We Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise

Black asexual zinester and cartoonist Joyce Hatton discusses their comic Locks and their zines Trust the Knife and Grief . Joyce is a survivor of breast cancer, homelessness, and a suicide attempt, so this episode gets pretty heavy. We also talk about the concept of "trauma porn" (which is not actual porn), when illustrations come easier than words, and their love of birds. Here is a link to the V...

1.) I'm taking a break from the podcast. I'll be back in October. 2.) I'm moving to Philly. Please hit my up if you have leads on any jobs! 3.) The book launch for Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 3 is October 19th at East Bay Booksellers in Oakland, featuring Anthony J. Williams , Luna Merbruja and Paradise Khanmalek . PLEASE DONATE so we can hire ASL interpreters for the event. Thank you!

Bisexual trans Latina writer Mey Rude discusses growing up in Idaho, getting kicked out of her church family, and how comics helped her find her queer- and trans-ness. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

Two-Spirit mestiza musician Aja Archuleta discusses growing up in a big Mexican family with deep Denver roots, discovering her Indigenous identity, and why "Two-Spirit" now fits her better than "trans". She also shares how her love of music evolved: from playing piano in Catholic school to discovering the how much fun noise-punk could be to making massage music. Photo by Kristin Cofer. Read the tr...

Queer Chinese-American drag queen, filmmaker, and musician, Kyle Casey Chu talks growing up in SF, touring the South in a punk band, and changing media representations of Asian-American men. Photo by Vincent Flores. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Acclaimed author and artist Luna Merbruja interviews me (Nia King) about my pre-podcast life as zinester and cartoonist, turning the podcast into a book, and how the QTPOC art world has changed since We Want the Airwaves began six years ago.

Black queer femme Southerner The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins may be best known as a burlesque performer, but she's also a stand-up comic, filmmaker, and taxidermist. In this interview, she discusses growing up working-class in the country, starting sex work after finishing college, and moving to the Bay (nearly ten years ago) to pursue greater artistic opportunities. Read the interview at scribd.com/a...

Queer Black and brown punk weirdos in love! In this episode, Breena Nuñez and Lawrence Lindell, both cartoonists, musicians, and educators, tell the story of how they met and how the places they grew up shaped them. They also discuss getting what you need out of art school DESPITE the faculty and administration, making a living off of art (but pursuing higher education to make a living as teachers...

Black queer SF native and dancer Jocquese Whitfield discusses discovering vogue in college, his first ball in Oakland, performing with MIA and Azealia Banks, taking corporate money and giving back to the community. (Photo by Ejects Collection) Read the interview at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .  

Indigenous trans woman poet Arielle Twist discusses her upcoming book DISNTEGRATE/DISSOCIATE , growing up Cree on a M'ikmaq reservation, and the mentorship she's received from other trans women of color poets. This conversation also covers the importance queer sex education, the problems of performative allyship, and the meaning of the phrase "all trans girls are ghosts." Photo by Laurence Philome...

Is visibility ultimately a good thing for the artist with revolutionary intentions? For most artists, seeking to be visible to the mainstream mass media is key to economic survival. However that visibility and the surveillance that comes with it can be detrimental to the intent of subversive art. What if we accept that anything we get paid to do can never be truly revolutionary, and that anything...

Jackie Wang's book Carceral Capitalism helps draw a direct line between the Recession of 2008, the following calls for austerity, and the visible uptick in anti-Black police violence. Indebted cities are trying to cut costs and raise funds, and they are doing it by having machines and algorithms make decisions that cops and judges would usually make. In places like Ferguson, MO, they're also charg...

Queer mixed-race writer Jackie Wang and I lived parallel lives in different parts of the country. In this first half of the interview, we reminisce about our teen years, spent listening to punk, reading/writing zines, and volunteering at Food Not Bombs. We also discuss her trajectory from zinester to blogger to published author and from dropping out of a poetry MFA program in the desert to becomin...

Chief Esparza is the founder and editor-in-chief of EFNIKS.com , an online magazine for queer and trans people of color. In this episode, we discuss the environmental racism issue ( EARTH ), why they went on hiatus after Pulse, and how they hope to nurture young writers of color in the future. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

Gay Lebanese-American novelist Rabih Alameddine authored the California Book Award-winning book An Unnecessary Woman and the Lambda Literary Award-winning book The Angel of History . In this interview we discuss (questionable) reasons some Lebanese don't identify as Arab, and the commodification of gay struggle, and writing against empire . TW for use of the word "sand n****r". This episode was re...

Black trans dyke poet Venus Di'Khadijah Selenite discusses finding her voice in the Baton Rouge slam poetry scene, moving to DC to transition, and performing at the White House. STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END to hear her perform two of her poems. Photo by Pink & White Productions. Read the transcript at scribd.com . Support the podcast at http://kck.st/2LaHzVi .

In part two of my interview with queer Afro-Cuban comics artist, editor, and publisher Joamette Gil , we get into the nuts and bolts of surviving off your creative labor. Jo gives us an exact breakdown of how much she made last year and how she made it. She also discusses the process of putting together Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology. Plus, find out what she's working on next! Rea...

Queer Afro-Cuban illustrator Joamette Gil and I discuss some of the many racial categories that exist in Cuban society and how they correlate (or don't) to US understandings of Blackness. Read the interview at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

Mixed-race Puerto Rican filmmaker and oral historian André Pérez discusses how he came to identify as a person of color, founding the Trans Oral History Project, and his upcoming documentary series America in Transition . Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .  

Mixed-race filmmaker Andre Perez discusses growing up queer and trans in the South, being raised by a white mom (in mostly Black environments), and moving to Chicago to have Puerto Rican community. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

In part two of my interview with Teresa Ellis, proprietor of PB&J: Pilates, Barre & Jams, we discuss sounding white, buying Black, and whether working out can actually help with chronic pain. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

Black queer cis femme Teresa Ellis worked as a stripper at the Lusty Lady for 13 years (before and after it was unionized), founded one of the first Black burlesque troupes (Harlem Shake), raised a kid, and now teaches fat-positive Pilates classes out of her Oakland home. She's also also had a slew of other jobs, from phone sex operator to real estate agent. Hear about them all in this episode. Re...

Biracial genderqueer DJ YNG GMA and I discuss how grandmas inspire their party philosophy, why they're not on social media, and the increasingly political hip-hop that's been coming out since the election. Read the interview at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .

Palestinian scholar Samar Habib is the author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East , Islam and Homosexuality , A Tree Like Rain, and Rughum and Najda . In this interview, we discuss the sexual curiosity and diversity of 9th-century Baghdad, her secular Christian upbringing in Lebanon during the civil war, and how her parents got tricked into baptizing her before the family moved to Australia...

Queer Puerto Rican novelist and writer of Marvel Comics "America" series Gabby Rivera and I discuss white feminism, cis feminism, writing for X-Men's Storm and making a living off of writing and speaking (by learning how to budget and save money)! Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia . Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia .