We Want The Airwaves

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. Read the interview at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

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. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

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.

Queer Puerto Rican writer Gabby Rivera writes a series for Marvel Comics called America. The protagonist, America Chavez, is a Puerto Rican lesbian with two moms who punches star-shaped holes in time and space. In this interview, we discuss the challenges Gabby faced while trying to complete her debut novel, Juliet Takes A Breath, and how she was able use the success of that novel to launch her comic-writing career. Photo by Julieta Salgado. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Paradise Khanmalek draws fat, hairy, brown goddesses. In this episode, Paradise and I discuss the way capitalism segments the art world, the way Iranians are racialized in the US, and the spiritual side of graphic design work. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Former managing editor of the East Bay Express, Sarah Burke and I discuss the exploitation of gallery artists and the masculinist nature of journalism. We also try to get to the heart of what makes a good editor. Photo by Janelle Kajisa. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

In part two of this interview with Black queer writer Anthony J. Williams, we discuss anti-Black racism in POC communities, analyze some common Bay Area social justice lingo, and identify a few of the barriers Black folks face in accessing mental health help. Photo by Jee Jing. Transcription by Joyce Hatton. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactvistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Queer Black non-binary writer Anthony J. Williams and I discuss his time studying abroad in South Africa, growing up in a military family, and the lack of Black folks in Bay Area "POC" spaces. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Listen to the audio at qtpocart.libsyn.com or on itunes. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Mixed-race Chinese and white Canadian trans lady novelist jia qing wilson-yang and I sit down to discuss her Lambda Award-winning novel, Small Beauty. Topics covered include disrupting the model minority myth, the non-linear nature of healing, and obsessive cleaning as a means of coping with transphobia. Photo by Jackson Ezra. Read the transcript: scribd.com/artactivistnia Support the podcast: patreon.com/artactivistnia

Indian-Canadian queer Muslim author Farzana Doctor and I discuss her three novels, achieving diversity without sacrificing quality, and being divinely inspired. Photo by Vivek Shraya. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Chinese-Canadian trans poet and author Kai Cheng Thom and I discuss her new book, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir, her fear of loving violence too much, and using lies to tell emotional truths. Transcribed by Joyce Hatton. Photo by Jackson Ezra. Read the transcription at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Cherokee Two-Spirit artist, activist, and scholar Qwo-Li Driskill knows more about the history of indigenous people in the US than anyone I know. In this episode we discuss the complicated relationships between Black and Cherokee people in US history, identity policing in indigenous communities, and how sometimes your ancestors' culture gets passed down to you without you even knowing it. Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Gay Muslim Iraqi-Canadian author Hasan Namir asked himself, “What would my life be like if I had never left Iraq?” He imagines the answer in his Lambda Award-winning novel, God in Pink. In this interview we discuss the double-lives of gay men in the Middle East, ISIS being on Grindr, and whether things were better for gays in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Read the transcription at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia. Audio editing by StormMiguel Florez. Transcription by Nadia Abou-Karr. Photo by Bijan (mood.berlin).

Gay Muslim Yemeni-Canadian journalist Kamal Al-Solaylee traveled to ten different countries to report Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone), his magnum opus on race, color(ism), labor, migration, and economics. We discuss his definitions of brown: as not Black and not white, and as cheap (immigrant/migrant) labor. We also discuss the history of colonial powers using of brown people (specifically Indians) as a buffer between Blacks and whites places like Trinidad and Uganda, and debate whether Black and brown can ever co-exist peacefully in such places. His book also includes reporting from Sri Lanka, Qatar, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the US, the UK, France, and Canada. Interview transcribed by Amir Rabiyah. Audio editing by StormMiguel Florez.

Usually on We Want the Airwaves I interview queer and trans artists of color about their lives and their work, but sometimes I get to interview an artist I really admire who is not queer or trans. Hari Kondabolu is one of those people. In this interview we discuss being on @midnight, his friendship with W. Kamau Bell, and why he loves Oakland and recorded his album Waiting for 2042 there. Intro music is Twenty Years On by Safe. Please support the indiegogo campaign for our East Coast book tour!