THE BLACK CATALYST SHOW

SEASON 1 EPISODE 1: CHICAGO'S DARLINGS

In this episode, we visit Chicago’s inspiring Black Queers. From LGBTQ+ news headlines to the narrative feature that takes a closer look at what makes Nobody’s Darling a unique experience as the second Black Queer, woman-owned bar in the United States including an interview with Black lesbian pioneers and Chicago LGBT Hall of Famers, Pat McCombs and Vera Washington who are critical to lesbian bar history in Chicago and fought racist carding in the 1970s. They also created Executive Sweet which began as a Lesbian-only “traveling club” (bar takeover/pop-up bar event).

Host/Audio Editor: Jameela Hammond

Videographer/Video Editor: Brooke Coleman

Video:  https://youtu.be/WxSID0vezlA

Follow @theblackcatalyst for more information.
YouTube.com/JAMPACKED

ABOUT:

THE BLACK CATALYST SHOW is an audio/video podcast show focusing on inspiring Black Queer stories discussing identity, coming out, navigating through microaggressions/discrimination, LGBTQ+ community, safe space, and more.

Black Queer folx have been the changemakers, but their stories don’t always receive front-page coverage. George Floyd’s death united people to stand for racial justice and LGBTQ rights throughout the world. Chanting  — Black Lives Matter led to the rallying cry that— All Black Lives Matter. It was important for the Black community to reconcile – at long last – the way it has ignored the three layers of marginalization that its Queer folx experience because anti-Black racism couldn’t be dismantled without also dismantling homophobia, transphobia, etc. Black LGBTQ leaders have been at the forefront of change, including Alicia Garza and DeRay Mckesson. The Gay Liberation Day march that turned into the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York was spearheaded by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, Queer people of color and trans activists. Bayard Rustin, was a Black gay civil rights activist and mastermind of the Civil Rights Movement's major campaigns, such as the March on Washington.  Rustin was also an advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and ‘60s.  As the documentary The Same Difference shows, BIPOC LGBTQ+ in relation to White LGBTQ+ are very different in representation and their cultural differences.  Now, the first Black (Queer) woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing, Lena Waithe, has been instrumental in pushing Hollywood for more Black Queer representation. 

The names Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros are more than just a name displayed on the USC Annenberg Media Center’s Assignment Desk. Jameela Hammond and Jacki Cisneros both worked the Assignment Desk at KNBC. One day, while Jacki was preparing to send her resume out, told Jameela, “I wish I would just win the lotto.” Days later, Jacki and her husband, Gilbert Cisneros won the California Mega Lottery jackpot — $266 million.  

Jacki loves to play the “What if” game, when she poses a hypothetical question to her husband who never loves to play the game. On their way to Outback Steakhouse, they passed by the local Lottery office and Gilbert decided to play the game.  Their “What if” turned into a discussion of how they want to give back to their alma maters and their community.  They did exactly that when they won the lottery, establishing The Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros Foundation, dedicated to increasing the education level of Latino students.

The names Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros are more than just a name displayed on the USC Annenberg Media Center’s Assignment Desk. Jameela Hammond and Jacki Cisneros both worked the Assignment Desk at KNBC. One day, while Jacki was preparing to send her resume out, told Jameela, “I wish I would just win the lotto.” Days later, Jacki and her husband, Gilbert Cisneros won the California Mega Lottery jackpot — $266 million.  

Jacki loves to play the “What if” game, when she poses a hypothetical question to her husband who never loves to play the game. On their way to Outback Steakhouse, they passed by the local Lottery office and Gilbert decided to play the game.  Their “What if” turned into a discussion of how they want to give back to their alma maters and their community.  They did exactly that when they won the lottery, establishing The Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros Foundation, dedicated to increasing the education level of Latino students.

EPISODE 87
JUNE 30, 2021

BE THE MATCH

✨🏳️‍🌈 JARED LIPSCOMB [Celebrity Makeup Artist, Podcast Host of Back On Air & @bethematch Ambassador] joins to talk how he found out he was diagnosed with leukemia, how he almost didn’t get his transplant in time, need for diversity in bone marrow registry, the LGBTQ+ community is welcome to donate with Be The Match vs. blood donation verbiage with others, and more!

We play STORYTIME to create names for makeup lines with a country twist with Diet Dr. Pepper & 805 Beer!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/95Wh4E-GMpY
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/be-the-match

=====
ABOUT:
✨🏳️‍🌈 Jared Lipscomb is a celebrity makeup artist, host of the podcast Back On Air, and as of april 2021 a Leukemia Survivor. He uses his platform to share his beauty work as well as to advocate for the queer cancer community by spreading awareness for Be The Match. As an ambassador, he is focusing on diversifying the bone marrow registry and spreading the importance of signing up. Jared loves chihuahuas, the color pink and Britney Spears.

@jaredlips
#bethematch

linktr.ee/bethematch

======
SHOW NOTES: 

0:00 Show Intro

1:30 Jared Lipscomb Intro

3:25 Meet Jared Lipscomb 

8:50 Growing up around the south to moving to Florida 

11:50 finding confident gay kids at his high school 

13:20 Moving to LA from Florida 

14:40 power of positive thinking

• going from the Venice bubble to how his philanthropy got him started as a makeup artist 

22:00 when he began to feel sick and found out he was diagnosed w/ leukemia 

30:00 how he almost didn’t get his transplant in time w/ the travel ban 

34:00 what it was about pop music that got him through that also helped him with his breathing 

37:20 Drinking Game: STORYTIME remix, making up cosmetic lines with a southern twist 

55:00 importance to Be The Match for someone that needs a transplant. 

59:00 donating blood 

• Process of how to find if you’re a match 
• Process of donating blood (not intrusive)
• What being on a private registry means
• How Be The Match is lgbtq+ friendly 

1:06:16 Words of Wisdom 

The mantra that I lived by in the midst of the most suffering that I was going through with my cancer treatment. 

This is temporary. For me it meant, that pain, suffering and hardship of what I was going through, that it was all temporary. If you’re going through a rough patch, remember it’s temporary. 

1:08:00 fighting laws that homophobic legislature and language in donating blood.  

- homoglobin is fighting for the LGBTQ+ community 

1:10:00 outro 

EPISODE 87
JUNE 30, 2021

BE THE MATCH

✨🏳️‍🌈 JARED LIPSCOMB [Celebrity Makeup Artist, Podcast Host of Back On Air & @bethematch Ambassador] joins to talk how he found out he was diagnosed with leukemia, how he almost didn’t get his transplant in time, need for diversity in bone marrow registry, the LGBTQ+ community is welcome to donate with Be The Match vs. blood donation verbiage with others, and more!

We play STORYTIME to create names for makeup lines with a country twist with Diet Dr. Pepper & 805 Beer!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/95Wh4E-GMpY
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/be-the-match

=====
ABOUT:
✨🏳️‍🌈 Jared Lipscomb is a celebrity makeup artist, host of the podcast Back On Air, and as of april 2021 a Leukemia Survivor. He uses his platform to share his beauty work as well as to advocate for the queer cancer community by spreading awareness for Be The Match. As an ambassador, he is focusing on diversifying the bone marrow registry and spreading the importance of signing up. Jared loves chihuahuas, the color pink and Britney Spears.

@jaredlips
#bethematch

linktr.ee/bethematch

======
SHOW NOTES: 

0:00 Show Intro

1:30 Jared Lipscomb Intro

3:25 Meet Jared Lipscomb 

8:50 Growing up around the south to moving to Florida 

11:50 finding confident gay kids at his high school 

13:20 Moving to LA from Florida 

14:40 power of positive thinking

• going from the Venice bubble to how his philanthropy got him started as a makeup artist 

22:00 when he began to feel sick and found out he was diagnosed w/ leukemia 

30:00 how he almost didn’t get his transplant in time w/ the travel ban 

34:00 what it was about pop music that got him through that also helped him with his breathing 

37:20 Drinking Game: STORYTIME remix, making up cosmetic lines with a southern twist 

55:00 importance to Be The Match for someone that needs a transplant. 

59:00 donating blood 

• Process of how to find if you’re a match 
• Process of donating blood (not intrusive)
• What being on a private registry means
• How Be The Match is lgbtq+ friendly 

1:06:16 Words of Wisdom 

The mantra that I lived by in the midst of the most suffering that I was going through with my cancer treatment. 

This is temporary. For me it meant, that pain, suffering and hardship of what I was going through, that it was all temporary. If you’re going through a rough patch, remember it’s temporary. 

1:08:00 fighting laws that homophobic legislature and language in donating blood.  

- homoglobin is fighting for the LGBTQ+ community 

1:10:00 outro 

EPISODE 86
QUEER CONFIDENCE

🏳️‍🌈🦄COACH ALEX RAY  joins to talk mental health, coming out journey, his attempted suicide to becoming the Queer Confidence Coach, Queer Confidence Coaching Steps, and more!

We play MENTALLY STIMULATE ME with Grapefruit Soda & Beer!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/6tlxSWYeBPo
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/queer-confidence

 =====
ABOUT:

✨🏳️‍🌈 Coach Alex Ray use to be extremely insecure. After hitting rock bottom with his depression in 2017, he went on a search to find out what made people confident. After taking several year to work on his own confidence, he now helps others in the LGBTQIA+ community become confident through his proven process.

@coachalexray
about.me/coachalexray

EPISODE 86
QUEER CONFIDENCE

🏳️‍🌈🦄COACH ALEX RAY  joins to talk mental health, coming out journey, his attempted suicide to becoming the Queer Confidence Coach, Queer Confidence Coaching Steps, and more!

We play MENTALLY STIMULATE ME with Grapefruit Soda & Beer!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/6tlxSWYeBPo
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/queer-confidence

 =====
ABOUT:

✨🏳️‍🌈 Coach Alex Ray use to be extremely insecure. After hitting rock bottom with his depression in 2017, he went on a search to find out what made people confident. After taking several year to work on his own confidence, he now helps others in the LGBTQIA+ community become confident through his proven process.

@coachalexray
about.me/coachalexray

EPISODE 85
PRIDE & JOY

 ✨🏳️‍🌈ELENA JOY THURSTON [Founder of the nonprofit, Pride and Joy Foundation] joins talk her coming out journey while being in the Mormon Church, how “couples therapy”  turned into gay conversion “therapy,” coming out to her husband and kids, and more!

We play THE INTERROGATION and 2 TRUTHS AND A LIE w/ beer!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/SVkKXsYjj_8
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/pride-and-joy
=========
ABOUT:
✨🏳️‍🌈 Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational LGBTQ speaker, trainer, and founder of the nonprofit Pride and Joy Foundation. A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, Elena’s viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed 40,000+ times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, FOX, Boston’s First Event, and Seacoast Wellness Series.  Elena Joy recently joined the publishing world with Pride and Joy Publishing, the only LGBTQ+ publisher of solely LGBTQ+ empowerment and business books.

@pridejoyfoundation
bit.ly/2NzjhLo

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 Show Intro
1:30 Elena Joy Thurston Intro
3:27 Meet Elena Joy Thurston
5:00 Pride Night / Dyke Beer

• Los Angeles Dodgers Pride Night 
• Arizona Diamondbacks Pride Night
• Phoenix Mercury Pride Night 

6:30 Diana Taurasi - Phoenix Mercury
8:07 Drink of Choice: “Sangria” & Beer
8:30 Drinking Game: THE INTERROGATION 

• Do you believe in God?
• Would you eat a decomposing rodent if it saved a loved ones life?
• Would you chew food and feed your significant other if they needed it?

10:00 Religion for many people 
14:09 Auditory gross out 
15:10 Being a Mormon mom that started having unsettling thoughts and what happened next
19:13 Mormon undergarments 
21:20 How she started fly fishing 
22:20 Falling in love with her best friend 
23:50 When her husband found the text messages between she and her best friend 
24:34 Couples Counseling / Couples Therapy
28:45 First time she thought about suicide after talking to counselor 
29:50 Elena was about that Mormon Life 
33:40 Learning about “the guy in town” that ended up being Gay Conversion Therapy  
35:58 Different types of Gay Conversion Therapy sessions 
38:20 Her sessions of conversion therapy 
43:00 Feeling suicidal after conversion therapy
45:30 How it felt to finally go to a licensed professional therapist

47:00 New Chapter of life

47:30 Raising kids in the mormon church

49:00 Coming out to the kids

50:50 How her kids responded to coming out to them

52:06 What else held her back from wanting to come out (other than her marriage)

55:00 DRINKING GAME: 2 Truths & a Lie

1:03:12 Gay Conversion Therapists - Dave Matheson and many others that have come out as gay

1:07:05 Realized tides were going to conversion therapy. Religion Loopholes for conversion therapy 

1.17:00 Trying to ban conversion therapy will be hard to get on the ballot.

72:00 Germany has banned conversion therapy, but other countries 

73:22 Googling and finding conversion therapy place walking distance from an interviewers house that said it was mainly a problem in the US.  She was in London.

75:40 Pride & Joy Foundation

78:17 What the Elena now would say to the 15-16 year old Elena

79:39 Words of Wisdom

82:35 Contact Elena

EPISODE 85
PRIDE & JOY

 ✨🏳️‍🌈ELENA JOY THURSTON [Founder of the nonprofit, Pride and Joy Foundation] joins talk her coming out journey while being in the Mormon Church, how “couples therapy”  turned into gay conversion “therapy,” coming out to her husband and kids, and more!

We play THE INTERROGATION and 2 TRUTHS AND A LIE w/ beer!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/SVkKXsYjj_8
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/pride-and-joy
=========
ABOUT:
✨🏳️‍🌈 Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational LGBTQ speaker, trainer, and founder of the nonprofit Pride and Joy Foundation. A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, Elena’s viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed 40,000+ times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, FOX, Boston’s First Event, and Seacoast Wellness Series.  Elena Joy recently joined the publishing world with Pride and Joy Publishing, the only LGBTQ+ publisher of solely LGBTQ+ empowerment and business books.

@pridejoyfoundation
bit.ly/2NzjhLo

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 Show Intro
1:30 Elena Joy Thurston Intro
3:27 Meet Elena Joy Thurston
5:00 Pride Night / Dyke Beer

• Los Angeles Dodgers Pride Night 
• Arizona Diamondbacks Pride Night
• Phoenix Mercury Pride Night 

6:30 Diana Taurasi - Phoenix Mercury
8:07 Drink of Choice: “Sangria” & Beer
8:30 Drinking Game: THE INTERROGATION 

• Do you believe in God?
• Would you eat a decomposing rodent if it saved a loved ones life?
• Would you chew food and feed your significant other if they needed it?

10:00 Religion for many people 
14:09 Auditory gross out 
15:10 Being a Mormon mom that started having unsettling thoughts and what happened next
19:13 Mormon undergarments 
21:20 How she started fly fishing 
22:20 Falling in love with her best friend 
23:50 When her husband found the text messages between she and her best friend 
24:34 Couples Counseling / Couples Therapy
28:45 First time she thought about suicide after talking to counselor 
29:50 Elena was about that Mormon Life 
33:40 Learning about “the guy in town” that ended up being Gay Conversion Therapy  
35:58 Different types of Gay Conversion Therapy sessions 
38:20 Her sessions of conversion therapy 
43:00 Feeling suicidal after conversion therapy
45:30 How it felt to finally go to a licensed professional therapist

47:00 New Chapter of life

47:30 Raising kids in the mormon church

49:00 Coming out to the kids

50:50 How her kids responded to coming out to them

52:06 What else held her back from wanting to come out (other than her marriage)

55:00 DRINKING GAME: 2 Truths & a Lie

1:03:12 Gay Conversion Therapists - Dave Matheson and many others that have come out as gay

1:07:05 Realized tides were going to conversion therapy. Religion Loopholes for conversion therapy 

1.17:00 Trying to ban conversion therapy will be hard to get on the ballot.

72:00 Germany has banned conversion therapy, but other countries 

73:22 Googling and finding conversion therapy place walking distance from an interviewers house that said it was mainly a problem in the US.  She was in London.

75:40 Pride & Joy Foundation

78:17 What the Elena now would say to the 15-16 year old Elena

79:39 Words of Wisdom

82:35 Contact Elena

EPISODE 84
DYKE BEER

 ✨🏳️‍🌈🍻 SARAH HALLONQUIST [Co-Founder of DYKE BEER & Co-Founder of The Dyke Bar Takeover ] joins via Zoom to talk the word Dyke, Dyke Bars, Dyke Bar Takeovers of predominantly straight-leaning bars, and more!

We play STORYTIME Remix of Dyke Bar Names with 🏳️‍🌈🍻 DYKE BEER!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/sykl9DycAeE
BLOG: https://www.jampackedshow.com/post/dyke-beer

=====
ABOUT:
✨🏳️‍🌈 🍻 Loretta Andro Chung and Sarah Hallonquist are the brains and grassroots activists behind Dyke Beer, both a product that honors and celebrates LGBTQIA+ spaces and history and are event producers that host events throughout New York City, like Queeraoke, Dyke Cookouts and Self Defense classes.

@dykebeer
@dykebartakeover

https://lovedykebeer.com/

======
SHOW NOTES: 

0:00 Show Intro

1:00 Sarah Hallonquist Intro

3:10 Meet Sarah 

3:47 What happened when Jameela cracked open a Dyke Beer and what happened after that...

• Jameela’s Beer Review 

7:30 Importance of Dyke Beer

12:36 Dyke Bar Takeover turning into Dyke Beer 

17:00 lost queer spaces and bars 

19:10 Dyke Bar Takeover community 

20:02 Dyke Bar statistics 

21:53 Drinking Game: THE INTERROGATION

23:45 Being in New York during the pandemic 

26:45 Drinking Game: STORYTIME 

- Dyke Bar Names Remix 

41:00 Dyke Beer at Dinah Shore?

42:20 How they came up with the name Dyke Beer

53:00 Creating a Dyke Bar Takeover Chapter in your town

56:20 the definition and history of the word Dyke

58:50 the response they’ve gotten from using Dyke 

1:02:25 the term terf 

1:19:13 recap of Dyke Bar Names we came up with 

1:21:00 Sarah’s coming out journey 

1:22:36 what would Dyke Beer Sarah say to 14 year old Sarah

1:23:46 Words of Wisdom 

“Think about where your energy is placed. Try to place it in a positive place instead of in a negative place”

1:26:19 outro