Meet Eva Sollberger, the incredible creator of the long running web series, Stuck in Vermont!  She recently filmed and edited a piece on The House of LeMay, which won an AAN Award! You wont want to miss her heartfelt journey into the world of the legendary drag queens, Amber and Margaurite LeMay.  #stuckinvermont #evasollberger #houseofLeMay #AmberLive

Kirk Frederick, Author of "Write That Down! The Comedy of Male Actress  Charles Pierce" joins Amber for an in-depth look at the work of Charles  Pierce!  Video, photos, and lots of incredible stories! You won't want  to miss this fantastic opportunity to hear the stories from the man who  was there, Kirk Frederick.  Brought to you by the drag queen comedy talk  show, Amber Live!  #CharlesPierce #KirkFrederick #femaleimpersonator #dragqueen #femaleimpressionist #WriteThatDown #maleactress #draghistory #dragqueentalkshow

Tracy Baim is one incredible person! This week, Amber gets to know her  and shares it all with you. As publisher of the Chicago Reader and  co-founder/owner of Windy City Times, Tracy has seen it all. The  knowledge and wisdom of her experience shines through in this incredible  interview. From the early days to the LGBTQ movement to today to the  future of our country, you won't want to miss Tracy's thoughts on it  all.

Tracy Baim

Tracy Baim is president and publisher of the Chicago Reader newspaper. She is co-founder and owner of Windy City Times. Baim received the 2013 Chicago Headline Club Lifetime Achievement Award. She is in the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame, the Association for Women Journalists-Chicago Chapter Hall of Fame, and the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. She has won numerous LGBTQ community and journalism honors, including the Community Media Workshop’s Studs Terkel Award in 2005. Baim has written and/or edited 13 books, including Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America; Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage; and Out and Proud in Chicago. Baim was executive producer of the lesbian film Hannah Free, starring Sharon Gless, and Scrooge & Marley. She directed and produced e. nina jay’s Body of Rooms film. She is creator of That's So Gay!, an LGBT trivia game. Baim is the founder of the Pride Action Tank and the Illinois LGBT Chamber of Commerce. She was also co-vice chair of Gay Games VII in Chicago, and in 2013 was founder of the March on Springfield for Marriage Equality.

Amber chats with the amazing Patricia Silverberg about her songs and her career, and they even listen to her music.  Don't miss this fun interview with a great guest.

Patricia Silverberg

Patricia’s soulful voice sings of the beauty and pain of modern life. Her raw, intelligent folk/rock lyrics illuminate the world as it is, rather than how we pretend it should be. She brings comfort and relatability to those who have felt alone and outcasted.

Patricia originally hails from NYC. She began playing the guitar at the age of five and studied voice with Broadway veterans. Within Arizona, she has been personally invited to many events including performing on the main stage at Pride in the Pines where she opened for Chaka Khan and Sophie B. Hawkins who described her voice as amazing. In addition to Pride in the Pines, Patricia has performed at a plethora of venues throughout Arizona from intimate coffee houses to concert stages. Outside of Arizona, Patricia has performed at the International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, San Diego Pride Festival, and in Portland, OR. Her music has been spun around the world on many internet, podcasts, public radio, community, and college stations, and of course, your favorite streaming service!

Patricia’s 2021 release, Just The Way You See It, asks the listener to evaluate their own perspectives of life. Do we live in a perfect world where we live happily ever after? Do we want to? Just the Way You See It begins with an Americana/folk cover of “Midnight Special,” where we wake in the morning to the “same damn thing.” The album ends with “Lullaby Moon,” an ode to peace, tenderness, and beauty.

In 2012 Patricia released, Don’t Look Back, a musical journey beginning with the chaotic streets of NYC to self discovery finding strength and courage dealing with the realities of love, life and her place in the world. Don’t Look Back earned her two ASCAP Plus Awards and radio play around the globe.

Owen Keehnen talks with Amber LeMay about the brand new Chicago AIDS garden to commemorate the Belmont Rocks and those we lost.

Owen Keehnen

As a queer writer Keehnen has had his fiction, essays, erotica, reviews, and interviews appear in dozens of LGBTQ magazines and anthologies worldwide. His newest book, Voices in Isolation: 4 Queer Plays of Social Distance has recently been released. He is the author of the humorous gay coming-of-age novel Young Digby Swank. Additional fiction titles include the sweeping gay saga The Sand Bar, and the first-personal horror novel Doorway Unto Darkness about a serial killer. His novel The Matinee Idol is about the life, loves, and challenges of a gay actor in silent film era. Keehnen’s book, Love Underground, is a suspense filled gay love story set in 1962 at the Lawson YMCA, which is told in diary form. Night Visitors, his collection of short gay horror tales was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.

Keehnen has also had an impact as a local LGBTQ grassroots historian. Along with Chicago publishing icon Tracy Baim, Keehnen co-authored three biographies of Chicago LGBTQ community pioneers. Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria, and Vernita Gray: From Woodstock to the White House. Combined, these three works comprise a sweeping history of Chicago LGBTQ life from the 1960s to the present. Using the subject of each book as a vehicle for telling a larger story, Baim and Keehnen cover three distinct aspects of LGBTQ history in Chicago, the leather world, the drag scene, and the lesbian scene. Keehnen covered Chicago’s disco scene in the 1970s and 1980s in the biography, Dugan’s Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady.

He currently lives in Chicago with his partner, Carl, and his ridiculously spoiled dogs, Vince and Daisy. He was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2011.

Amber chats with Jen Ellis about the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, Bernie's  Mittens, and how they are raising money for Outright Vermont.

As of June 1st, Vermont Mittens – a sister brand of the Vermont Teddy Bear Company – proudly announces a partnership with Outright Vermont – an outstanding organization that helps LGBTQIA+ youth find connection, validation, and celebration while strengthening families and transforming the schools, systems, and communities with which youth engage. For every pair of mittens sold, a portion of proceeds will be donated to Outright Vermont, so all young people have hope, equity, and power.

Jen Ellis – the founder of Vermont Mittens, a local elementary teacher, and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community herself – carefully selected Outright Vermont for their work in educating, advocating, and transforming policies and practices that make room for everyone.

Amber presents a tribute to the LGBTQ rights trailblazer, Clela Rorex,  who recently passed away. Amber Live! is honored to have recorded one of  Clela's last interviews and a story that is not to be missed. 

Clela Ann Rorex (July 23, 1943 – June 19, 2022) was an American county clerk who issued the first same-sex marriage license in the United States. Serving as the Boulder County  Clerk, Rorex issued a marriage license to a gay couple in 1975 after  receiving approval from the District Attorney. Denver, Colorado, U.S.

Join Amber as she explores everything Ptown with the Provincetown  Business Guild's Executive Director, Stephan Hengst. Expect some  Provincetown legends to pop in along the way, including Miss Richfield  1981, Miss Conception, and even Madge and Bisket. If you're headed to  Ptown this summer, you must see this episode so you don't miss out! If  you don't have plans to visit, you must see this episode to find out why  you should make plans now!  

#ptown #Provincetown #LGBTQTravel #massachusetts  #PBG #madgeandbisket #missconception #missrichfield1981 #missrichfield #dragqueen #lobsterpot #lobsterpotrestaurant

Amber LeMay interviews Tony Award nominee Charles Busch about the release of his new film, The Sixth Reel. Find out where you can watch this great new film!  

The Sixth Reel: A  down-on-his-luck movie collector discovers a legendary lost film and  becomes entangled in an outrageous adventure to deliver it to the right  hands before it is lost forever.  Starring Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Margaret Cho, Tim Daly, and Doug Plaut.

Amber LeMay has the great honor this week to talk with Julie Gold, the Grammy  award winning force who wrote From a Distance. Find out about her early  life, how this song changed her life, what happened after that, and how even the space program has used her song! This is one amazing musical  episode that you do not want to miss!