The Queer Arabs

Pictured: Wayne, Carrie, and Anas On this episode, we got to soak in the positive vibes from a wonderful couple in Canada!  We talked with Carrie and Wayne Broughton, who are the parents of a young trans activist, Tor.  We got to hear their perspective re: being parents of a trans son, and they talked about their local support group for parents of trans folks: TransParent Okanagan.  Thank you to the wonderful Anas for connecting us with some of his new family in Canada! Follow TransParent Okanagan on FB:  https://www.facebook.com/transparentokanagan/ Contact Carrie and Wayne at: [email protected] TED Talk with Tor:…

Meet Mais!  She lives in Denver now, and is one of the co-founders of Salam of Denver, which is the first established queer SWANA group in Denver.  We had a beautiful conversation with Mais.  We talked about the group, the need for queer SWANA spaces, Mais’s experiences as an immigrant (she’s from Iraq and has also lived in Syria and Kuwait), and food.  She’s so easy to talk to, and is such a wonderful human being.  We think you’ll love her episode as much as we did.

(الحلقه ٩ بالعربي: لقاء مع هادي داميان (مؤسس بيروت برايد Portrait of Hadi Damien, Photography by Ad Achkar Arabic Episode 9: An interview with Hadi Damien (Beirut Pride’s Founder)

We are so excited for this episode!  We guarantee you’ll love getting to know Andrea through this.  We’ll give you all a heads up when their book is available (set to come out Jan. 2019)! Andrea Abi-Karam is an arab-american genderqueer punk poet-performer cyborg, writing on the art of killing bros, the intricacies of cyborg bodies, trauma & delayed healing. Their chapbook, THE AFTERMATH (Commune Editions, 2016), attempts to queer Fanon’s vision of how poetry fails to inspire revolution. Simone White selected Andrea’s second assemblage Villainy for forthcoming publication with Les Figues. They toured with Sister Spit March 2018 &…

Samya Abu-Orf, Palestinian-American poet, joined us today for an epic episode.  Prepare yourself – the strength, the boldness, the directness, the humor, and the validation of our shared realities will leave you stunned in the best of ways.  We had a great conversation, and she was also generous in sharing several pieces during this episode.  We are thrilled to have this amazing woman on this podcast, and we can’t wait for you all to hear her power. To connect with and/or follow Samya: Instagram: samyaabuorf Facebook: Samya Abu-Orf Email: [email protected] Samya referenced some poets she loves; here is the link to…

We have been following Rozen.Art on Instagram for quite awhile, and it was amazing to have a conversation with him on this episode! Refael is an artist in Israel who brings the queer MENA elements of his identity to the pieces in a powerful, gorgeous way.  Follow him on Instagram and/or Tumblr; his Tumblr is: pynksecretscene.tumblr.com felix d’eon is the artist Refael mentioned who he’s inspired  by; his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felixdeon/ Gehennam is the visual novel Refael referred to: https://gehennamgame.tumblr.com/

.معكم الحلقه ٨ من برنامج الميم العربي – الجزء الثاني مِن اللقاء من أنس. تكلمنا عن الحياه في كندا و أشياء اخرى

This episode, we spoke to artist Caitlin (KT) who is Coptic Egyptian-Irish, and is a total badass who is creating space for the mixed identity.  We talked about being mixed and having parents from two different parts of the world; we also talked about KT’s art and what is inspiring her pieces.   This episode means a lot because the experience of being mixed does not get highlighted as its own identity very often. An upcoming exhibit where people can see the piece Coptic Babe Coptic Dyke will be at Mark for Redaction in New York, which details can be found…

(معكم الحلقه ٧ من برنامج الميم العربي – الجزء الاول من اللقاء مع أنس (شاب مثلي سوري يسكن في كندا

We had the honor of speaking with activist and artist Abdullah Al Busaidi, who is from Oman and currently lives in Germany.  Abdullah needed to resettle in Germany unexpectedly, and he shared with us his experience with the asylum process and the overall adjustment to life there.  He also shared his discovery of his love for creating art; tune in to hear how this painting came to be and what it means to him.  Thank you all for listening!  For anyone who also speaks Arabic, we encourage you to listen to Abdullah’s episodes in Arabic (episodes 3 and 4).