We Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise

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).