We Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise

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:

1. as not Black and not white, and
2. 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!

In this talk-show style live podcast recording, Nia interviews Elena Rose about how Sojourner Truth NEVER said "Ain't I a woman?", Juba Kalamka about meeting Kanye when he was fifteen, Lexi Adsit about running an all trans women of color comedy program, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha about the perks of making it "big time". Read the transcription at scribd.com/artactivistnia. Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Black trans woman musician and performance artist Star Amerasu discusses the ups and downs of her last few years, from sex working and living in a transitional housing program/SRO to touring Europe and North America and getting paid "coins" to perform her music for international audiences. She credits her success to cheap rent, good friends, and a job with flexible hours.

Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia.

Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Star Amerasu is a queer Black trans woman in a binary art world. In this interview, she discusses overcoming trauma through performance art, growing up in six different states, and the politics choosing to live or die. She makes art to remind herself, in the words of Miss Major, that she's "still fucking here!"

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

Hani and Uzma are the co-hosts of my FAVORITE podcast, The Bollywood Project. In this interview, we discuss our favorite women in Indian cinema, from actresses to directors to screenwriters and even fictional characters. We also discuss queerbaiting, colorism, and movies with missed opportunities for feminist endings. (We spoil a bunch of movies, including two of my faves: Gunday and Ishaqzaade.)

Read the transcript at niaking.tumblr.com.

Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Mixed-race Arab trans woman poet, educator, and activist Trish Salah has a lot of work to be proud of. In this talk, she maps out her trajectory, from being part of a militant labor union in graduate school to protesting pinkwashing at the World Out Games, to becoming politicized around trans issues in a Toronto activist community that was led by sex workers and poor folks.

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

East Bay Express-turned-Guardian reporter Sam Levin doesn't consider himself an artist or an activist, but in this interview I try to convince him otherwise, while also trying to get him to teach me everything he knows about journalism. We debate whether "the truth has a liberal bias," discuss the differences between covering the local news for an alt weekly and covering the Western US for an international publication, and talk about why people across the world should/do care about what happens in Oakland.

Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia.

Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Sam Levin didn't chose crime. Crime chose him. The baby-faced Daily News intern-turned-Guardian reporter talks what makes a good reporter and his own journey to becoming one: talking to people on the worst day of their lives, dodging lawsuits, and running into people he's reported on at parties. Oh yeah, and that one time he chased Lindsay Lohan around a bowling alley. Read the transcript here.

Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.

Multiracial, multigender, multimedia artist Neve Be(ast) discusses sex work, #branding, and being the disabled Black punk Lana Del Rey.