We Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise

Queer Colombian Salvadoran Alejandro Varela is one of my favorite living writers. His work weaves together comedy and tragedy as if it was the easiest thing in the world. His first novel, The Town of ...

Charles A. Bush is a Black queer writer from West Philadelphia. In this interview, we dive deep into their first book, Every Variable of Us, a love story between two high school girls, one Black and o...

Bangladeshi Irish novelist Adiba Jaigirdar writes love stories with queer brown girls as protagonists. In this interview, we discuss risk-taking in the publishing industry, racism in Ireland, and do d...

Gay Iranian author Abdi Nazemian joins Nia to drop some intergenerational wisdom. We dive deep into his queer young adult novels: Desert Echoes, about addiction and grief; Only This Beautiful Moment, ...

Lamya H., the author of Hijab Butch Blues (she/they) is a bit of an enigma. In the memoir (and this interview), she never reveals which South Asian country she was born in or which Middle Eastern coun...

Comedian Tan Hoang discusses moving from Vietnam to the Philly suburbs at age 9, transitioning at acting school, and how training as an actor made her a better stand-up. She also tells stories of host...

Jonny Garza Villa (they/them), author of three young adult novels, discusses growing up queer and Mexican in a small Texas town, how getting into astrology helped them develop characters, and how pett...

Growing up, reading and writing were things that made Sonora Reyes feel "dumb" in school. So how did they get from there to writing the Lamba Literary Award-winning, National Book Award-nominated Lesb...

A panel featuring four of Nia King's favorite artists: Sawyer Lovett, Joe Hatton, Vo Vo, and Cristy C. Road. Zines played a crucial role in reducing social isolation for many of us, whether we were on...

We Want the Airwaves celebrates 10 years with a panel featuring six of the artists from Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume Three: Anthony J. Williams, Kamal Al-Soylaylee, Joamette Gil, Venus Kii T...

In this very special CROSSOVER episode, I interview the hosts of the Mexican podcast No Hay Tos (in English after they interviewed me for their own show in Spanish). Beto and Héctor, both long-time Sp...

Sri Lankan-American Tamil trans woman reporter and martial artist Simi Kadirgamar is the guest on this month's podcast episode. In it, we discuss her reported/illustrated zine on the Indian and Pakist...

Singer, dancer, actor: Briyana Clarel is a triple threat! In this episode, the Black, nonbinary theater artist discusses growing up in South Jersey, racism at Princeton, and learning to love musical t...

Afro-Latina trans woman essayist Princess Harmony stops by the podcast to discuss her writing for Black Girl Dangerous, Wear Your Voice and Workers World. We also discuss what's missing in reporting a...

In part two of my interview with Afro-Peruvian Brazilian filmmaker Gabriela Watson-Burkett, we discuss her second film, Baobab Flowers and her new organization, Presente! Media. Baobab Flowers follows...

Filmmaker and producer Gabriela Watson-Burkett makes work to connect people across the African diaspora. Her first film, Nosotros Afroperuanos, discusses Black history in Peru and its erasure. Her sec...

How has coronavirus impacted the fitness industry? In this episode Nia chats with two queer Black business owners, athletic trainer Mike Watkins and Pilates instructor Teresa Ellis, to find out. They ...

At the intersection of political art and environmental science, queer nonbinary Chinese-American Fèini Yĭn is a celestial presence in a static world. Their work ranges from enthralling pieces in The N...

To say that Vo, a nonbinary trans masc Vietnamese immigant, is an artist is to dance to the arrhythmic tune of understatement: they are a traveler, social worker, and wizened anarchist soul who not on...

Black Boricua Taíno queer and trans artist Ignacio Rivera is a poet, performer and activist working to end child sexual abuse, or CSA. They are also a grandparent. In this interview, featuring their b...

Bisexual Latina writer, comics artist and musician Suzy X has gone from making zines to drawing comics for Rookie Mag to writing for MTV Iggy (RIP) to being the Latin music editor at Rolling Stone in ...

Queer Indian-American author Rahul Mehta discusses his award-winning collection of short stories, Quarantine; growing up Asian in Appalachia; and how LGBTQ audiences in India have received his work. W...

Alex Smith is a queer, Black sci-fi writer, musician and visual artist. In this interview, we discuss his collection of short stories, ARKDUST, as well as his many influences, ranging from Public Enem...

BL Shirelle of Die Jim Crow Records discusses the challenges of recording and releasing music by incarcerated artists. She also shares stories of dealing drugs, doing time and raising kids with her wi...

Black queer Philadelphia-based musician and visual artist Oliver Spencer (known musically as St. Sol) discusses growing up between North Carolina and Okinawa, how their dad's military service impacted...

Black asexual zinester and cartoonist Joyce Hatton discusses their comic Locks and their zines Trust the Knife and Grief. Joyce is a survivor of breast cancer, homelessness, and a suicide attempt, so ...

1.) I'm taking a break from the podcast. I'll be back in October. 2.) I'm moving to Philly. Please hit my up if you have leads on any jobs! 3.) The book launch for Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volu...

Bisexual trans Latina writer Mey Rude discusses growing up in Idaho, getting kicked out of her church family, and how comics helped her find her queer- and trans-ness. Read the transcript at scribd.co...

Two-Spirit mestiza musician Aja Archuleta discusses growing up in a big Mexican family with deep Denver roots, discovering her Indigenous identity, and why "Two-Spirit" now fits her better than "trans...

Queer Chinese-American drag queen, filmmaker, and musician, Kyle Casey Chu talks growing up in SF, touring the South in a punk band, and changing media representations of Asian-American men. Photo by ...

Acclaimed author and artist Luna Merbruja interviews me (Nia King) about my pre-podcast life as zinester and cartoonist, turning the podcast into a book, and how the QTPOC art world has changed since ...

Black queer femme Southerner The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins may be best known as a burlesque performer, but she's also a stand-up comic, filmmaker, and taxidermist. In this interview, she discusses growi...

Queer Black and brown punk weirdos in love! In this episode, Breena Nuñez and Lawrence Lindell, both cartoonists, musicians, and educators, tell the story of how they met and how the places they grew...

Black queer SF native and dancer Jocquese Whitfield discusses discovering vogue in college, his first ball in Oakland, performing with MIA and Azealia Banks, taking corporate money and giving back to ...

Indigenous trans woman poet Arielle Twist discusses her upcoming book DISNTEGRATE/DISSOCIATE, growing up Cree on a M'ikmaq reservation, and the mentorship she's received from other trans women of colo...

Is visibility ultimately a good thing for the artist with revolutionary intentions? For most artists, seeking to be visible to the mainstream mass media is key to economic survival. However that visib...

Jackie Wang's book Carceral Capitalism helps draw a direct line between the Recession of 2008, the following calls for austerity, and the visible uptick in anti-Black police violence. Indebted cities ...

Queer mixed-race writer Jackie Wang and I lived parallel lives in different parts of the country. In this first half of the interview, we reminisce about our teen years, spent listening to punk, readi...

Chief Esparza is the founder and editor-in-chief of EFNIKS.com, an online magazine for queer and trans people of color. In this episode, we discuss the environmental racism issue (EARTH), why they wen...

Gay Lebanese-American novelist Rabih Alameddine authored the California Book Award-winning book An Unnecessary Woman and the Lambda Literary Award-winning book The Angel of History. In this interview ...

Black trans dyke poet Venus Di'Khadijah Selenite discusses finding her voice in the Baton Rouge slam poetry scene, moving to DC to transition, and performing at the White House. STAY TUNED UNTIL THE V...

In part two of my interview with queer Afro-Cuban comics artist, editor, and publisher Joamette Gil, we get into the nuts and bolts of surviving off your creative labor. Jo gives us an exact breakdown...

Queer Afro-Cuban illustrator Joamette Gil and I discuss some of the many racial categories that exist in Cuban society and how they correlate (or don't) to US understandings of Blackness. Read the int...

Mixed-race Puerto Rican filmmaker and oral historian André Pérez discusses how he came to identify as a person of color, founding the Trans Oral History Project, and his upcoming documentary series Am...

Mixed-race filmmaker Andre Perez discusses growing up queer and trans in the South, being raised by a white mom (in mostly Black environments), and moving to Chicago to have Puerto Rican community. Re...

In part two of my interview with Teresa Ellis, proprietor of PB&J: Pilates, Barre & Jams, we discuss sounding white, buying Black, and whether working out can actually help with chronic pain. Read the...

Black queer cis femme Teresa Ellis worked as a stripper at the Lusty Lady for 13 years (before and after it was unionized), founded one of the first Black burlesque troupes (Harlem Shake), raised a ki...

Biracial genderqueer DJ YNG GMA and I discuss how grandmas inspire their party philosophy, why they're not on social media, and the increasingly political hip-hop that's been coming out since the elec...

Palestinian scholar Samar Habib is the author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East, Islam and Homosexuality, A Tree Like Rain, and Rughum and Najda. In this interview, we discuss the sexual curi...

Queer Puerto Rican novelist and writer of Marvel Comics "America" series Gabby Rivera and I discuss white feminism, cis feminism, writing for X-Men's Storm and making a living off of writing and speak...