As a gay youth living in a small house in the middle of a cotton field in Needville, Texas, Tye Blue never dreamed that he would one day have the chance to produce and co-write an Off-Broadway musical that would earn the praises of none other than the Andrew Lloyd Webber.…
Arts+Culture
Cinematographer Bianca Cline on Filmmaking, Trans Representation, and ‘Marcel the Shell’
Posted on October 17, 2022When Marcel hit theaters in the summer of 2022, millennials flocked to see the sentient one-inch seashell we had all come to know and love from the viral YouTube video of the same name. Marcel is charming and humorously witty and leaves viewers with that comforting tingle one can only experience following a healthy dose of nostalgia. The media frenzy surrounding Marcel’s release was more than Cline was used to, but it offered her the opportunity to not only discuss…
How the Overturn of Roe v. Wade Will Impact LGBTQIA+ Couples in the South
Posted on September 23, 2022The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. In doing so, the Supreme Court gave states the right to outlaw abortion. Several states, many of them in the South, have trigger laws, which state legislators have already approved, that went into effect immediately or almost immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned. A perhaps unforeseen result of the overturn is that the ruling may also make it more difficult for LGBTQIA+ couples in the South to adopt…
Texas Author Patricia Highsmith’s Queer Life Brought to the Screen in ‘Loving Highsmith’
Posted on September 16, 2022Loving Highsmith, playing September 16–18, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, depicts the career of author Patricia Highsmith through the intimate lens of her love life. Patchy and irregular, the film encapsulates the aloof nature of queer love in a time gone by. Highsmith is perhaps best known for writing the Tom Ripley novels, as well as Strangers on a Train (1950)—the basis of Hitchcock’s 1951 film—and The Price of Salt (1952). The latter was first published under a…
Changing Pronouns: An Interview with Publicly Private’s Kollyn Conrad
Posted on September 12, 2022As a non-binary southerner, I’m all too familiar with society’s pushback to gender and sexuality exploration. Like so many other queer and trans folks, my process of finding the identity that feels best to me is one that is ever-evolving. Yet, from broader society—and often, from within the LGBTQ community—we’re not given the grace to navigate identity at our own speed, to be brave enough to come out over and over again as that identity evolves, and to stand in…
Houston-based ‘Paradox Moth’ is the Queer, Black-owned Streetwear Brand Breaking Stereotypes
Posted on June 30, 2022The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to get creative—in the ways we work, the hobbies we adopt, and the art we make. For queer Houstonian Chuck Ohamara, that creativity birthed Paradox Moth, a fully inclusive, LGBTQ-focused, minimalist streetwear brand. Along with fellow co-creator and queer model Alex Sundstrom, Ohamara set out with a simple mission: to build a fashion brand for everybody and every body. “It started as a side hustle,” Ohamara explains. “We wanted to test how to run…
Black Queer AF: The Normal Anomaly Initiative Presents Houston’s First-Ever Black + Queer Music Festival
Posted on April 29, 2022This weekend, Blackness and queerness will be at the center of Houston’s music scene. On Saturday, April 30, Black and queer people from all over the nation will gather in Space City for the Black Queer AF Music Festival, an unforgettable night of celebration, empowerment, and community. …
Enby Tznius: Examining Modesty as a Non-binary Person
Posted on April 20, 2022Finding progressive and empowering conceptualizations around dressing and behaving in ways that protect my energy—how I would define modesty—is a challenge. Bringing those resources into a fold that includes non-binary fashion, however, can feel even harder—and super limiting.…
QTPOC OUTsider Fest Artists Felix III, mirrored fatality, and Kalup Linzy Find Moments of Liberation
Posted on April 14, 2022I was grateful for the opportunity to speak directly to OUTsider artists of color Felix III, mirrored fatality, and Kalup Linzy, who all took the opportunity of this difficult moment in the world, in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, to push their work into new dimensions.…
What it is to be an Active Witness: T Lavois Thiebaud and Jason Nodler Talk Collaboration and the Catastrophic Theatre’s ‘4.48 Psychosis’
Posted on January 8, 2022I first learned of the playwright Sarah Kane through Houston’s Catastrophic Theatre and founder Jason Nodler in 2011, just a few months after I embarked on a dance theater collaboration with a contemporary ballet and dance theater company I had followed avidly for many years. I was running off the high of what the best collaborative relationships can be. It was through that collaboration that I would meet and date one of the actors cast in the Catastrophic Theatre’s production…