"I have a Queery about...Queerness in Music" ft. Niambi Ra

"What is the inspiration for you music?" "How has your queer identity grown through your music?"  "Have you dealt with queer-phobia in the music industry?" "How can we make more space for queer recording artists?"

On this episode, I interview a singer and songwriter in the hip-hop scene, Niambi Ra (she/her). Growing up, Niambi was always exposed to the arts and an array of queer people in it, in her hometown of Washington D.C. Niambi shares specifically how she witnessed positive examples of Queer Black love and how that had a positive impact on her own coming out journey. She shares how her mother was a dancer, and it was inevitable that she would go into some kind of art. She found and fell in love with music and also acting and ended up attending NYU for musical theatre. Niambi then goes on to share how being a musical theatre performer used to be something she would hide but now it's something she owns because she recognizes the strengths it gives her. Niambi shares her own journey as a queer recording artist and how her ownership of her identity evolved as she created more music and showcased her queerness in her music videos, particularly her most recent song "Guidance." Throughout the episode, we discuss many things such as: queerness and camp in the music industry, how the act of queer people being themselves is political, double standards between men and women in the industry, the unsureness the industry has about where to put gender non-conforming folk, and much more.

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Organization of the Week: National Queer Theater
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Show Produced by Nick Eibler

Co-Produced/Edited by Addison McKissack

Theme Song written by Matt Gregory, Colin Egan, and Mike Hubbard 
Produced by Colin Egan and Mike Hubbard

Logo Design by David Pavón