December 18, 2024 • 57 mins
Playwright Isaac Gómez joins us to explore their latest theatrical creation, "The Night Shift Before Christmas," a one-woman holiday comedy that transforms the stage at the Alley Theatre into a fast food joint on Christmas Eve. Inspired by personal experiences in Texas, Isaac crafts a modern rendition of "A Christmas Carol," focusing on Margot, who is working the graveyard shift for the holiday. This heartfelt tribute to Houston invites listeners to engage with themes of resilience and the unseen stories of those who work tirelessly during times when everyone else is off enjoying family.
Our journey continues with a deep dive into the world of playwriting and identity, where we uncover the collaborative process behind a fresh adaptation of a classic tale. Discover how a playwright's upbringing in a border town and life-shaping events, such as the tragic loss of a friend, have influenced their storytelling. They share their process of weaving narratives that address exploitation and working-class struggles while also reflecting on the lighter tones of their current project and the contemporary writers who inspire their work. Isaac identifies as non-binary, and we discuss that at the interview's conclusion.
Finally, we shine a light on the impactful efforts of Tori Williams and the Ryan White Planning Council. Delve into the evolution of HIV care and funding from grassroots efforts to the introduction of life-changing antiretroviral medications. Through an oral history initiative, the episode aims to preserve the powerful narratives of those affected by the AIDS epidemic, with a particular focus on documenting the experiences of transgender individuals. Our discussion emphasizes the critical need for ongoing community support and accessible healthcare, highlighting both the challenges and advancements in combating the HIV epidemic today.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast
version of a broadcast radioshow that's been on the air in
Houston, texas, for severaldecades.
This week, brett Cullum talkswith playwright Isaac Gomez.
He wrote the Alley Theatre'sholiday show, the Night Shift
Before Christmas, which runsuntil the 29th.
(00:21):
This is a spoof of A ChristmasCarol.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I have these childhood memories of being with
her at a retail store duringgraveyard shifts because no one
could take care of me helpingher at the store, and one of the
more chaotic moments wasChristmas Eve, and there are so
many people in the world whohave to work on Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Eve.
Then Debra Bell has aconversation with Tori Williams,
director of the Ryan WhitePlanning Council.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
There are a couple of things that we usually find
when we do this survey, and theone is always lack of
information.
That is our number one problemin the greater Houston area is
folks living with HIV just don'talways understand what services
are available to them.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I am Brett Pelham, a writer for Broadway World, and I
am here today to talk withIsaac Gomez about their upcoming
world premiere, the Night ShiftBefore Christmas.
It plays at the Alley Theater,opens on December 5th and plays
through December 29th.
The summary of the plot is it'sabout a woman named Margot who
works the graveyard shift onChristmas Eve.
(01:36):
It's a one-woman, very adultholiday comedy.
Isaac wrote this as a loveletter to Houston and to all
that have worked in fast food orretail during the holidays.
So please welcome Isaac toQueer Voices.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
You have a world premiere at the Alley.
That is insane.
Is this your first play that'sbeing produced on this scale, or
are you like an old pro at thiskind of thing?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Or are you like an old pro at this kind of thing?
My second production with theAlley, with the Audible Theater
at the Minetta Lane, certainlynot my first in this scale, but
it doesn't mean that it evergets old, or easy.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Well, yeah, if you mention things like the
Steppenwolf, I'm already kind ofgoing like this yeah, that's
amazing, it sounds like you'vereally kind of penetrated a lot
of things and really made animpact on the industry.
But how did this show come toyou?
It mentioned in the summarythat it's a love letter, sort of
, to Houston.
So how did you decide to writethis one?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, so you know the alley.
One of the most incrediblethings about the alley theater
in Houston, texas, is theircommitment and support, not just
to new voices and new writers,but writers who have a deep,
long history with Texas.
And so, as I'm sure you'reaware, the Alley has their
(03:11):
annual new play festival calledAlley All New, which was created
by their former director of newplay development, liz Frankel,
who came to the Alley by way ofthe Public Theater in New York
and she is a visionary in herown right and vein and created
this to help include the alleyin a larger conversation around
new works and writers across thecountry who are really trying
(03:35):
to speak to our current moment.
And so, at the time that I gotlinked up with the alley, they,
like many regional theatersaround the country, during the
holidays produce a Christmascarol for their wider audiences
and then, in their more intimatespaces, have typically
something a little bit moreadults like Santillan Diaries.
(03:57):
In that vein, allie and whatartistic director Rob Melrose
was wanting to curate is whatwould a modern version of
something like a Santa LandDiaries that speaks specifically
to the Houston experience,specifically to Texas,
specifically for adults, in afun, funny, warm-hearted,
(04:21):
holiday-oriented way, theyreached out to a couple of Texas
playwrights to loosely pitchsome ideas around what they
would want to the story they mayor may not want to tell.
And, as I mentioned, grew up inTexas, was born and raised along
the US-Mexican border in ElPaso, texas Juarez, mexico.
I went to school at UT, austin.
I have a lot of family inHouston.
(04:42):
My mom's worked at Walmart for26 years.
I have these childhood memoriesof being with her at a retail
store during graveyard shiftsbecause no one could take care
of me helping her at the store,and one of the more chaotic
moments was Christmas Eve.
And there are so many people inthe world who have to work on
(05:03):
Christmas Eve, on Christmas Day,on other holidays around the
country.
Families may not necessarilyhave the same experience as
those who are given the days offon those days, and so I really
wanted to tell a story thatcould speak from that experience
those who are working hard tokeep the world running during
(05:24):
our holiday season.
I was really excited and curiousabout telling a story about a
woman who works at a fast foodlocal fast food restaurant, mom
and pop burger shop reallywanting to give the Houston
small town big city vibes that Ialways love when I'm in the
city of Houston wanting toreally honor that perspective.
(05:45):
Obviously, charles Dickens' AChristmas Carol is such a great
source material, for one of thereasons why it's such a timeless
tale is because it requires usto deeply examine our
relationship with regret, withgrief, with love, with family,
and I was very curious aboutwhat would modern day woman's
(06:10):
version of that narrative looklike, and that's where Margot
was born.
The story of the Night ShipBefore Christmas takes us
through an incredibly chaotic,robust evening in which she's
visited slash possessed by fourspirits who are trying to help
her work through something quitedeep, and throughout her
(06:35):
evening in working in this fastfood restaurant and being
possessed by these spirits, sheuncovers deeper meaning behind
why she chooses to work at thisplace on Christmas Eve every
year and, in turn, has anincredible transformation in
response to that discovery.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Now, this is a one-woman show, so this actress
actually gets possessed by theghosts, is that right?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yes, yes.
So from an artistic standpoint,something that really excited
me was the ability to give awoman, specifically a Latina
woman especially given in thestate of Texas how prominent the
Mexican and Mexican-Americanpopulation is an opportunity to
have a tour de force performance.
And so in the play she'splaying multiple characters, I
(07:26):
think somewhere around seven oreight.
She has to be quite proficientat physical comedy because of
the possessions that unfold.
There's line dances, there'slive music that she sings, there
are gorgeous tender momentsthat are deeply heartfelt and
dramatic.
It really is a masterclass inwatching the actor really take
(07:52):
their time in demonstrating thebreadth and depth of their
instrument.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Who is the actor in this production?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Her name is Brianna Reza, and one of the many things
I value about Houston and thealley is their commitment to
local talent.
You know, the alley is one ofthe more larger regional
theaters, not just obviously inthe city but in the state and in
the country.
Of that caliber be a placewhere local actors can call home
(08:26):
in their attempts of expandingtheir skill set.
The alley really is is quiteadamant about providing that
opportunity, and so over thecourse of finding and
identifying a person in houstonwho could do this, we stumbled
(08:47):
upon a large array of talent, ofincredible women who were
really ready for this kind oftour de force performance, and
Brianna is such a gift to thecity of Houston in a way that I
hope the city continues to valueand appreciate.
I think she is incrediblytalented, very thoughtful,
(09:08):
deeply inquisitive, leads withcuriosity, is incredibly present
and open and really funny andreally moving.
I think one of her many giftsis her ability to open her heart
to us so that we can open ourheart to her, and it really
gives this character a level ofdepth and complexity that I'm
not sure we always get toexperience with Scrooge, you
(09:30):
know he's.
I think Charles Dickens reallywanted to create an archetype of
a type of person.
I think he has the autonomy andthe right to do that, if that
is what he chose.
I was more interested inexploring a more nuanced version
of that, and brianna is anincredible vessel for that kind
of work.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
You know, isaac, it's smart, because christmas carol
really was about theexploitation of the working
class.
That was really the point ofdickens, yes, in a lot of his
work, and and the characters ofTiny Tim and the Cratchits and
all that, and so this really isa neat kind of parallel to
(10:10):
modern time.
Because this would be exactlythe scenario that Charles
Dickens probably would have tochoose to set his story.
Yes, yes, I agree, I totallyagree, yeah, so I love that
you've taken this and made thisinto Christmas Carol and that
you're doing this while thealley is doing it upstairs.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I know it's really fun.
It's fun, it's hilarious, it'sgreat.
Yeah, that's happening.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
What a wonderful opportunity to do that.
So were you there for therehearsals.
Are you part of that process?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, of course.
Yes, for a world premiere play,it's especially imperative for
the writer to be involved, andso, yeah, I've been building
this play with my actor, brianna, and with my director, kj
Sanchez, who's also anincredible visionary, a great
dramaturg, and with Year 267thAlley, who are incredibly
thoughtful and thorough in theirfeedback, and ensuring that the
(11:04):
vision of what we anticipateand hope that this will be and
continue to be, ideally not justfor the alley but for, you know
, other regional theaters acrossthe country is maintained.
It's been a fun and intentionalprocess.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Tell me a little bit about you.
How did you get intoplaywriting?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh, you know, as I mentioned, I was born and raised
on a border town, border cities.
I grew up in a pretty poorworking class family and part of
town that did not have accessto art and whose access to
education was quite limited.
Teacher introduced me totheater via play, adaptation of
(11:47):
a children's book that shewanted us to perform for her
fourth graders, and it was thenthat I was like, oh wow, like
this thing, this stories aremeaningful to me.
It wasn't until she introducedthe possibility of this being a
viable career path to me.
That, even conceptually, was.
It just wasn't something I everthought was an option, and so
(12:08):
I'm forever thankful to her forthat.
At the time, though, I wasprimarily acting between there
all the way through my undergradin college.
I've always been a writer.
I've kept journals since I wasseven.
I would write poetry primarilyas well, and, again, I never
really imagined myself being.
It wasn't something I everthought was like it's odd,
because it's like it's.
(12:29):
It's not that I there wasn'tthere's.
There was so much unawarenessof it being a possibility.
It wasn't me saying like, oh, Ican't do that.
It was me saying like, oh, thepeople who do that are the
people who do that.
That just happens to not be me,you know was really the energy
at that time, and it wasn'tuntil my freshman year of
(12:49):
college when a friend of minewho lived in the same dorm as me
he committed suicide.
I was having a really hard timeprocessing his very sudden and
tragic death.
I felt compelled for the veryfirst time to write a play about
it.
Ut Austin has an incrediblegraduate playwriting program,
and so it was a combination ofthis tragic event that happened
(13:12):
in my life being around graduatestudents who are living
playwrights so not like the deadgreats living playwrights
writing plays around me as anundergrad actor, living
playwrights, writing playsaround me as an undergrad actor.
That's when it sort of surfacedfor me as something I could
possibly do, and so I hadwritten my very first play then.
(13:32):
And then it was, throughout thecourse of my undergrad, spending
a lot of time back home withwomen who's, you know,
unfortunately in not and notjust in Juarez but around the
world right, we experience andsee femicide and feminicide as
one of the greatest, I think,catastrophes of our lifetime.
(13:55):
In Juarez in particular, youknow, there's a lot of, I think,
cultural awareness, at leastmore so than before around the
missing and murdered women, andJuarez in particular, and so
returning back to Juarez as anadult and to spend time with
women whose daughters are stillmissing and who would drive
buses to US-owned factories thatthese women would work at,
(14:18):
became a pretty strong pillarfor me in wanting to help get
their stories out into the world, and I promised that I made to
them, and that became the first.
My two plays came out of thatexperience, one called the Way
she Spoke and the other calledLa Ruta, and both of those
became my very two firstpublicly produced plays, and
(14:38):
those were in Chicago, and onewas at Steppenwolf Theater and
one was at a smaller storefronttheater that no longer exists.
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, and this definitely sounds like a big
departure from that, becausethis sounds a little bit lighter
.
Oh, totally.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
For correct.
Totally very different, forsure.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Yeah, a lot of dramatic.
Who are some of your favoriteplaywrights?
Do you have some that you lookat and go?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
oh, oh, my God, my god, yeah, of course, yes, most
of them are living, thank god.
Playwrights that have thatinspire me and continue to.
One of the greats in my mind isbrandon jacob jenkins.
I think he is so prolific andso profound, incredibly
economical and really thoughtful.
I think rajiv joseph is anotherone of our greats.
(15:26):
I think he's also quiteeconomical and in in the way he
writes, plays big admirer of myfriends, works like antonio and
madhuri shaker and lauren yee,katori, hall lynn, nottage,
marcus Gardley, I mean AmyBerryman is a new player who
(15:50):
came into my consciousness overthe last year in our writers
group and I'm such a huge fan ofhers and Craig Galvan, I mean,
the list goes on and on.
I think we're in such we havebeen over the last 10 years, I
think, in such a.
The art of playwriting is in, Ithink, one of the best places
it's ever been.
The business of theater andplaywriting is in one of the
(16:12):
worst places it's ever been.
So that's an unfortunatecontention, because so many
playwrights, I think, are unableto sustain themselves, so we
have to rely on other forms ofof income, which involves other
mediums like television and film, myself included, and and then
that means, unfortunately, thatyou know, we're just losing a
(16:35):
lot of playwrights to to,because the business is just not
sustainable for us.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
So you're doing television and film too.
Is there anything notable thatyou're working on or that you
can?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
talk about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
I wrote for season six ofNarcos, mexico, on Netflix Wow,
so you can watch that.
I wrote on a television showcalled the Last Thing you Told
Me for Apple TV with JenniferGardner.
It's an adaptation of a book, athriller, a summer hit.
This show on Paramount Pluscalled Joe Pickett, which is
(17:07):
also based on a series of books,a few shows that haven't aired
yet but hopefully will in thenext two years.
And then, you know, I've soldpilots to FX and MRC
Entertainment features to FocusFeatures.
Yeah, that's mostly it.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Isaac, I didn't even know what I was walking into.
You are amazing.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It's very kind, thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So thrilled to talk to you because obviously not
only is this Allie worldpremiere but you've obviously
done a ton of stuff, but alsobecause we're on queer voices.
I wanted to ask you when we setup this interview, you know,
caroline told me that yourpronouns are they, them.
So how did you get to thatidentity?
How did that come into yourlife?
When did you kind of realizethat you wanted to be identified
(17:50):
as non-binary?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, it's so funny because, like when I look back,
some of my earliest, earliestmemories around gender
expression happened when I was achild and they were really an
experimentation with in the whenmy mom would go to work and I
would try on her clothes and hermakeup.
And I remember, especiallybecause of Mexican women in my
life and in my family, I was soenthralled by, I was so enamored
(18:19):
.
There was something about theirferocity and their fierceness
and their character but theirdemurity and their expression
that I really resonated with.
I mean, these are some of thenastiest, toughest bitches I've
ever known that's still true tothis day and also some of the
(18:41):
most humble and gracious at once.
So, some of the most humble andgracious at once.
And it was that complexity andthat contention that,
subconsciously, has alwaysinformed how I identify as it
relates to my gender journey.
All of that said, there areconsequences for what society
may call gender deviance, and sothose instincts of mine never
(19:05):
really had the ability to benourished or nurtured, and so my
relationship with masculinityand femininity over the course
of the first 20 or so years ofmy life, or in a place of
constant tension as my lifecontinued to unfold and I
surrounded myself more withpeople who saw things within me
(19:25):
that even I didn't couldn'tnecessarily name.
You know one of my best friendsand longtime collaborators,
incredible actor, severalensemble member, about to be on
an incredible show with NicolasCage called Spider-Man Noir on
Amazon.
Her name is Karen Rodriguez andshe's one of the most
incredibly gifted actors outthere and some of my earliest
(19:47):
memories are in college, herbeing like, oh, you know, you
should try on, you know, look atmy, maybe we should go get your
nails done, you know, or I'llput on this little makeup of
yours on you, and like littlethings like that that I'm not
even sure she knew at the timehow informative that was for me.
And so, and I had a cousin whowas very similar and a childhood
(20:08):
best friend who was also verysimilar, and so like these,
these markers of not justacceptance but curiosity, I
think was like a big part of it.
And then, as gender expansionbecame more in the cultural
consciousness you know around inour sort of zeitgeist around
queerness.
Unfortunately, even though itsorigin story is not this, much
(20:33):
of it centers through apredominantly Western and
predominantly white lens, youknow, like ideas of non-binary
when we think of it and, as itrelates to an optics or an image
of that, there's a veryspecific image of a person that
comes to mind, and so it didn'tresonate with me until I'm a
(20:53):
direct descendant of the ramuri,which is a mexican indigenous
community in northern chihuahua,and as I started to learn more
about that ancestry, I learnedthat there is a third gender
marker of my Mexican indigenousancestry called the Naui, and
that's when it all really sunkin for me.
(21:15):
It was like oh, the language Ihave been yearning for is
actually something that doesn'texist in a Western context, it
doesn't exist in an Americancontext, and that happened
around my 30th birthday.
And so over the last threeyears, between then and now, the
journey has been how do I wantto translate that into my
(21:40):
legibility in this context, andso my legibility in this context
?
And so that's how we endedwhere we are now, and my
relationship with my genderexpression varies on a
day-to-day basis, as is true,with so many who I identify
outside, within, beyond thegender binaries, but it's
heavily informed by my ancestryand really sinking in with my
(22:04):
intuition and how I may or maynot feel in a given moment in
time.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Well, isaac Gomez, I feel like I could talk to you
for like an entire day.
We could just like get reallydeep into all of this.
But Night Shift BeforeChristmas, alley Theatre opens
December 5th, goes through the29th.
It is going to be a tour deforce performance by Brianna
Reza, so I cannot wait to seethis one, and I am so thrilled
(22:29):
that I got a chance to talk toyou, so I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Thank you, the feeling's mutual and everyone
get your tickets, because weextended before rehearsals even
started.
These tickets go really fastfor this show, so I highly
recommend getting mine soonerthan later.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I was looking and, yeah, it's selling like crazy.
So I'm excited for you guys.
So I'm definitely lining mineup with Caroline as fast as I
possibly can.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So thank you, I can't wait for you to see it.
You're going to have such aruckus good time.
It's really you're going toenjoy yourself thoroughly.
Thank you, thanks, brad,appreciate you.
Thanks, brad.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Appreciate you Coming up on Queer Voices, tori
Williams, director of the RyanWhite Planning Council here in
Houston, and this programmingnote.
Queer Voices is distributed asa podcast on Buzzsprout, and
Buzzsprout reports that in thepast year we have seen hundreds
of downloads from Canada,germany, the Netherlands and
(23:26):
Singapore, as well as the US.
So here's a special shout outto all of our international
listeners.
This is Glenn from Queer Voices.
You're listening to KPFT.
That means you're alreadyparticipating just by listening,
but how about doing more?
Kpft is totally listener-funded,which means it's people like
(23:50):
you who are making donations whosupport this community resource
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Will you participate in KPFTfinancially?
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(24:14):
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Even if you're listening overthe internet on another
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Please become an active memberof the listener community by
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Thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell and we're talking
with Tori Williams.
Tori is the longtime directorof the Ryan White Planning
Council and is one of the peopleactive in producing the O
Project.
So first of all, tori, so goodto have you with us here on
Queer Voices.
(24:54):
It's been a long time sincewe've had a chance to talk, but
you're kind of legendary inhouston because of your activism
.
Uh, beyond what you do as yourwork, uh, including being a
founder of heart song, which wasthe women's chorus, uh starting
the pet patrol and theassisters Organization.
(25:17):
So, and also you were a GrandMarshal of Houston Bride, so
we're just delighted that youwere able to join us.
But I know where your heart is,and your heart is, in fact,
with the Ryan White PlanningCouncil.
So explain what that is.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
The Ryan White Planning Council is part of the
Ryan White Program and the RyanWhite Program is a federal law.
Back in the 1990s it was veryclear that local communities who
had hospital districts, likeHarris County Hospital District,
the financial burden from thecost of AIDS care in the 80s was
(26:02):
tremendous.
And so Congress realized intothe local communities so that
they could develop HIV caresystems and provide support and
(26:27):
medication for people livingwith HIV.
And we were among the firstgroup of cities that received
money and we got $3 million thefirst year in 1991 and that was
a huge, huge deal because it wasthe beginning of steady,
(26:49):
reliable funding so thatagencies like the AIDS
foundation didn't have to raidthe coke machine to pay the
staff.
It was a huge deal and we gotthis money in Houston.
But part of getting the moneyis that the money can only be
(27:16):
applied for and received by thecounty judge.
It has to be the electedofficial who is primarily
responsible for health care inthe geographic area, and so in
our community that is the countyjudge right now, County Judge
Lena Hidalgo, and one of therequirements is that she must
(27:41):
appoint a community group calleda council, a planning council,
that is made up of one-third thepeople who are living with HIV
and using Ryan White services,and my staff and I provide
support to that planning council.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
And what type of work do they do?
How do they make decisionsabout allocating the funds to
the various programs that servethe community?
Speaker 3 (28:13):
One of the jobs of our staff is to do a needs
assessment every three years andwe go out in the community and
we interview about 600 peopleand we ask them what services
are you using?
What services do you need?
What services do you need thatyou can't access because they
don't exist?
Sometimes they'll identifybarriers to care and other times
(28:37):
they'll just say there isn'teven a barrier.
The service just plain doesn'texist.
And there are a couple ofthings that we usually find when
we do this survey, and the oneis always lack of information.
That is our number one problemin the greater houston area is
folks living with hiv just don'talways understand what services
(28:59):
are available to them.
And if you are familiar withthe Blue Book, the Blue Book is
an HIV directory of services forpeople living with HIV in the
10-county area.
People can go on our websiteand they can pull down the
directory.
People can go on our websiteand they can pull down the
directory.
They can go to any RyanWhite-funded agency and ask for
(29:24):
a blue book.
People in the field know whatthat is.
We're about to release a newblue book, probably in January
or February, so if they do thator they can go to our website
again and get it.
So that's what we do, is wecollect data.
So there's the needs assessment.
Then, based on the needsassessment, we invite all the
(29:46):
partners to the table would beHISD and community hospitals and
all the local agencies, andtogether we create a plan to
address the needs that areidentified in the needs
assessment.
So together we try to respond towhat it is the consumers are
(30:06):
telling us they need.
And then we take all that dataand the planning council has
committees and one committeedesigns all the services,
another committee attaches thefunding to the services and so
forth.
And so the best way to describeit is, if we were building the
(30:29):
Ryan White House, the councilwould be the architect and they
would design how many rooms,where the bathrooms would be.
They would also put the budgetfor the bathroom, the budget for
the kitchen, that sort of thing.
So they would create ablueprint for the house.
But then by federal law we haveto turn the blueprint over to
(30:53):
the administrative agency and inour area that's, the county
health department has a divisioncalled the Ryan White Grant
Administration and it's theirjob to take the blueprint and
then to actually hire agencies,as has given them to provide the
services to the client.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
It's a huge undertaking and I know you've
been with the planning councilfor well over two decades now.
What are some of the thingsthat have changed?
And I'm so glad that youmentioned the Blue Book because
I was going to ask you about it,because I have often used that
(31:46):
as a resource for people lookingfor various services, not just
HIV-AIDS related, but becauseit's a wonderful resource of
information, so it's very useful.
So in the early days, as weknow especially those of us that
(32:06):
did things like I did, workingwith a aid support group and
having friends that wereinfected and dying of AIDS how
have things changed from thoseearly days and what part do you
see that the Ryan White PlanningCouncil, what part did they
(32:28):
have in that?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
In the early days of HIV there was no medication.
People were dying within sixmonths of diagnosis.
It was difficult to find adoctor who knew anything about
in those days we called it AIDS,and it was almost impossible to
find a dentist who would carefor you.
(32:51):
And there were many smallefforts to raise money.
Efforts to raise money, a lotof our local men's groups, their
social groups like Miss CampAmerica or the Diana's
Foundation.
They would have big events andthey would raise money and they
would give them to our handfulof AIDS organizations.
(33:12):
But it wasn't enough.
So when the Ryan White moneycame along, that provided stable
, long-term funding for thoseagencies.
And so the council, as we wentalong, most of the money in the
beginning went to the hospitaldistrict because that was sort
of the only place someone couldgo if they didn't have resources
(33:33):
.
And again, as you know, a lotof people had resources.
They had jobs, they had pensionplans, they had all these
things.
But when they got sick with HIVthey lost their jobs, they
couldn't make their car payments, they lost everything.
And so a lot of these patientsended up in the hospital
(33:53):
district because they couldn'tafford for their own care.
They couldn't afford for theirown care.
So most of the Ryan White moneywent to the Harris County
Hospital District to providecare on an outpatient basis.
But then as time went on, about20 years ago, the councils
(34:14):
decided that a lot of folks wereuncomfortable.
Going into a big governmenthospital or even an outpatient
clinic was very intimidating,particularly people, minority
people.
What we did is we made moneyavailable to small Ryan White or
(34:35):
small agencies that had thecapacity to develop to provide
medical care.
So Legacy used to be called theMontrose Clinic.
That is a perfect example.
They started out as agrassroots organization that
simply provided testing andtreatment for STIs, but as HIV
(35:00):
was exploding in Houston, theystarted doing testing for HIV
and then they'd refer them tothe hospital district and we
went and said, hey, you guys, ifwe gave you money, would you be
interested in offering primarycare?
So we developed and kind ofwith our Ryan White money.
So we developed and kind ofwith our Ryan White money, we
(35:21):
grew Montrose Clinic, which isnow called Legacy Clinic, avenue
360, which used to be Hacks andBearing, and we grew the St
Hope Foundation, which is on themore outskirts of town, and up
north they have clinics up north, which is on the more outskirts
of town and up north.
(35:43):
They have clinics up north.
Through the council we wereable to grow these small groups
and now they're federallyqualified health centers, which
means they're eligible for morefederal money for other programs
besides HIV, and they'refinancially stable, have
long-term care.
And, as the new HIV medicationshave come along, the good news
(36:05):
is that people are doing so muchbetter and they're living
normal length of time, but theirbodies tend to age 10 years
younger than other folks whohaven't been on HIV medication
for a long time.
And so now we're developingsome case managers and training
(36:29):
them as geriatric HIV casemanagers and we're funding that
project.
And that is just now.
We're just now training somecase managers to do that so that
those folks who are long-termsurvivors they're really
(36:50):
miracles, some of those folksand now we're providing them
with geriatric care, which inthe 80s and 90s nobody ever even
considered something like thatbecause it seemed impossible
that we would need that.
So that's what the council does.
We watch what's happening in theepidemic.
We respond to the trends.
(37:11):
We make sure that folks canaccess medication.
Folks can access medication.
We make sure that they canaccess doctor visits, medical
care of other types.
Oral health is incrediblyimportant to a person living
with HIV because an infection inyour mouth can be just as
(37:32):
life-threatening as any otherkind of infection.
So, folks who are living withHIV, I really encourage them to
go to the dentist for regularcheckups and make sure that
their teeth are healthy anddoing well.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
I take a lot of pride in the fact that those
institutions got built.
That started from grassrootsmovement, much by the community,
built that started fromgrassroots movement, much by the
community and, like you said,the people that were doing the
fundraising in the early days,including the drag performers,
who still to this day put a lotof effort into raising funds.
(38:11):
And we tend to think of theAIDS epidemic as a thing of the
past and maybe it is no longeran epidemic here in this country
, but it is in fact a concernand something that is ongoing as
far as people becoming infected, and that brings us to 1995 and
(38:40):
this other thing that you'reinvolved with called the O
Project.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
HIV is still an epidemic in the United States
and in our community, in our10-county area, we get between
1,300 to 1,400 new diagnosesevery year.
Just in our 10-county area andthroughout the United States we
(39:09):
were getting 40,000 new casesevery year, and then there was a
great initiative started wherethe federal government now gives
us additional funding just toend the epidemic, and that is it
gives us.
We've done a.
You know, we've found 80 to 85%of folks who are in our area
(39:34):
who are living with HIV, butthat still leaves thousands more
who are living with HIV andthey don't know it, or they were
diagnosed and they don't wantto deal with it.
They just don't want to doanything or get in for care for
all kinds of reasons.
And so we have to find thatlast 18% of the people in our
(40:00):
community who are living withHIV because they're either not
using safe sex or becausethey're not on the medication.
Their viral load is still veryhigh and that's where a lot of
the new infections are comingfrom.
So it's super important thatpeople not think that HIV has
(40:22):
gone away or that it's somethingthat can't affect them, because
it can and it can.
People still get HIV today andI encourage everyone make it a
routine part of your health examto always get an HIV test.
If you are sexually active, ifyou use intravenous drugs, if
(40:48):
there's any reason you think youcould be exposed to HIV, get
tested and talk to them aboutthe new medications called PrEP
and people can go on PrEP and itis medication that will make
sure that they don't get HIV.
They don't convert to HIV ifthey come in contact with the
(41:13):
virus.
So that's been a game changerin the HIV community.
But we still, with all thesenew opportunities to treat HIV,
we are still getting 1,300 to1,400 new cases every year.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Being that I am a senior citizen and I have
several friends who are alsosenior citizens and who are in
fact living with HIV, as yousaid, that geriatric patient
which we get all kinds of thingsregarding aging but when you
add on that the issue of HIV andthank goodness most of them
(41:59):
have undetectable viral loads,and so that also has been a game
changer Back to 1995, you areworking on this project called
the O Project.
It's an oral history projectand it's documenting the
experiences of people who wereinfected and diagnosed in
(42:21):
pre-1995.
What happened in 1995?
That changed things?
Speaker 3 (42:37):
1995 that changed things.
In 1995, that's when theydiscovered or developed the
retro antiviral medications thatwere again a huge game changer.
They really made a difference.
Before that there were a fewmedications.
A lot of my friends were on AZT.
They were getting huge, veryhigh doses of these drugs like
AZT.
I mean the minute any drug wasfound that might impact HIV the
(43:04):
doctors just like overwhelmedtheir poor bodies with these
toxic medications that wereimportant.
But now, looking back, we'refinding that some of those
really old medications before1995, some of them caused so
much damage to the immune systemthat that may be why some
(43:28):
people passed away.
But when the antiretroviraldrugs came along, that was a
whole new way of attacking thevirus.
And since then, since 1995,those medications have become
very, very sophisticated and nowyou can get them packaged into
(43:51):
one pill.
So you can get three differentmedications packaged into one
pill.
Now you can get injectablemedications, so you just go in
and see your doctor regularlyand they give you a shot that
keeps you on your medication.
You don't have to fool withpills.
So now there are so manydifferent ways for people to
(44:12):
receive the HIV medication.
But the reason we started thisoral history project is.
I work in Harris County.
The Ryan White Program liveswithin Harris County.
Ryan White program lives withinHarris County and the head of
(44:35):
archives at Harris County cameto me and said you know, we've
got this really wonderful personrealized that you know, your
program was really unique anddifferent.
And even though it was his jobevery seven years to shred
documents in the county, he tookall the Ryan White documents
and he stored them in boxes andhe had a closet in his office
(44:57):
and he just kept putting theseboxes of old Ryan White records
in this closet.
And he said he's about toretire, we need to clean out the
closet and we need to shrinksome of these documents down and
separate what.
We need to clean out the closetand we need to shrink some of
these documents down andseparate what we need to keep
from what we need to destroy.
(45:17):
And so I got together with herand Sarah and another friend and
I went through everything andshe said you know I can do some
oral histories with peoplebecause as part of my job as the
county archivist I'm allowed todo that.
Would you make a list for me ofpeople who should be
interviewed?
And when I made that list Ivery quickly thought, oh my gosh
(45:38):
, there are all these otherpeople who were caregivers and
especially medical providers,medical and social service
(46:00):
providers for people in the 80sand early 90s.
They were reaching the age,like myself, where we were going
to retire within 10 years, likemyself, where we were going to
retire within 10 years, and so Iquickly realized that any
opportunity to capture theirknowledge base was going to be
gone in 10 years or it would beharder to capture.
(46:21):
So I talked to Sarah, the headof archives, and I said, sarah,
together I would like to do anoral history project outside of
Harris County where we would getfriends and people who would
interview people and the wholesort of.
The theme of it is documentingHouston's response to AIDS.
(46:44):
And so we're interviewingpeople who were old enough in
the 80s and mid-90s and early90s.
I'm sorry that they rememberwhat happened.
Either they had a family memberor we're interviewing doctors,
politicians, clergy members, allUnited Way people, people at
(47:09):
the agencies who started many ofthese grassroots organizations,
so we can capture what it waslike in the 80s, up until 1995.
And we're working inpartnership with Rice University
.
So it's a collection of 100interviews and they are going to
(47:30):
be kept forever at RiceUniversity, where people can
either go online on Rice'swebsite.
We've interviewed about 77people so far.
We're in the final home stretchand we're about to interview 17
more people.
I'd like to give a little pitchfor what we need, and what we
(47:52):
really need are some transgender, either women or men, who were,
say, 18 years of age or olderin the 1980s through 95, who can
talk to us about theexperiences of the transgender
(48:13):
community in the early days ofthe epidemic.
That community was hit early andhard and so so many of them
passed away that it is difficultto find someone in that age
group who is either a long-termsurvivor or was fortunate enough
(48:35):
that they never were exposed toHIV and they're still alive
today and can talk to us abouthow did social service agencies
treat them when they came inwith HIV.
Did social service agenciestreat them when they came in
with HIV?
How did they support themselves?
It's hard enough for a personwho's transgender to get a job.
(49:02):
What about someone who's livingwith HIV who is trying to get a
job?
Their challenges are all of ourchallenges times 100.
Their challenges are all of ourchallenges times 100.
Yes, send me an email and giveme your phone number and I'll
call you back.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
In the early days, of course, it was the homosexual
male community that was hardesthit by HIV and AIDS, and I think
a lot of people still thinkthat that is who needs to be
(49:37):
worried about it.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
But what's the reality, tori?
Well, the reality is 50 percentof people living with HIV today
are still men who have sex withmen.
That is still in our communitya huge number of people.
But the numbers among women ison the rise.
And when you look at differentethnic groups, it is in our
(50:07):
community.
It has always been mostlyAfrican Americans who've been
impacted by HIV.
But very recently there hasbeen a bump in the emergency
room with stage 3, stage 4 HIV,which means they've had the
(50:37):
disease for a long time, they'vehad no treatment, no medication
and they're in the very, verylate stages of HIV disease.
So all groups have differentreasons why they're having
should be concerned about HIV.
But you know young black men inour community.
(51:02):
Men who have sex with men whoare young and black is just,
it's through the roof, and nowwe're starting to see again more
and more Hispanics.
So that's the reality today andwe just are about to publish an
epidemiological report.
(51:22):
You can also leave a message onmy personal e-mail address,
which is also the O Projectemail address.
Tell me you want to know whatthe numbers are like and I'll
send you a copy.
It's like a 12-page report witha lot of graphs and charts and
it's a very interesting, helpfulthing to see.
(51:45):
And I'll tell you, the peoplewho get in and use services that
are funded by Ryan White.
They do better medicallybecause they get their medicine.
Those who stay adherent totheir medicine, they do really,
really well.
(52:05):
But Ryan White serves only halfof the 33,000 people living
with HIV in our 10-county area.
We serve 15,000 people.
Those folks are dependent onRyan White for their care and
that's what the planning councildoes.
Speaker 5 (52:24):
There is information online about the O Project.
In fact, some of the storiesare shared.
They're archived by RiceUniversity.
How can people access thatinformation?
Speaker 3 (52:38):
Let me give you that information and then let me give
you the Ryan White website andthat way, folks can explore
either or both of those things.
So if you want to go in andread any of the transcripts from
the people we've interviewed,it is tiny, t-i-n-y U-R-L dot
(53:01):
com, and then it's forward slashO.
That's O, as in orange H, as inhistory, project Houston.
So again, that's tinyurlcom.
Forward slash O Project Houston.
That's how you can get theinterviews.
(53:21):
And if you're interested inbecoming a Ryan White member, we
need your application rightaway, because we're right now
interviewing people formembership for 2025.
You need to fill out anapplication and get it into us
right away, and that is wwwrwpc,which stands for Ryan White
(53:46):
Planningouncilhoustonorg.
Speaker 5 (53:51):
I read some of those stories, including your own
commentary, which brought up alot of memories for me and is
very emotional.
So I do advise people to beprepared Sometimes.
I think it's good for us to bereminded for so many reasons.
(54:13):
It gives you a chance toremember people, it gives you a
chance to grieve.
It's important work.
I'm so glad that it's beingdocumented and I really
appreciate all that you've donein the community.
This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell.
We've been talking with ToriWilliams of the Ryan White
(54:34):
Planning Council and the OProject, and you're listening to
Queer Voices.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
This is KPFT, 90.1 FM Houston, 89.5 FM Galveston,
91.9 FM Huntsville, andworldwide on the internet at
kpftorg.
This is Glenn, from all of usat Queer Voices, Brian Levinka,
(55:09):
debra Moncrief-Bell, davisMendoza and Brett Cullum.
Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa and Season's
Greetings.
We're wishing you a Happy NewYear for 2025.
That's Queer Voices Wednesdaynights at 8pm here on KPFT and
(55:29):
on our podcast worldwide.
Martha what'd that fella on thewireless?
Just say Something about theminterwebs.
You don't have to ask Martha.
We've got all the names, datesand webpage links for people,
(55:50):
events and anything elsementioned in the show right on
our own website.
It's QueerVoicesorg.
We even link to past shows andother tidbits of information, so
check it out, queervoicesorg.
Besides, martha is a cat.
She doesn't know anything aboutwebsites.
(56:10):
This has been Queer Voices,heard on KPFT Houston and as a
podcast available from severalpodcasting sources.
Check our webpage,queervoicesorg for more
(56:34):
information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Levinka.
Debra Moncrief-Bell isco-producer, brett Cullum and
David Mendoza-Druzman arecontributors and Brett is also
our webmaster.
The News Wrap segment is partof another podcast called this
(56:54):
Way Out, which is produced inLos Angeles.
Speaker 6 (56:57):
Some of the material in this program has been edited
to improve clarity and runtime.
This program does not endorseany political views or animal
species.
Views, opinions andendorsements are those of the
participants and theorganizations they represent.
In case of death, pleasediscontinue use and discard
remaining products.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
For Queer Voices.
I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast
version of a broadcast radioshow that's been on the air in
Houston, texas, for severaldecades.
This week, brett Cullum talkswith playwright Isaac Gomez.
He wrote the Alley Theatre'sholiday show, the Night Shift
Before Christmas, which runsuntil the 29th.
(00:21):
This is a spoof of A ChristmasCarol.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I have these childhood memories of being with
her at a retail store duringgraveyard shifts because no one
could take care of me helpingher at the store, and one of the
more chaotic moments wasChristmas Eve, and there are so
many people in the world whohave to work on Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Eve.
Then Debra Bell has aconversation with Tori Williams,
director of the Ryan WhitePlanning Council.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
There are a couple of things that we usually find
when we do this survey, and theone is always lack of
information.
That is our number one problemin the greater Houston area is
folks living with HIV just don'talways understand what services
are available to them.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I am Brett Pelham, a writer for Broadway World, and I
am here today to talk withIsaac Gomez about their upcoming
world premiere, the Night ShiftBefore Christmas.
It plays at the Alley Theater,opens on December 5th and plays
through December 29th.
The summary of the plot is it'sabout a woman named Margot who
works the graveyard shift onChristmas Eve.
(01:36):
It's a one-woman, very adultholiday comedy.
Isaac wrote this as a loveletter to Houston and to all
that have worked in fast food orretail during the holidays.
So please welcome Isaac toQueer Voices.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
You have a world premiere at the Alley.
That is insane.
Is this your first play that'sbeing produced on this scale, or
are you like an old pro at thiskind of thing?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Or are you like an old pro at this kind of thing?
My second production with theAlley, with the Audible Theater
at the Minetta Lane, certainlynot my first in this scale, but
it doesn't mean that it evergets old, or easy.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Well, yeah, if you mention things like the
Steppenwolf, I'm already kind ofgoing like this yeah, that's
amazing, it sounds like you'vereally kind of penetrated a lot
of things and really made animpact on the industry.
But how did this show come toyou?
It mentioned in the summarythat it's a love letter, sort of
, to Houston.
So how did you decide to writethis one?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, so you know the alley.
One of the most incrediblethings about the alley theater
in Houston, texas, is theircommitment and support, not just
to new voices and new writers,but writers who have a deep,
long history with Texas.
And so, as I'm sure you'reaware, the Alley has their
(03:11):
annual new play festival calledAlley All New, which was created
by their former director of newplay development, liz Frankel,
who came to the Alley by way ofthe Public Theater in New York
and she is a visionary in herown right and vein and created
this to help include the alleyin a larger conversation around
new works and writers across thecountry who are really trying
(03:35):
to speak to our current moment.
And so, at the time that I gotlinked up with the alley, they,
like many regional theatersaround the country, during the
holidays produce a Christmascarol for their wider audiences
and then, in their more intimatespaces, have typically
something a little bit moreadults like Santillan Diaries.
(03:57):
In that vein, allie and whatartistic director Rob Melrose
was wanting to curate is whatwould a modern version of
something like a Santa LandDiaries that speaks specifically
to the Houston experience,specifically to Texas,
specifically for adults, in afun, funny, warm-hearted,
(04:21):
holiday-oriented way, theyreached out to a couple of Texas
playwrights to loosely pitchsome ideas around what they
would want to the story they mayor may not want to tell.
And, as I mentioned, grew up inTexas, was born and raised along
the US-Mexican border in ElPaso, texas Juarez, mexico.
I went to school at UT, austin.
I have a lot of family inHouston.
(04:42):
My mom's worked at Walmart for26 years.
I have these childhood memoriesof being with her at a retail
store during graveyard shiftsbecause no one could take care
of me helping her at the store,and one of the more chaotic
moments was Christmas Eve.
And there are so many people inthe world who have to work on
(05:03):
Christmas Eve, on Christmas Day,on other holidays around the
country.
Families may not necessarilyhave the same experience as
those who are given the days offon those days, and so I really
wanted to tell a story thatcould speak from that experience
those who are working hard tokeep the world running during
(05:24):
our holiday season.
I was really excited and curiousabout telling a story about a
woman who works at a fast foodlocal fast food restaurant, mom
and pop burger shop reallywanting to give the Houston
small town big city vibes that Ialways love when I'm in the
city of Houston wanting toreally honor that perspective.
(05:45):
Obviously, charles Dickens' AChristmas Carol is such a great
source material, for one of thereasons why it's such a timeless
tale is because it requires usto deeply examine our
relationship with regret, withgrief, with love, with family,
and I was very curious aboutwhat would modern day woman's
(06:10):
version of that narrative looklike, and that's where Margot
was born.
The story of the Night ShipBefore Christmas takes us
through an incredibly chaotic,robust evening in which she's
visited slash possessed by fourspirits who are trying to help
her work through something quitedeep, and throughout her
(06:35):
evening in working in this fastfood restaurant and being
possessed by these spirits, sheuncovers deeper meaning behind
why she chooses to work at thisplace on Christmas Eve every
year and, in turn, has anincredible transformation in
response to that discovery.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Now, this is a one-woman show, so this actress
actually gets possessed by theghosts, is that right?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yes, yes.
So from an artistic standpoint,something that really excited
me was the ability to give awoman, specifically a Latina
woman especially given in thestate of Texas how prominent the
Mexican and Mexican-Americanpopulation is an opportunity to
have a tour de force performance.
And so in the play she'splaying multiple characters, I
(07:26):
think somewhere around seven oreight.
She has to be quite proficientat physical comedy because of
the possessions that unfold.
There's line dances, there'slive music that she sings, there
are gorgeous tender momentsthat are deeply heartfelt and
dramatic.
It really is a masterclass inwatching the actor really take
(07:52):
their time in demonstrating thebreadth and depth of their
instrument.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Who is the actor in this production?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Her name is Brianna Reza, and one of the many things
I value about Houston and thealley is their commitment to
local talent.
You know, the alley is one ofthe more larger regional
theaters, not just obviously inthe city but in the state and in
the country.
Of that caliber be a placewhere local actors can call home
(08:26):
in their attempts of expandingtheir skill set.
The alley really is is quiteadamant about providing that
opportunity, and so over thecourse of finding and
identifying a person in houstonwho could do this, we stumbled
(08:47):
upon a large array of talent, ofincredible women who were
really ready for this kind oftour de force performance, and
Brianna is such a gift to thecity of Houston in a way that I
hope the city continues to valueand appreciate.
I think she is incrediblytalented, very thoughtful,
(09:08):
deeply inquisitive, leads withcuriosity, is incredibly present
and open and really funny andreally moving.
I think one of her many giftsis her ability to open her heart
to us so that we can open ourheart to her, and it really
gives this character a level ofdepth and complexity that I'm
not sure we always get toexperience with Scrooge, you
(09:30):
know he's.
I think Charles Dickens reallywanted to create an archetype of
a type of person.
I think he has the autonomy andthe right to do that, if that
is what he chose.
I was more interested inexploring a more nuanced version
of that, and brianna is anincredible vessel for that kind
of work.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
You know, isaac, it's smart, because christmas carol
really was about theexploitation of the working
class.
That was really the point ofdickens, yes, in a lot of his
work, and and the characters ofTiny Tim and the Cratchits and
all that, and so this really isa neat kind of parallel to
(10:10):
modern time.
Because this would be exactlythe scenario that Charles
Dickens probably would have tochoose to set his story.
Yes, yes, I agree, I totallyagree, yeah, so I love that
you've taken this and made thisinto Christmas Carol and that
you're doing this while thealley is doing it upstairs.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I know it's really fun.
It's fun, it's hilarious, it'sgreat.
Yeah, that's happening.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
What a wonderful opportunity to do that.
So were you there for therehearsals.
Are you part of that process?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, of course.
Yes, for a world premiere play,it's especially imperative for
the writer to be involved, andso, yeah, I've been building
this play with my actor, brianna, and with my director, kj
Sanchez, who's also anincredible visionary, a great
dramaturg, and with Year 267thAlley, who are incredibly
thoughtful and thorough in theirfeedback, and ensuring that the
(11:04):
vision of what we anticipateand hope that this will be and
continue to be, ideally not justfor the alley but for, you know
, other regional theaters acrossthe country is maintained.
It's been a fun and intentionalprocess.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Tell me a little bit about you.
How did you get intoplaywriting?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh, you know, as I mentioned, I was born and raised
on a border town, border cities.
I grew up in a pretty poorworking class family and part of
town that did not have accessto art and whose access to
education was quite limited.
Teacher introduced me totheater via play, adaptation of
(11:47):
a children's book that shewanted us to perform for her
fourth graders, and it was thenthat I was like, oh wow, like
this thing, this stories aremeaningful to me.
It wasn't until she introducedthe possibility of this being a
viable career path to me.
That, even conceptually, was.
It just wasn't something I everthought was an option, and so
(12:08):
I'm forever thankful to her forthat.
At the time, though, I wasprimarily acting between there
all the way through my undergradin college.
I've always been a writer.
I've kept journals since I wasseven.
I would write poetry primarilyas well, and, again, I never
really imagined myself being.
It wasn't something I everthought was like it's odd,
because it's like it's.
(12:29):
It's not that I there wasn'tthere's.
There was so much unawarenessof it being a possibility.
It wasn't me saying like, oh, Ican't do that.
It was me saying like, oh, thepeople who do that are the
people who do that.
That just happens to not be me,you know was really the energy
at that time, and it wasn'tuntil my freshman year of
(12:49):
college when a friend of minewho lived in the same dorm as me
he committed suicide.
I was having a really hard timeprocessing his very sudden and
tragic death.
I felt compelled for the veryfirst time to write a play about
it.
Ut Austin has an incrediblegraduate playwriting program,
and so it was a combination ofthis tragic event that happened
(13:12):
in my life being around graduatestudents who are living
playwrights so not like the deadgreats living playwrights
writing plays around me as anundergrad actor, living
playwrights, writing playsaround me as an undergrad actor.
That's when it sort of surfacedfor me as something I could
possibly do, and so I hadwritten my very first play then.
(13:32):
And then it was, throughout thecourse of my undergrad, spending
a lot of time back home withwomen who's, you know,
unfortunately in not and notjust in Juarez but around the
world right, we experience andsee femicide and feminicide as
one of the greatest, I think,catastrophes of our lifetime.
(13:55):
In Juarez in particular, youknow, there's a lot of, I think,
cultural awareness, at leastmore so than before around the
missing and murdered women, andJuarez in particular, and so
returning back to Juarez as anadult and to spend time with
women whose daughters are stillmissing and who would drive
buses to US-owned factories thatthese women would work at,
(14:18):
became a pretty strong pillarfor me in wanting to help get
their stories out into the world, and I promised that I made to
them, and that became the first.
My two plays came out of thatexperience, one called the Way
she Spoke and the other calledLa Ruta, and both of those
became my very two firstpublicly produced plays, and
(14:38):
those were in Chicago, and onewas at Steppenwolf Theater and
one was at a smaller storefronttheater that no longer exists.
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, and this definitely sounds like a big
departure from that, becausethis sounds a little bit lighter
.
Oh, totally.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
For correct.
Totally very different, forsure.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Yeah, a lot of dramatic.
Who are some of your favoriteplaywrights?
Do you have some that you lookat and go?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
oh, oh, my God, my god, yeah, of course, yes, most
of them are living, thank god.
Playwrights that have thatinspire me and continue to.
One of the greats in my mind isbrandon jacob jenkins.
I think he is so prolific andso profound, incredibly
economical and really thoughtful.
I think rajiv joseph is anotherone of our greats.
(15:26):
I think he's also quiteeconomical and in in the way he
writes, plays big admirer of myfriends, works like antonio and
madhuri shaker and lauren yee,katori, hall lynn, nottage,
marcus Gardley, I mean AmyBerryman is a new player who
(15:50):
came into my consciousness overthe last year in our writers
group and I'm such a huge fan ofhers and Craig Galvan, I mean,
the list goes on and on.
I think we're in such we havebeen over the last 10 years, I
think, in such a.
The art of playwriting is in, Ithink, one of the best places
it's ever been.
The business of theater andplaywriting is in one of the
(16:12):
worst places it's ever been.
So that's an unfortunatecontention, because so many
playwrights, I think, are unableto sustain themselves, so we
have to rely on other forms ofof income, which involves other
mediums like television and film, myself included, and and then
that means, unfortunately, thatyou know, we're just losing a
(16:35):
lot of playwrights to to,because the business is just not
sustainable for us.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
So you're doing television and film too.
Is there anything notable thatyou're working on or that you
can?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
talk about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
I wrote for season six ofNarcos, mexico, on Netflix Wow,
so you can watch that.
I wrote on a television showcalled the Last Thing you Told
Me for Apple TV with JenniferGardner.
It's an adaptation of a book, athriller, a summer hit.
This show on Paramount Pluscalled Joe Pickett, which is
(17:07):
also based on a series of books,a few shows that haven't aired
yet but hopefully will in thenext two years.
And then, you know, I've soldpilots to FX and MRC
Entertainment features to FocusFeatures.
Yeah, that's mostly it.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Isaac, I didn't even know what I was walking into.
You are amazing.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It's very kind, thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So thrilled to talk to you because obviously not
only is this Allie worldpremiere but you've obviously
done a ton of stuff, but alsobecause we're on queer voices.
I wanted to ask you when we setup this interview, you know,
caroline told me that yourpronouns are they, them.
So how did you get to thatidentity?
How did that come into yourlife?
When did you kind of realizethat you wanted to be identified
(17:50):
as non-binary?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, it's so funny because, like when I look back,
some of my earliest, earliestmemories around gender
expression happened when I was achild and they were really an
experimentation with in the whenmy mom would go to work and I
would try on her clothes and hermakeup.
And I remember, especiallybecause of Mexican women in my
life and in my family, I was soenthralled by, I was so enamored
(18:19):
.
There was something about theirferocity and their fierceness
and their character but theirdemurity and their expression
that I really resonated with.
I mean, these are some of thenastiest, toughest bitches I've
ever known that's still true tothis day and also some of the
(18:41):
most humble and gracious at once.
So, some of the most humble andgracious at once.
And it was that complexity andthat contention that,
subconsciously, has alwaysinformed how I identify as it
relates to my gender journey.
All of that said, there areconsequences for what society
may call gender deviance, and sothose instincts of mine never
(19:05):
really had the ability to benourished or nurtured, and so my
relationship with masculinityand femininity over the course
of the first 20 or so years ofmy life, or in a place of
constant tension as my lifecontinued to unfold and I
surrounded myself more withpeople who saw things within me
(19:25):
that even I didn't couldn'tnecessarily name.
You know one of my best friendsand longtime collaborators,
incredible actor, severalensemble member, about to be on
an incredible show with NicolasCage called Spider-Man Noir on
Amazon.
Her name is Karen Rodriguez andshe's one of the most
incredibly gifted actors outthere and some of my earliest
(19:47):
memories are in college, herbeing like, oh, you know, you
should try on, you know, look atmy, maybe we should go get your
nails done, you know, or I'llput on this little makeup of
yours on you, and like littlethings like that that I'm not
even sure she knew at the timehow informative that was for me.
And so, and I had a cousin whowas very similar and a childhood
(20:08):
best friend who was also verysimilar, and so like these,
these markers of not justacceptance but curiosity, I
think was like a big part of it.
And then, as gender expansionbecame more in the cultural
consciousness you know around inour sort of zeitgeist around
queerness.
Unfortunately, even though itsorigin story is not this, much
(20:33):
of it centers through apredominantly Western and
predominantly white lens, youknow, like ideas of non-binary
when we think of it and, as itrelates to an optics or an image
of that, there's a veryspecific image of a person that
comes to mind, and so it didn'tresonate with me until I'm a
(20:53):
direct descendant of the ramuri,which is a mexican indigenous
community in northern chihuahua,and as I started to learn more
about that ancestry, I learnedthat there is a third gender
marker of my Mexican indigenousancestry called the Naui, and
that's when it all really sunkin for me.
(21:15):
It was like oh, the language Ihave been yearning for is
actually something that doesn'texist in a Western context, it
doesn't exist in an Americancontext, and that happened
around my 30th birthday.
And so over the last threeyears, between then and now, the
journey has been how do I wantto translate that into my
(21:40):
legibility in this context, andso my legibility in this context
?
And so that's how we endedwhere we are now, and my
relationship with my genderexpression varies on a
day-to-day basis, as is true,with so many who I identify
outside, within, beyond thegender binaries, but it's
heavily informed by my ancestryand really sinking in with my
(22:04):
intuition and how I may or maynot feel in a given moment in
time.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Well, isaac Gomez, I feel like I could talk to you
for like an entire day.
We could just like get reallydeep into all of this.
But Night Shift BeforeChristmas, alley Theatre opens
December 5th, goes through the29th.
It is going to be a tour deforce performance by Brianna
Reza, so I cannot wait to seethis one, and I am so thrilled
(22:29):
that I got a chance to talk toyou, so I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Thank you, the feeling's mutual and everyone
get your tickets, because weextended before rehearsals even
started.
These tickets go really fastfor this show, so I highly
recommend getting mine soonerthan later.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I was looking and, yeah, it's selling like crazy.
So I'm excited for you guys.
So I'm definitely lining mineup with Caroline as fast as I
possibly can.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So thank you, I can't wait for you to see it.
You're going to have such aruckus good time.
It's really you're going toenjoy yourself thoroughly.
Thank you, thanks, brad,appreciate you.
Thanks, brad.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Appreciate you Coming up on Queer Voices, tori
Williams, director of the RyanWhite Planning Council here in
Houston, and this programmingnote.
Queer Voices is distributed asa podcast on Buzzsprout, and
Buzzsprout reports that in thepast year we have seen hundreds
of downloads from Canada,germany, the Netherlands and
(23:26):
Singapore, as well as the US.
So here's a special shout outto all of our international
listeners.
This is Glenn from Queer Voices.
You're listening to KPFT.
That means you're alreadyparticipating just by listening,
but how about doing more?
Kpft is totally listener-funded,which means it's people like
(23:50):
you who are making donations whosupport this community resource
.
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(24:14):
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Please become an active memberof the listener community by
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Donate Now button.
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell and we're talking
with Tori Williams.
Tori is the longtime directorof the Ryan White Planning
Council and is one of the peopleactive in producing the O
Project.
So first of all, tori, so goodto have you with us here on
Queer Voices.
(24:54):
It's been a long time sincewe've had a chance to talk, but
you're kind of legendary inhouston because of your activism
.
Uh, beyond what you do as yourwork, uh, including being a
founder of heart song, which wasthe women's chorus, uh starting
the pet patrol and theassisters Organization.
(25:17):
So, and also you were a GrandMarshal of Houston Bride, so
we're just delighted that youwere able to join us.
But I know where your heart is,and your heart is, in fact,
with the Ryan White PlanningCouncil.
So explain what that is.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
The Ryan White Planning Council is part of the
Ryan White Program and the RyanWhite Program is a federal law.
Back in the 1990s it was veryclear that local communities who
had hospital districts, likeHarris County Hospital District,
the financial burden from thecost of AIDS care in the 80s was
(26:02):
tremendous.
And so Congress realized intothe local communities so that
they could develop HIV caresystems and provide support and
(26:27):
medication for people livingwith HIV.
And we were among the firstgroup of cities that received
money and we got $3 million thefirst year in 1991 and that was
a huge, huge deal because it wasthe beginning of steady,
(26:49):
reliable funding so thatagencies like the AIDS
foundation didn't have to raidthe coke machine to pay the
staff.
It was a huge deal and we gotthis money in Houston.
But part of getting the moneyis that the money can only be
(27:16):
applied for and received by thecounty judge.
It has to be the electedofficial who is primarily
responsible for health care inthe geographic area, and so in
our community that is the countyjudge right now, County Judge
Lena Hidalgo, and one of therequirements is that she must
(27:41):
appoint a community group calleda council, a planning council,
that is made up of one-third thepeople who are living with HIV
and using Ryan White services,and my staff and I provide
support to that planning council.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
And what type of work do they do?
How do they make decisionsabout allocating the funds to
the various programs that servethe community?
Speaker 3 (28:13):
One of the jobs of our staff is to do a needs
assessment every three years andwe go out in the community and
we interview about 600 peopleand we ask them what services
are you using?
What services do you need?
What services do you need thatyou can't access because they
don't exist?
Sometimes they'll identifybarriers to care and other times
(28:37):
they'll just say there isn'teven a barrier.
The service just plain doesn'texist.
And there are a couple ofthings that we usually find when
we do this survey, and the oneis always lack of information.
That is our number one problemin the greater houston area is
folks living with hiv just don'talways understand what services
(28:59):
are available to them.
And if you are familiar withthe Blue Book, the Blue Book is
an HIV directory of services forpeople living with HIV in the
10-county area.
People can go on our websiteand they can pull down the
directory.
People can go on our websiteand they can pull down the
directory.
They can go to any RyanWhite-funded agency and ask for
(29:24):
a blue book.
People in the field know whatthat is.
We're about to release a newblue book, probably in January
or February, so if they do thator they can go to our website
again and get it.
So that's what we do, is wecollect data.
So there's the needs assessment.
Then, based on the needsassessment, we invite all the
(29:46):
partners to the table would beHISD and community hospitals and
all the local agencies, andtogether we create a plan to
address the needs that areidentified in the needs
assessment.
So together we try to respond towhat it is the consumers are
(30:06):
telling us they need.
And then we take all that dataand the planning council has
committees and one committeedesigns all the services,
another committee attaches thefunding to the services and so
forth.
And so the best way to describeit is, if we were building the
(30:29):
Ryan White House, the councilwould be the architect and they
would design how many rooms,where the bathrooms would be.
They would also put the budgetfor the bathroom, the budget for
the kitchen, that sort of thing.
So they would create ablueprint for the house.
But then by federal law we haveto turn the blueprint over to
(30:53):
the administrative agency and inour area that's, the county
health department has a divisioncalled the Ryan White Grant
Administration and it's theirjob to take the blueprint and
then to actually hire agencies,as has given them to provide the
services to the client.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
It's a huge undertaking and I know you've
been with the planning councilfor well over two decades now.
What are some of the thingsthat have changed?
And I'm so glad that youmentioned the Blue Book because
I was going to ask you about it,because I have often used that
(31:46):
as a resource for people lookingfor various services, not just
HIV-AIDS related, but becauseit's a wonderful resource of
information, so it's very useful.
So in the early days, as weknow especially those of us that
(32:06):
did things like I did, workingwith a aid support group and
having friends that wereinfected and dying of AIDS how
have things changed from thoseearly days and what part do you
see that the Ryan White PlanningCouncil, what part did they
(32:28):
have in that?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
In the early days of HIV there was no medication.
People were dying within sixmonths of diagnosis.
It was difficult to find adoctor who knew anything about
in those days we called it AIDS,and it was almost impossible to
find a dentist who would carefor you.
(32:51):
And there were many smallefforts to raise money.
Efforts to raise money, a lotof our local men's groups, their
social groups like Miss CampAmerica or the Diana's
Foundation.
They would have big events andthey would raise money and they
would give them to our handfulof AIDS organizations.
(33:12):
But it wasn't enough.
So when the Ryan White moneycame along, that provided stable
, long-term funding for thoseagencies.
And so the council, as we wentalong, most of the money in the
beginning went to the hospitaldistrict because that was sort
of the only place someone couldgo if they didn't have resources
(33:33):
.
And again, as you know, a lotof people had resources.
They had jobs, they had pensionplans, they had all these
things.
But when they got sick with HIVthey lost their jobs, they
couldn't make their car payments, they lost everything.
And so a lot of these patientsended up in the hospital
(33:53):
district because they couldn'tafford for their own care.
They couldn't afford for theirown care.
So most of the Ryan White moneywent to the Harris County
Hospital District to providecare on an outpatient basis.
But then as time went on, about20 years ago, the councils
(34:14):
decided that a lot of folks wereuncomfortable.
Going into a big governmenthospital or even an outpatient
clinic was very intimidating,particularly people, minority
people.
What we did is we made moneyavailable to small Ryan White or
(34:35):
small agencies that had thecapacity to develop to provide
medical care.
So Legacy used to be called theMontrose Clinic.
That is a perfect example.
They started out as agrassroots organization that
simply provided testing andtreatment for STIs, but as HIV
(35:00):
was exploding in Houston, theystarted doing testing for HIV
and then they'd refer them tothe hospital district and we
went and said, hey, you guys, ifwe gave you money, would you be
interested in offering primarycare?
So we developed and kind ofwith our Ryan White money.
So we developed and kind ofwith our Ryan White money, we
(35:21):
grew Montrose Clinic, which isnow called Legacy Clinic, avenue
360, which used to be Hacks andBearing, and we grew the St
Hope Foundation, which is on themore outskirts of town, and up
north they have clinics up north, which is on the more outskirts
of town and up north.
(35:43):
They have clinics up north.
Through the council we wereable to grow these small groups
and now they're federallyqualified health centers, which
means they're eligible for morefederal money for other programs
besides HIV, and they'refinancially stable, have
long-term care.
And, as the new HIV medicationshave come along, the good news
(36:05):
is that people are doing so muchbetter and they're living
normal length of time, but theirbodies tend to age 10 years
younger than other folks whohaven't been on HIV medication
for a long time.
And so now we're developingsome case managers and training
(36:29):
them as geriatric HIV casemanagers and we're funding that
project.
And that is just now.
We're just now training somecase managers to do that so that
those folks who are long-termsurvivors they're really
(36:50):
miracles, some of those folksand now we're providing them
with geriatric care, which inthe 80s and 90s nobody ever even
considered something like thatbecause it seemed impossible
that we would need that.
So that's what the council does.
We watch what's happening in theepidemic.
We respond to the trends.
(37:11):
We make sure that folks canaccess medication.
Folks can access medication.
We make sure that they canaccess doctor visits, medical
care of other types.
Oral health is incrediblyimportant to a person living
with HIV because an infection inyour mouth can be just as
(37:32):
life-threatening as any otherkind of infection.
So, folks who are living withHIV, I really encourage them to
go to the dentist for regularcheckups and make sure that
their teeth are healthy anddoing well.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
I take a lot of pride in the fact that those
institutions got built.
That started from grassrootsmovement, much by the community,
built that started fromgrassroots movement, much by the
community and, like you said,the people that were doing the
fundraising in the early days,including the drag performers,
who still to this day put a lotof effort into raising funds.
(38:11):
And we tend to think of theAIDS epidemic as a thing of the
past and maybe it is no longeran epidemic here in this country
, but it is in fact a concernand something that is ongoing as
far as people becoming infected, and that brings us to 1995 and
(38:40):
this other thing that you'reinvolved with called the O
Project.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
HIV is still an epidemic in the United States
and in our community, in our10-county area, we get between
1,300 to 1,400 new diagnosesevery year.
Just in our 10-county area andthroughout the United States we
(39:09):
were getting 40,000 new casesevery year, and then there was a
great initiative started wherethe federal government now gives
us additional funding just toend the epidemic, and that is it
gives us.
We've done a.
You know, we've found 80 to 85%of folks who are in our area
(39:34):
who are living with HIV, butthat still leaves thousands more
who are living with HIV andthey don't know it, or they were
diagnosed and they don't wantto deal with it.
They just don't want to doanything or get in for care for
all kinds of reasons.
And so we have to find thatlast 18% of the people in our
(40:00):
community who are living withHIV because they're either not
using safe sex or becausethey're not on the medication.
Their viral load is still veryhigh and that's where a lot of
the new infections are comingfrom.
So it's super important thatpeople not think that HIV has
(40:22):
gone away or that it's somethingthat can't affect them, because
it can and it can.
People still get HIV today andI encourage everyone make it a
routine part of your health examto always get an HIV test.
If you are sexually active, ifyou use intravenous drugs, if
(40:48):
there's any reason you think youcould be exposed to HIV, get
tested and talk to them aboutthe new medications called PrEP
and people can go on PrEP and itis medication that will make
sure that they don't get HIV.
They don't convert to HIV ifthey come in contact with the
(41:13):
virus.
So that's been a game changerin the HIV community.
But we still, with all thesenew opportunities to treat HIV,
we are still getting 1,300 to1,400 new cases every year.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Being that I am a senior citizen and I have
several friends who are alsosenior citizens and who are in
fact living with HIV, as yousaid, that geriatric patient
which we get all kinds of thingsregarding aging but when you
add on that the issue of HIV andthank goodness most of them
(41:59):
have undetectable viral loads,and so that also has been a game
changer Back to 1995, you areworking on this project called
the O Project.
It's an oral history projectand it's documenting the
experiences of people who wereinfected and diagnosed in
(42:21):
pre-1995.
What happened in 1995?
That changed things?
Speaker 3 (42:37):
1995 that changed things.
In 1995, that's when theydiscovered or developed the
retro antiviral medications thatwere again a huge game changer.
They really made a difference.
Before that there were a fewmedications.
A lot of my friends were on AZT.
They were getting huge, veryhigh doses of these drugs like
AZT.
I mean the minute any drug wasfound that might impact HIV the
(43:04):
doctors just like overwhelmedtheir poor bodies with these
toxic medications that wereimportant.
But now, looking back, we'refinding that some of those
really old medications before1995, some of them caused so
much damage to the immune systemthat that may be why some
(43:28):
people passed away.
But when the antiretroviraldrugs came along, that was a
whole new way of attacking thevirus.
And since then, since 1995,those medications have become
very, very sophisticated and nowyou can get them packaged into
(43:51):
one pill.
So you can get three differentmedications packaged into one
pill.
Now you can get injectablemedications, so you just go in
and see your doctor regularlyand they give you a shot that
keeps you on your medication.
You don't have to fool withpills.
So now there are so manydifferent ways for people to
(44:12):
receive the HIV medication.
But the reason we started thisoral history project is.
I work in Harris County.
The Ryan White Program liveswithin Harris County.
Ryan White program lives withinHarris County and the head of
(44:35):
archives at Harris County cameto me and said you know, we've
got this really wonderful personrealized that you know, your
program was really unique anddifferent.
And even though it was his jobevery seven years to shred
documents in the county, he tookall the Ryan White documents
and he stored them in boxes andhe had a closet in his office
(44:57):
and he just kept putting theseboxes of old Ryan White records
in this closet.
And he said he's about toretire, we need to clean out the
closet and we need to shrinksome of these documents down and
separate what.
We need to clean out the closetand we need to shrink some of
these documents down andseparate what we need to keep
from what we need to destroy.
(45:17):
And so I got together with herand Sarah and another friend and
I went through everything andshe said you know I can do some
oral histories with peoplebecause as part of my job as the
county archivist I'm allowed todo that.
Would you make a list for me ofpeople who should be
interviewed?
And when I made that list Ivery quickly thought, oh my gosh
(45:38):
, there are all these otherpeople who were caregivers and
especially medical providers,medical and social service
(46:00):
providers for people in the 80sand early 90s.
They were reaching the age,like myself, where we were going
to retire within 10 years, likemyself, where we were going to
retire within 10 years, and so Iquickly realized that any
opportunity to capture theirknowledge base was going to be
gone in 10 years or it would beharder to capture.
(46:21):
So I talked to Sarah, the headof archives, and I said, sarah,
together I would like to do anoral history project outside of
Harris County where we would getfriends and people who would
interview people and the wholesort of.
The theme of it is documentingHouston's response to AIDS.
(46:44):
And so we're interviewingpeople who were old enough in
the 80s and mid-90s and early90s.
I'm sorry that they rememberwhat happened.
Either they had a family memberor we're interviewing doctors,
politicians, clergy members, allUnited Way people, people at
(47:09):
the agencies who started many ofthese grassroots organizations,
so we can capture what it waslike in the 80s, up until 1995.
And we're working inpartnership with Rice University
.
So it's a collection of 100interviews and they are going to
(47:30):
be kept forever at RiceUniversity, where people can
either go online on Rice'swebsite.
We've interviewed about 77people so far.
We're in the final home stretchand we're about to interview 17
more people.
I'd like to give a little pitchfor what we need, and what we
(47:52):
really need are some transgender, either women or men, who were,
say, 18 years of age or olderin the 1980s through 95, who can
talk to us about theexperiences of the transgender
(48:13):
community in the early days ofthe epidemic.
That community was hit early andhard and so so many of them
passed away that it is difficultto find someone in that age
group who is either a long-termsurvivor or was fortunate enough
(48:35):
that they never were exposed toHIV and they're still alive
today and can talk to us abouthow did social service agencies
treat them when they came inwith HIV.
Did social service agenciestreat them when they came in
with HIV?
How did they support themselves?
It's hard enough for a personwho's transgender to get a job.
(49:02):
What about someone who's livingwith HIV who is trying to get a
job?
Their challenges are all of ourchallenges times 100.
Their challenges are all of ourchallenges times 100.
Yes, send me an email and giveme your phone number and I'll
call you back.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
In the early days, of course, it was the homosexual
male community that was hardesthit by HIV and AIDS, and I think
a lot of people still thinkthat that is who needs to be
(49:37):
worried about it.
Speaker 3 (49:39):
But what's the reality, tori?
Well, the reality is 50 percentof people living with HIV today
are still men who have sex withmen.
That is still in our communitya huge number of people.
But the numbers among women ison the rise.
And when you look at differentethnic groups, it is in our
(50:07):
community.
It has always been mostlyAfrican Americans who've been
impacted by HIV.
But very recently there hasbeen a bump in the emergency
room with stage 3, stage 4 HIV,which means they've had the
(50:37):
disease for a long time, they'vehad no treatment, no medication
and they're in the very, verylate stages of HIV disease.
So all groups have differentreasons why they're having
should be concerned about HIV.
But you know young black men inour community.
(51:02):
Men who have sex with men whoare young and black is just,
it's through the roof, and nowwe're starting to see again more
and more Hispanics.
So that's the reality today andwe just are about to publish an
epidemiological report.
(51:22):
You can also leave a message onmy personal e-mail address,
which is also the O Projectemail address.
Tell me you want to know whatthe numbers are like and I'll
send you a copy.
It's like a 12-page report witha lot of graphs and charts and
it's a very interesting, helpfulthing to see.
(51:45):
And I'll tell you, the peoplewho get in and use services that
are funded by Ryan White.
They do better medicallybecause they get their medicine.
Those who stay adherent totheir medicine, they do really,
really well.
(52:05):
But Ryan White serves only halfof the 33,000 people living
with HIV in our 10-county area.
We serve 15,000 people.
Those folks are dependent onRyan White for their care and
that's what the planning councildoes.
Speaker 5 (52:24):
There is information online about the O Project.
In fact, some of the storiesare shared.
They're archived by RiceUniversity.
How can people access thatinformation?
Speaker 3 (52:38):
Let me give you that information and then let me give
you the Ryan White website andthat way, folks can explore
either or both of those things.
So if you want to go in andread any of the transcripts from
the people we've interviewed,it is tiny, t-i-n-y U-R-L dot
(53:01):
com, and then it's forward slashO.
That's O, as in orange H, as inhistory, project Houston.
So again, that's tinyurlcom.
Forward slash O Project Houston.
That's how you can get theinterviews.
(53:21):
And if you're interested inbecoming a Ryan White member, we
need your application rightaway, because we're right now
interviewing people formembership for 2025.
You need to fill out anapplication and get it into us
right away, and that is wwwrwpc,which stands for Ryan White
(53:46):
Planningouncilhoustonorg.
Speaker 5 (53:51):
I read some of those stories, including your own
commentary, which brought up alot of memories for me and is
very emotional.
So I do advise people to beprepared Sometimes.
I think it's good for us to bereminded for so many reasons.
(54:13):
It gives you a chance toremember people, it gives you a
chance to grieve.
It's important work.
I'm so glad that it's beingdocumented and I really
appreciate all that you've donein the community.
This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell.
We've been talking with ToriWilliams of the Ryan White
(54:34):
Planning Council and the OProject, and you're listening to
Queer Voices.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
This is KPFT, 90.1 FM Houston, 89.5 FM Galveston,
91.9 FM Huntsville, andworldwide on the internet at
kpftorg.
This is Glenn, from all of usat Queer Voices, Brian Levinka,
(55:09):
debra Moncrief-Bell, davisMendoza and Brett Cullum.
Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa and Season's
Greetings.
We're wishing you a Happy NewYear for 2025.
That's Queer Voices Wednesdaynights at 8pm here on KPFT and
(55:29):
on our podcast worldwide.
Martha what'd that fella on thewireless?
Just say Something about theminterwebs.
You don't have to ask Martha.
We've got all the names, datesand webpage links for people,
(55:50):
events and anything elsementioned in the show right on
our own website.
It's QueerVoicesorg.
We even link to past shows andother tidbits of information, so
check it out, queervoicesorg.
Besides, martha is a cat.
She doesn't know anything aboutwebsites.
(56:10):
This has been Queer Voices,heard on KPFT Houston and as a
podcast available from severalpodcasting sources.
Check our webpage,queervoicesorg for more
(56:34):
information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Levinka.
Debra Moncrief-Bell isco-producer, brett Cullum and
David Mendoza-Druzman arecontributors and Brett is also
our webmaster.
The News Wrap segment is partof another podcast called this
(56:54):
Way Out, which is produced inLos Angeles.
Speaker 6 (56:57):
Some of the material in this program has been edited
to improve clarity and runtime.
This program does not endorseany political views or animal
species.
Views, opinions andendorsements are those of the
participants and theorganizations they represent.
In case of death, pleasediscontinue use and discard
remaining products.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
For Queer Voices.
I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
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