When Nia King was writing her ethnic studies thesis at Mills College in 2010, she hit a void. She was researching Bay Area performing arts company Mangos With Chili, which features LGBT people of color, but there simply weren’t enough sources to work with. Ever since, King has been determined to help fill that void by interviewing queer and trans artists of color about their work and lives. She shares the intimate, sensitive, and culturally-informed interviews through her podcast, We Want the Airwaves. And in 2014, she self-published transcripts of eighteen of those interviews in a 235-page book called Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives. Now, she’s putting together her second anthology of interviews, Queer and Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2 with co-editor Elena Rose. It features independent game developer and activist Mattie Brice, Toronto-based novelist, filmmaker, and musician Vivek Shraya, and many others. As King told the Express in 2014: “I just want the talented, hardworking people that I see in my community who are underpaid and undervalued to receive their rightful place in history.” ArtActivistNia.com.
Credits: Bert Johnson/File Credits: Bert Johnson/File
