Queer Mountaineers

This week, I sat down with Julie Rae Powers, a photographer based out of Brooklyn NY who’s lived in a bunch of different places in Appalachia. We had a great chat about LGBTQ+ representation in the media, as well as about their upbringing in Appalachia and her current photography work.

Follow Julie Rae:

Instagram and Twitter: @julieraepowers

For this week’s episode I sat down with Liz Pavlovic, an artist best known for her illustrations of West Virginia cryptids. We chatted about her inspiration for her art and the sudden interest in cryptids in popular culture.

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On the same day that George Floyd’s murderer Derek Chauvin was convicted, the Columbus Police shot and killed 16 year-old (Ma-kya) Ma’Khia Bryant after she called them for help. And a few days before Daunte Wright was killed during a traffic stop not too far from where Derek Chauvin’s trial was being held.

While this guilty verdict is excellent news, one act of accountability is not enough to undo centuries of white supremacy that has been built into our law enforcement.

In this episode, I sat down with Liz Hamperian and Justin Michael the president, and communications director of OutMOV, a queer nonprofit that serves the Middle Ohio Valley. We chatted about how the organization came together, and how it’s been since the start of the pandemic.

Follow @OutMOV on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

In the season 4 premiere of "Queer Mountaineers" musician Sir Dallan G. stepped into the virtual studio to talk about their new EP "Queer Vespers" out NOW wherever you get your music from! 

Follow Sir Dallan G. on Instagram and Twitter- @sirdallang

Welcome LaToya Jones back to the podcast! She is the business owner of As It Should Be, an eco-friendly skincare line, and more recently became the founder of Black Business NOW, a digital magazine created to celebrate and promote black-owned businesses in West Virginia and beyond.

RaJon Staunton is a queer black poet from Beckley, West Virginia, and is studying creative writing at Marshall University. We had a great conversation on finding community through literacy, as well as queer representation through a black lens, and he even read some of his poetry during the recording.