Country Queers

Latest Episodes:

Adria Stembridge Jan 11, 2022

Show notes

Adria Stembridge (she/her) is a goth, neurodivergent, white, queer, trans woman who was born and raised in Georgia where she still lives. She has been in bands like: The Endless, The Girl Pool, Vomit Thrower, Tears for the Dying, and more. Adria loves watching anime, roller skating, changing piston rings on her dirtbike, and operating heavy equipment like hydraulic excavators. In this episode Tommy Anderson interviews Adria about growing up in Athens, coming out as trans in the 90s, and punk and goth music!

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For this episode we're asking folks who are able to support The Okra Project. The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever they can reach them. Find the link to donate on their website: https://www.theokraproject.com

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To learn more about this collaboratively produced 2nd season check out our websites at www.countryqueers.com and www.weareoutintheopen.org

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Created and produced by Tommy Anderson, with support from HB Lozito from Out in the Open, and Rae Garringer of Country Queers.

Sound Design by Hideo Higashibaba. Audio editors: Tommy Anderson and Rae Garringer

Editorial advisory dream team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Music by Adria's band Tears for the Dying and Tommy Anderson!

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If you'd like to support this rural queer and trans led project head on over to our Patreon page.

Kūʻiʻolani Cotchay Dec 28, 2021

Show notes

Kūʻiʻolani (she/they) is a queer, mixed-Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) living in their ancestral lands in Mākaha, Hawaiʻi. She is an educator, learning experience designer, musician/creative and plant person. In this episode Miguel Mendías interviews Kūʻiʻolani about Hawaiian history, lands, language, color theory, queerness, colonization, belonging, being of mixed Indigenous ancestry, and living in highly-gentrified, highly trafficked tourist destinations.

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For this episode we're asking folks who are able to support a gofundme that Kūʻiʻolani and their friend Kahele have launched to create a māhū* (nonbinary, trans) led project in Hawaiʻi. They write: "Primarily, this project aims to house QTBIPOC community and repair relationship to land, especially for Kanaka Maoli, Indigenous, and Black relatives. Secondary to this objective, is a focus on creative endeavors, both traditional and contemporary. In general, it is the continuation of ancestral practices alongside new media, arts, and music."

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To learn more about this collaboratively produced 2nd season check out our websites at www.countryqueers.com and www.weareoutintheopen.org

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Created and produced by Miguel Mendías, with support from HB Lozito from Out in the Open, and Rae Garringer of Country Queers.

Sound Design by Hideo Higashibaba. Audio editor: Rae Garringer

Editorial advisory dream team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Music by Tommy Anderson and Podington Bear.

Ambient recordings by Kūʻiʻolani Cotchay.

Introducing Season 2 with HB & Rae Dec 14, 2021

Show notes

In this episode HB Lozito of Out in the Open and Rae Garringer of Country Queers welcome you behind the scenes of our collaboratively produced, rural-lgbtqia+ made Season 2 adventure! Our fellow-travelers and co-producers in this Season, who you'll meet along the way, include: KD Randle, Kūʻiʻolani Cotchay, Miguel Mendías, Tommy Anderson. Tovi DeGroot, and Zach Henningsen. Our sound designer is Hideo Higashibaba, and our brilliant editorial advisory dream team is Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland!

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If you liked what you heard, please rate and review the podcast wherever you listen. If you'd like to support our work, please consider becoming a sustaining supporter over on Patreon.

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Host/Editor/Sound Designer/Co-Producer: Rae Garringer. Co-producer HB Lozito. Music in order of appearance: written by Sam Gleaves & performed on pedal steel by Rebecca Branson Jones, additional music on acoustic and electric guitar written and performed by Tommy Anderson. Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Sharon P. Holland, and Lewis Raven Wallace, special thanks to Hermelinda for feedback on this episode!

Szn 2 is here!!! Nov 30, 2021

Show notes

We're back with another season full of rural queer oral histories, but with a twist! In Season 2 we teamed up with our friends at Out in the Open and invited 6 rural and small town lgbtqia+ folks to join us in an experimental adventure in creating a collaboratively produced season: by us and for us. You'll hear participants - many brand new to audio work - in conversation with each other about identities, land, colonization, ancestral memory, race, class, belonging, and what "country" even means.

Ode to Sheep - Part Three Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

In this episode you'll meet Tash Terry who is Diné and shares memories of spending time with her grandmother on a sheep camp on Black Mountain in the Navajo Reservation. Then, you'll meet Elena Higgins who is of Maori and Samoan descent, and shares memories of spending time with her cousin and uncle who managed a huge herd of sheep in rural New Zealand. Tash and Elena are musicians, partners, and co-founders of an organization called Indigenous Ways.

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This is the third and final episode in our Ode to Sheep series dedicated to sheep and the queer and trans humans who love them! Learn more about this project at www.countryqueers.com and sign up to become a sustaining supporter of Country Queers on Patreon.

You can find a photo of Tash and Elena on our social media pages.

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In this episode, we're asking folks who have additional funds, to please donate to the organization Tash and Elena founded: Indigenous Ways. Their mission is to "reach Indigenous and LGBTQIA2+ communities through outreach with music, the arts, and indigenous wisdom that creates and enhances survival and sustainability." Your support will enable them to continue making relief runs to the Black Mountain community - delivering supplies such as water, PPE, clothing, and cleaning supplies as the covid19 pandemic continues. You can learn more about their work and donate at: https://www.indigenousways.org/donate

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Host & Producer: Rae Garringer

Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Music in this episode: Composed and performed on acoustic and electric guitar by Tommy Anderson, and composed by Sam Gleaves and performed on pedal steel by Rebecca Branson Jones.

Special thanks to Dan and his sheep in southern WV for ambient farm sounds heard throughout this episode.

Also....SEASON TWO IS COMING SOOOOOOOON!!! Subscribe now!

Ode to Sheep - Part Two Sep 22, 2021

Show notes

In this "sheep-adjacent" episode, we're diving into the some of the ways in which we relate to and communicate with animals. You'll meet Pony Jacobson - a white, queer and trans sheep shearer - who shares stories of training his border collie herding dog and working and living in conservative rural spaces. And you'll meet Penelope Logue - a white, queer and trans rancher - who talks about raising alpaca on a queer and trans haven and active ranch, her relationship with her kiddo who's also trans, and more!

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This is part two of three episodes dedicated to sheep and the queer and trans humans who love them! Learn more about this project at www.countryqueers.com and sign up to become a sustaining supporter of Country Queers on Patreon to help us produce our 2nd Season (coming Fall 2021!)

Find the folks you heard in this episode on our i nstagram page and at their websites: Pony Jacobson at www.sugarfieldfarm.com and Penelope Logue at www.tenaciousunicornranch.com

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In this episode, we're asking folks who have additional funds, to please donate in support of Medicine Bowl - a land-based strategy for liberation based in the mountains of North Carolina. "Medicine Bowl's mission is to transition back into right relationship with the universe, the planet, and one another. We believe that land-based strategies offer the most wholistic pathways towards the liberation of BIPOC folks in our lifetime." Earlier this year they were able to secure 142 acres of land in western NC. Additional donations will support expanding housing, farming infrastructure, sacred spaces for spiritual work, and so much more. " You can donate on Venmo @kifu-faruq or on their website at medicinebowl.org.

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Host & Producer: Rae Garringer

Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Music in this episode: Composed and performed on acoustic and electric guitar by Tommy Anderson

Special thanks to Dan and his sheep in southern WV for ambient farm sounds heard throughout this episode. And to Kenny Bilbrey for editorial feedback!

Ode to Sheep - Part One Mar 21, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we'll hear sounds of sheep and some queer and trans humans who love them. Host Rae Garringer shares memories of growing up on a sheep farm in West Virginia, Maja Black shares an audio diary of lambing season in Iowa, then we'll hear an interview with Grayson Crane who raises a flock of Icelandic sheep in western Washington, and finally we'll meet Wesley Godden who grew up in Singapore and now shepherds a flock of Katahdin hair sheep with his partner of 20 years in Ontario Canada.

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This is part one of two episodes dedicated to sheep and the queer and trans humans who love them! Learn more about this project at www.countryqueers.com and sign up to become a sustaining supporter of Country Queers on Patreon to help us produce our 2nd Season (coming Fall 2021!)

Find the farmers you heard in this episode on instagram and at their websites: Maja and her sister farm in Iowa at Local Harvest CSA, Grayson farms in Washington at Pink Moon Farm, and Wesley Godden farms with his partner in Ontario at Fairside Farm.

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This week, in light of the horrific white supremacist attacks on the Asian American community in Atlanta, we're asking folks to donate to Asian Americans Advancing Justice - a nonprofit based in Atlanta that released "A Community-Centered Response to Violence Against Asian American Communities" after the shootings on March 16th that left 8 people killed in the Atlanta area, including 6 Asian women. We're encouraging listeners to sign on to their collective statement decrying systemic violence against Asian American communities, and to donate in support of the victims and their families here.

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Host & Producer: Rae Garringer

Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Theme Song: Composed and performed on banjo by Sam Gleaves, pedal steel versions by Rebecca Branson Jones

Additional music: Composed and performed on acoustic and electric guitar by Tommie Anderson

Special thanks to Dan and his sheep in Jacox, WV for ambient farm sounds heard throughout this episode.

Meet The Editorial Dream Team! Dec 28, 2020

Show notes

This episode features audio from a webinar hosted by the Women's and Gender-Non-Conforming Center at Berea College in October 2020 as a part of their virtual pride series. In it, Rae Garringer is joined by the Editorial Dream Team: Sharon P. Holland, Hermelinda Cortés, and Lewis Raven Wallace. We talk about how we came into story-telling and narrative-shifting work, who we are accountable to in this work, and how we think about and engage with the power dynamics at play in this work.

Season 2 will be dropping later in 2021, so in the meantime we'll be bringing you some bonus episodes throughout the winter and into the spring. If this episode is too in the weeds for you, about behind-the-scenes details of how our team thinks about this work, rest assured: more rural queer and trans stories are coming your way soon, including an episode about queer and trans SHEPHERDS!!! Stay warm and queer out there friends!

P.S. Learn more about this project at www.countryqueers.com. And, become a sustaining supporter of Country Queers on Patreon to help us pay more folks for the production of our 2nd Season!

Robyn Thirkill Aug 25, 2020

Show notes

Robyn Thirkill farms on Monacan Territory in Prospect, VA where she raises goats, ducks, turkeys and pigs on land that's been in her family for 100 years. In this 2016 interview Robyn talks about her commitment to her family's heritage and history on the land, her adventures in beekeeping, and how Prince Edward County closed their public schools for 5 years after Brown vs. Board out of a refusal to integrate. A move that forced her mother, and countless other Black students, to seek schooling out of state.

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This is the last episode in Season 1! Learn more about this project at www.countryqueers.com. And, become a sustaining supporter of Country Queers on Patreon to help us produce a 2nd Season!

Follow Robyn's farmstead progress on instagram at @flossies_farmstead

And, if you have additional funds, we're asking folks to please donate to Maroon Grove Freedom Farm, which is located in so called Waverly, VA / Nottoway territory, on Black liberated land that was bought with reparations. The farm will provide plant medicine and food as medicine to queer and trans BIPOC communities. The farm is collecting ongoing reparations and donations to make repairs and updates to create a thriving community for QTBIPOC.

* Venmo: @jas-battle * CashApp: $jasbattle * PayPal: paypal.me/jasbattle. *

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Host, Producer, and Lead Editor: Rae Garringer

Assistant Editor & Musical Magic: Tommie Anderson

Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Theme Song: Composed and performed on banjo by Sam Gleaves, pedal steel versions by Rebecca Branson Jones

Additional music: Composed and performed on acoustic and electric guitar by Tommie Anderson

Silas House Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

Silas House is a nationally best-selling author of 6 novels, 3 plays, and a book of creative nonfiction. Silas grew up on Adena, Yuchi, Cherokee, and Shawnee land in Laurel County, Kentucky. In this interview - recorded in July 2018 at the Hindman Settlement School - Silas talks about growing up in the evangelical holiness church, how meeting his now-husband inspired him to come out at age 34, the lessons he learns from his children, how writing feels like prayer, and his faith.

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Learn more about this project at www.countryqueers.com

For this episode, we're asking folks who have additional funds to donate to two fundraisers:

1. The first is for Black Soil: Our Better Nature – who's mission is to reconnect Black Kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture. They represent over 60 Kentucky based Black farmers, culinary artists, artists & makers.

https://pages.donately.com/lexingtonlyric/campaign/black-soil-our-better-nature

2. The second is to support Jennie & Delaney's goal for stable housing in rural Tennessee. Jennie is a Black, vegan, agender Aries mom of a 2-and-a-half year old agender Scorpio child. In Jennie's words: "I'd like to build us a tiny home so that we'll have stability, can move when we need to travel, eat, sleep & wash comfortably, and be active and present in community."

https://www.gofundme.com/f/tiny-home-for-jennie-and-delaney?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link

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Host, Producer, and Lead Editor: Rae Garringer

Assistant Editor & Musical Magic: Tommie Anderson

Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland

Theme Song: Composed and performed on banjo by Sam Gleaves, pedal steel versions by Rebecca Branson Jones

Additional music and sound effects: Composed and performed on acoustic and electric guitar, and chimes, by Tommie Anderson