Episode 3: The Radical Act of Being Yourself

Episode 3 features two stories about the radical act of figuring out who we are and allowing ourselves to be that. It is the first of our episodes featuring work that came out of Our Queer Histories Queer Futures Podcast Workshop in 2017. Using interviews gathered by participants in Last Call’s oral history workshop, everyone in the workshop focused on one oral history, identified a story in it and built a piece around that.  We spent a weekend eating snacks, going over the basics of podcasting, and starting to craft our pieces. People then went off into the world to finish on their own time. The resulting pieces are so much fun to hear and we are so excited to share some with you!

Our first story this week features Deon Haywood. Deon has worked as a human rights defender for more than 25 years.  She is an advocate for Black women, working class and low-income women, and LGBTQ communities in the Deep South. She’s the Executive Director of Women With A Vision (WWAV) in New Orleans, and since Hurricane Katrina, has worked to abolish the “crime against nature” statute. This helped to remove more than 800 people from the Louisiana sex offender registry. She has been honored with numerous awards by groups across the United States for her advocacy work. In this episode we hear the story of Deon’s Long coming out process. She was interviewed by Indee Mitchell and Natalie Nia Faulk.

Deon’s piece was produced by Tara Thierry. Tara grew up in New Orleans and has returned after living other places. She is grateful wife and new older mother, queer, dyke, poet, musician, composer, digital artist, and programmer.  She marvels how becoming and coming out never quite end. She is profoundly grateful for stories that tell herstory, especially New Orleans herstory. In addition to producing and editing the story, Tara made the music.

Our second story comes from Sue Prevost. Sue grew up in Old Jefferson, graduated from LSU, and subsequently lived many places. During the 90s In Austin she developed programming with the Women's Collective on independent radio. Back home in Louisiana, Sue has found a role in environmental activism fighting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline and industrial pollution in St James Parish. This vignette from Sue's life takes place in Lafayette, Louisiana where she experienced her first thrilling and terrifying love. She was interviewed by Indee Mitchell and Saiya Miller.

This piece was produced by Maria Delgado. Maria is a musician in New Orleans who plays in the bands Special Interest & Malflora. She is also a Fundraising Coordinator for Girls Rock New Orleans, a collective that provides youth driven music education and the opportunity for girls to form their own bands and create original music. This is Maria's first podcast but she got so into it, she is currently editing a subsequent piece about Sue’s adult life. Music for this piece by The Velveteens

Additional music for this episode by free feral and Peter Bowling.