All Posts By

Barrett White

All He Ever Needed Was the Music and the Mirror: Houston’s Otis Berry Tackles Toxic Masculinity through Dance

A photo of Houston dancer Otis Berry.

In 2019, Good Morning America found itself embroiled in a scandal after co-host Laura Spencer appeared to mock the United Kingdom’s Prince George for taking ballet classes. That stigma—the notion of what boys should or shouldn’t do—is all too familiar to Houston-based dancer Otis Berry, who works to extinguish it with every kick.…

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Need A Therapist? There’s A Quiz for That

A photo of Ryan Schwartz, founder of Mental Health Match.

I think the last time I took an online quiz, it was to see what kind of hot dog I was. Spoiler alert, I’m a Chicago-style dog. While these benign online quizzes, first made famous by Buzzfeed, have become popular for passing the time (and escaping from the inundation of celebrity pop culture and political scandals), Houstonian Ryan Schwartz has created one that is actually here to help.…

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Emmy-Nominee Vera Drew on Trans Representation, Her Creative Process, and Adolescent Humor

A photo of Vera Drew.

“Please make me sound smart,” laughs Vera Drew, Hollywood editor and recent Emmy nominee for her editing work on Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who is America? We chat by phone as I sit cross-legged at a coffee shop in Houston’s Montrose District. Across the country, Drew drives to a set location in Los Angeles. I assure her that her “rambling” is, in fact, excellent, if not tender, commentary on what it means to be a newly out-of-the-closet transgender woman in the…

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The 2019 Houston Mayoral Race: Where Candidates Stand on LGBTQ Issues

A photo of the Pride Forum with Houston mayoral candidates.

On August 1, the Pride Forum, a non-partisan collaboration between several LGBTQ organizations in Houston, took the stage at Texas Southern University’s Jesse H. Jones School of Business. Though it was balmy outside, the heat of the mayoral race was nowhere to be found—yet. Seven hopefuls met with moderators Emmett Schelling and LaKeia Ferreira-Spady to discuss the issues most important to the LGBTQ community.…

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Genderqueer Artist Stoo’s New Album ‘Supersuit’ Is A Real Catch

A photo of genderqueer artist Stoo.

In 2018, Houston-based genderqueer artist Stoo was ruminating over their intentions as a solo artist. Stoo’s music career had jumpstated with Bling St., a musical duo collaboration between Stoo and Luis Cerda. The duo’s EP, Costume, was unanimously well received, but the band eventually split, leaving Stoo with the freedom to develop their own voice and aesthetic. …

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‘Peru and the City: A Pride Comedy Show’ to Showcase Gay Life in Houston

A photo of Peru Flores in Peru and the City.

The struggle is familiar and has been echoed by countless actors of color: “There were no parts for me, other than the ‘struggling friend,’ the ‘drug dealer,’ or the ‘misfit,’” says actor and writer Peru Flores, who will appear in his own comedy show, Peru and the City, this month at Rich’s in Houston. Flores’ family moved to Midland–Odessa, Texas, from Peru when he was a young teen. In the small town of oil workers and farmers, Flores was taken…

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Bold and Beautiful: This Queer-Owned, Plus-Size Modeling Agency is Taking Center Stage

An illustration of PHAT DIVAS.

Houston-based plus-size model and entrepreneur Tiffany Page-Pratt learned the definition of hustle from her mother. A hardworking woman, her mom sold Avon and Tupperware on top of her full-time job at the post office. “Watching [my mother] was what built my ambitions,” Page-Pratt says. “For starters, it takes a lot to be a single mother, but to also juggle two and three jobs—I commend my mom for that.”…

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