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Arts+Culture

Taking Things ‘One Gay at a Time’: Houstonian Mycah Angelou Taylor’s New Podcast is All Things LGBTQ

Posted on February 2, 2021
A photo of One Gay at a Time podcast creator Mycah Angelou.

Mycah Angelou Taylor's podcast, One Gay at a Time, feels like listening to a good friend talk about anything and everything. Every other Wednesday evening marks the launch of a new episode, in which Taylor dives into topics ranging from their own coming out tale, to the “lavender tax,” to the intersection of Blackness and queerness. Whatever the discussion of the week may be, Taylor both educates and entertains their audience.…

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Reclaiming Christmas: Queer Competency and Christ

Posted on December 22, 2020
A photo of queer competency and Christ.

By Dr. Laura McGuire While I’ve previously written about learning God’s pronouns and my ongoing journey to finding what ministry means to me, I haven’t talked about my interfaith Abrahamic religious identity’s role in my queerness. I was raised as a Christian, and though I have joyously returned to my ancestorial Jewish roots, I still feel that it is part of my calling as an emerging faith leader to shed light on the toxic fallacies that hurt queer folks in…

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Queers Who Cover: On Being Bisexual and Muslim

Posted on November 20, 2020
A photo of a muslim woman.

Today we meet Katie Johnson, a bisexual Muslim who wears the niqab (hair and face covering). As a person of devout and outward signs of faith, Johnson sometimes gets erased from what we think of as queerness. I was excited to speak with her about how her faith and sexual orientation have impacted who she is today, as well as to expand the conversation on queers who cover.…

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Houston Cinema Arts Festival Perseveres in the Pandemic with “Urbana”

Posted on November 10, 2020
A photo of Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

With cinemas the world over closed for the foreseeable future, I wasn’t sure we would get a Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF) in 2020. Thankfully for us, the staff of the longstanding Houston arts institution have proven themselves flexible, offering 2020 solutions to 2020 problems. This year’s festival, which runs November 12–22, will take place virtually and in a drive-in format at the Moonstruck, Show Boat, and Houston Ballet drive-in theatres, creating a pandemic-friendly cinema experience.…

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Answering the Call: My Path to Queer Ministry

Posted on October 21, 2020
A photo of queer ministry.

For as long as I can remember, there’s been a drumming in my heart—a subtle pulse asking me to listen, inviting me to hear its message. This sound has, at times, been a dull murmur, something I can drown out with the distractions of life. At other times, it is a profound drumbeat, silencing everything else. This drumming is the call to ministry, something I have long ignored or made excuses to avoid.…

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Dear Well-Meaning Liberals, Listen to the Voices of the South

Posted on October 6, 2020
A photo of the South.

“F*ck Texas.” “F*ck the South.” “Let’s just divide the country at the Mason-Dixon and let the South fend for itself.” “Texas is a lost cause.” These are just a few of the tone-deaf tweets I have seen from well-meaning liberals over the last few months, years, and so on. It’s exhausting. Let’s be clear: If you perpetuate that narrative every time you want to express displeasure at a southern Republican or conservative legislator’s gaffe—you’re part of the problem, you’re tone deaf, and you’re showing your…

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The Queer and Mysterious Houston I Know

Posted on September 25, 2020
A photo of queer Houston.

I was a weird kid. I was, in fact, a weird, queer kid. I was, further, a weird, queer kid who did musical theatre, had agoraphobia, and, as I reached my teens, listened exclusively to New Wave music, wore eyeliner, dressed strictly in monochrome, and dyed my hair blue—all in Houston during the 1980s. And just to frame the timeline exactly, when I say I was a kid in the ‘80s, I literally mean I was aged nine through eighteen…

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QFest 2020: Houston’s Annual LGBTQ Film Fest Hits Virtual Screens Sept. 24–28

Posted on September 23, 2020
A photo of QFest film Queer Genius.

The 24th annual QFest, Houston’s international LGBTQ film festival returns to screens this September 24–28—virtual screens, that is. This year’s fest will be held completely online, hosted by Cinenso, and feature nine feature films and 19 shorts from over 15 countries that highlight a variety of new filmmakers and stories. “I feel that people who engage with us this year will probably get the clearest understanding of what QFest has always meant to us,” says Kristian Salinas, executive and artistic…

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Changing the Game: Trans Athletes and the Fight for Inclusion

Posted on September 11, 2020
A photo of Changing the Game.

A political war is being waged against transgender Americans, and young trans athletes are caught in the crossfire. Mack Beggs is one of four transgender athletes featured in Changing the Game, a documentary that profiles the lives of young trans athletes in an effort to raise awareness about the complexity surrounding the transphobic policies that transgender high school athletes are forced to navigate just to compete. “I think it’s many things at once,” Alex Schmider, associate director of transgender representation at…

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