activism

Episode 7 – World AIDS Day and the Founding of allgo

In this episode of Audio QT, Karma Chávez talks with allgo co-founder and activist María Limón about her work supporting people living with HIV and AIDS in the early days of the pandemic, and the program called Informe Sida. This interview was recorded on December 1, 2021 and originally aired on KOOP Radio’s People United program on Dec. 10. Thanks to Allan Campbell and KOOP for permission to reuse.

María Limón, nacida y criada a la orilla del río que antes era grande, she finished raising herself among a circle of activists tending to issues as diverse as the gentrification of the East Side, getting the Texas national guard out of Honduras, and ensuring that Cuba stayed libre. Her fifteen minutes of fame involved the Austin police department flexing their authoritarian muscle at an anti-KKK rally and helping establish one of the longest-running queer POC organizations in the country while learning how to help close friends die. Having learned that changing the conditions that create injustice and inequality happens one meaningful connection at a time, she coaches people on uprooting the beliefs about ourselves and others an oppressive society shoves down our throats. UC Denver’s Center on Domestic Violence provides the salary that brings home the fakin’ bacon.

Karma Chávez is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT.

Follow:
Karma: @queermigrations

Resources:
https://allgo.org
https://www.worldaidsday.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Limón

Episode 5 – Let the Record Show: An Interview with Sarah Schulman

This episode of Audio QT is a replay of an interview that Karma Chávez conducted with Sarah Schulman on 89.9 FM WORT Madison’s program “A Public Affair.” In it, Chávez and Schulman discuss Schulman’s recent book, Let The Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 published in May by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Sarah Schulman is Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and a well-known author of dozens of novels, plays, and works of non-fiction, including American Library Association Stonewall Book Award winners After Delores (1988) and Stage Struck: Theatre, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (1998).
Karma Chávez is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT.

Follow:

Karma: @queermigrations
Sarah: @sarahschulman3

Resources:

https://actuporalhistory.org

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374185138/lettherecordshow

This episode of Audio QT was mix and mastered by Ean Herrera.

Episode 3 – Feeling that Motley We: An Interview with Cameron Awkward-Rich

In this episode of Audio QT, Karma Chávez talks with Dr. Cameron Awkward-Rich about his reflections on the lessons of 2020, the relationship between art and social movement, the importance of Black trans life, and what trans people have to teach all of us about how to get free.

Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016), which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and Dispatch, which Persea Books published last year. He is a Cave Canem fellow and a poetry editor for Muzzle Magazine. Cameron earned his PhD from Stanford University’s program in Modern Thought & Literature, and he is an assistant professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Karma Chávez is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT.

Follow:

Cameron: @cawkward_rich

Karma: @queermigrations

Resources:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/06/11/i-wish-i-knew-how-it-would-feel-to-be-free/

https://www.cawkwardrich.com/

This episode of Audio QT was recorded by Miki Lin and was mixed and mastered by Oscar Kitmanyen.