Jonny sits down to interview Scott Johnson the director of Tesserae, Carbondale’s premier Queer+ Choir. They discuss the origin, makeup, funding, and upcoming first concert of the project. In the back half of the show, Heather joins Jonny to discuss some particular Carbondale and Southern Illinois protests and pushback against the autocratice and phobic uprising, providing just a few highlights of this past week’s attrocities.

Jonny and Craig discuss DEI. They start with a focus on the local, plugging artistic work in Carbondale with the upcoming Kleinau Theatre production of “Epiphanies,” an adaptation of Flash Fiction by local writer, Epiphany Ferrell. They then turn to recent attacks by the Trump Administration on DEI and what that might mean for the university where they teach (SIU). They then discuss the Grammies and what this past weekend’s music awards might teach us about the value of DEI. In the back half of the show, they examine the Trump Administration’s high level placement of gay and lesbian conservatives in positions of significance. They discuss how this participates in a concerted effort to pare the Q and T off of LGBTQ, and why they are not having it. 

Jonny interviews Ky Chameleon (a.k.a. Jelly Lizard) about the myriad local queer and flow arts projects they are involved in. From fire work to clowning to drag to Dancing Bear Tribe to publishing to music festivals to summer camps, Ky is involved in A LOT. As a long time friend of the show, Ky catches Jonny up about their journey through addiction and in and out of Southern Illinois. Throughout the conversation they address the need for visibility, representation, and vigilance against those trying to erase us. Of particular note, they discuss how trans- and drag-bans impact myriad performance practices beyond what the laws are set to target.