We're (almost) back, queers! Season Two of Thesis on Joan premieres this month, March 2021! Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for our season finale episode in which we get to talk to the artist who coined the name for our podcast, writer and actor Lisa Kron! We discuss Lisa’s early artist days and the “living culture” of WOW Café as well as the origins and almost European tour of the Five Lesbian Brothers. This leads us to the importance and rarity of queer spaces, queer identity outside of the patriarchy, the incandescent and creative life of the subculture, and the sanctification of a chosen family. In our discussion of Fun Home, we get to hear excerpts from Lisa’s childhood diary and about the autograph line confessions at the Fun Home stage door. Lisa reflects on the intersection of art and activism and her family history in light of today’s political climate and provides some pre-election insight that’s still prescient to our presidential transition time. We leave you this season with the reminder, as Lisa says, of “our power to create the future.” Be powerful and keep it queer. Lisa Kron: Website Queer Culture Rec: AOC Sunrise Speech Gentleman Jack - HBO Great British Bake-Off (specifically Noel Fielding) - Netflix Taskmaster - Amazon, Youtube Queer Gives: Lesbian Herstory Archives Outright International  Georgia Senate Runoff Campaigns to Support: Jon Ossoff Raphael Warnock Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can view a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our season one penultimate episode, hosts Meghan and Holly talk with Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi. As a performance artist, author, educator, advocate, choreographer, priestess, speech writer, playwright, and healer, Lady Dane takes us through her teenage years creating cabarets and if you’re a fan of WAP, recommends some nasty songs from her Bad B Medley. She shares some past and upcoming projects and how she leverages her access to fight against white supremacy and ask for what she feels is necessary. Join her call to action of advocating for Black trans women and ask yourself who do you want to be and what do you want the place where you work to be? Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi: Website | Instagram | Twitter  Additional Mentions: Pull Up to The Bumper by Grace Jones Slow Tongue by Millie Jackson All the Way Lover by Millie Jackson Lady Dane’s books Long Wharf Theatre’s Black Trans Women at the Center Baltimore Center Stage Theatre Alliance Queer Culture Rec: P-Valley Lovecraft Country The Black Trans Prayer Book First gay marriage in Marvel First Gay Wedding in ‘Astonishing X-Men’ Queer Gives: For the Gworls The Okra Project Black Trans Travel Fund Marsha P. Johnson Institute Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can find a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today our guest is none other than the interdimensional Aneesh Sheth! We talk to Aneesh about creating during quarantine, making Shakespeare accessible and relevant (and Bollywood infused, of course), inhabiting many roles as an artist, the magic of Fun Home (we didn’t bring it up, we swear!), trans folx in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what we really need to see when we talk varied representation and why your quarantine queer culture indulgence should be Aneesh’s new vlog!  Aneesh Sheth: Website | Twitter | Instagram Queer Culture Rec from Aneesh: The News! Stay Informed! Aneesh recommends CNN. Queer Gives: South Asians for Black Lives Matter- Instagram & Web Site Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective - Instagram & FB & Web Site Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can find a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surprise! Join Holly & Meghan on this special mini episode as they talk election hopes & fears and queer culture comfort. They’ll provide a quick fix of bisexual pirates, queer sci-fi, dog talk and road trip paranoia before tomorrow’s election. Get out and vote and we’ll be back on November 11th with our regularly scheduled programming with the incomparable Aneesh Sheth! Queer Culture Rec: Tik Tok Birates San Junipero - Netflix Black Mirror: Season 3 Episode 4 #HalloweenDog on Instagram Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Meghan and Holly keep it in the working family this week with Holly’s co-worker, Sulu LeoNimm, a Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (TONYC) Joker and Interim Executive Director, actor, director, and parent of 2 small kids. Hear about Sulu’s very serious start in drag performance that eventually led to an Asian musical mashup drag show in the back of straight bars. We get to dive into Peg-ass-us, a romantic sex-ed burlesque they created, performed, and toured with their real-life partner (and yes, it’s about what you think it’s about) and how their relationship with theatre has changed since becoming a parent. Learn more about TONYC, how they are shifting the nature of their work, how TONYC is different from other theatre companies, and how to approach administrative tasks with care, including the difference of getting something done right versus getting it done in a way that serves the needs of the people involved. Sulu LeoNimm: Twitter Theatre of the Oppressed NYC: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Additional Mentions: Ali Forney Center Hetrick-Martin Institute Augusto Boal - created Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) Paulo Frierie - works inspired TO Queer Gives: Trans Boxing - become a Patron to support their new space! Queer Culture Rec: Samuel Delaney Octavia Butler Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can find a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On our most bookish episode yet Holly and Meghan sit down with award-winning Black queer theatre maker and founder of Roots and River Productions, Azure D. Osborne-Lee! Join us as we chat Black sci-fi, sharing stories with family, being a weird kid, our queer night missed connection with Azure at their show Mirrors, the importance of paying artists, fat love interests, the emotional core of Worst Cooks in America and making big queer announcements at family gatherings. Azure explains why Shakespeare needs to take a back seat and why non-profit orgs should be putting their budgets where their mouth (mission statement) is! Azure D. Osborne-Lee: Website | Twitter | Instagram Queer Culture Rec from Azure: N.K. Jemisin Escape Pod Work Cooks in America Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - Netflix Queer Gives: Roots and River Productions - donate and support! Take Action! Voting Dates - New York State (if out of NYS, please check local dates!) Oct 9th - Register to Vote Oct. 27th - Request Absentee Ballots Nov. 3rd - Postmarked Date, Return In Person If you are voting in NYS please vote for Biden/Harris under the Working Families Party so they can maintain their spot on the ballot in the future. Democratic Senate Candidates to Support in Close Races: Arizona: Mark Kelly South Carolina: Jaime Harrison Justice for Breonna Taylor: Donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund Call: 502-574-7111 or 502-574-2111 - Louisville Police Department 502-696-5300 - Special Prosecutor State AG Daniel Cameron (502) 574-2003 - Mayor Greg Fischer (502) 564-2611 - Kentucky Gov. Andy Breshear (502) 574-2136 - Police Public Integrity Unit Demand: Immediately fire and revoke the pensions of the officers that murdered Breonna. Divest from LMPD and Invest in community building. Immediate resignation (or impeachment) of Mayor Greg Fisher. Metro Council ends use of force by Louisville Metro Police Department. Police shootings are gun violence. Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can find a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Meghan and Holly receive a virtual fridge tour and so much more from polyspirited Artist Diana Oh. Learn about Diana’s doula in birthing art, how they define chosen family, and why her art is so big, sparkly, colorful, and bombastic. Diana also gives us some advice on how to find some of the joy from Infinite Love Party during quarantine and some initial steps to salvage the Gr8 American Theatre. Before the interview, Holly and Meghan check-in about their favorite aspects of making the podcast and what’s been getting them through 2020. Diana Oh: Website | Instagram Additional Mentions: Korean Queer & Trans National Network Queer Gives: API Rainbow Parents Developing Artists Queer Culture Rec: Harney & Sons Fine Tea PEN15 A Black Lady Sketch Show Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can access a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a “We all escaped from Ohio” special edition of Thesis on Joan- your friendly neighborhood Schmerm, Becca Blackwell, joins your favorite buckeye queers, Holly and Meghan, to talk labels, imagining Midwest queer communities, the many reasons Holly and Becca are destined to be friends, that paradox of trying to understand the gender binary (through comedy, of course!), cutting your hair and joining the circus, Daoism and facing the dreaded “I just don’t know what to do with you.” Hear more about Becca’s experience working on Hurricane Diane and how dispelling the myth of gatekeepers can help us fix the American Theatre! Becca Blackwell: Website | Instagram This episode contains mentions of sexual trauma, please see the time codes below to skip these portions of the episode: 3:30-4:20 34:33-34:43 50:23-50:39 Queer Resources: Dixon Place Bushwick Starr SoHo Rep Queer Culture Rec from Becca: High Maintenance Schmermterion Collection Queer Gives: Callen Lorde Sylvia Rivera Food Pantry- Volunteer or Donate Mutual Aid for Sex Workers of Color Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can access a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tune in this week with Meghan and Holly as they talk with interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe about breaking out of binaries as a two-spirit Indigiqueer person and finding balance between safe and brave space in theatre. Ty also speaks on being “genre fluid,” building just systems to create justice on stage with projects like Broadway’s Straight White Men, and imagining queerness seven generations from now. Ty Defoe: Website | Instagram | Twitter Ty’s Work: Indigenous Direction artEquity All My Relations - GIZHIBAA GIIZHIG | Revolving Sky Queer Culture Rec from Ty: Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers Queer Gives: American Indian Community House Brooklyn Community Pride Center Callen-Lorde Community Health Center Thesis on Joan: Follow Thesis on Joan on Instagram & Twitter  Leave us a voicemail at (845) 445-9251‬ Email us at thesisonjoan at gmail dot com You can read a transcript of this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices