Flame Con, the World’s Largest Queer Comic Convention, Announces Tenth Annual Expo
Tenth Anniversary Expo to Take Place in New York City at The Sheraton Times Square Hotel on August 17-18, 2024
New York, New York – February 5, 2024 – Flame Con, created and produced by the LGBTQ+ non-profit Geeks OUT, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The tenth annual Flame Con expo will take place on August 17 - 18at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York City. Featuring a comics, arts and entertainment expo and showcasing creators and special guests from all corners of the LGBTQ+ community of fans, the two-day venture will include thoughtful discussions, exclusive performances, cosplay and more.
Tickets for the con are now available HERE.
“For years, the constant refrain we’d hear attending other conventions was ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if..?,’ says Nic Gitau, President of Geeks OUT. “‘Wouldn’t it be cool if… there was a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans to connect?’ or ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if… there was a show that proved audiences were hungry for unapologetically queer storytelling?’ Over the last ten years Flame Con has become a home for queer fans, championed queer stories, and celebrated queer creators as their careers have sparked and exploded. We're grateful for a community that's grown exponentially each year and we're excited to gather the best of LGBTQ+ comics and pop culture once more, in what will be a standout 10th anniversary show."
Flame Con is excited to announce Molly Knox Ostertag as the first of its special guests for this year’s expo. Molly Knox Ostertag is the acclaimed ABA Indies and New York Times bestselling graphic novel author-illustrator of The Deep Dark, The Girl from the Sea, and the Witch Boy trilogy: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch, as well as a writer for animation. An animated musical adaptation of The Witch Boy has been announced by Netflix.
To celebrate the expo and its special anniversary, Fireball: The Official Flame Con After Party will be held on Saturday, August 17 at Hell’s Kitchen’s Industry bar. The event will be hosted by Megami, cast member in the current season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Get tickets for the tenth annual Flame Con and the Fireball After Party HERE.
Last year’s con featured many queer-oriented vendors, creators, and special guests including Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer: A Memoir), Terry Blas (Rick and Morty, Steven Universe), Alyssa Wong (Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Batman: Urban Legends), and Stephanie Williams (Nubia and the Amazons). Among the panels and presentations held last year were “Demystifying Game Design,” “How to Make Your Independent Queer Comic,” and “What A DRAG!: A Panel on Drag and Cosplay.” The expo also featured a live edition of host Connor Goldsmith’s CEREBRO podcast and a special LGBTQ+ comedy showcase with a lineup that included Calvin Cato (Netflix) and Veronica Garza (MTV, NPR).
“Flame Con is always my favorite convention of the year!,” says Josh Trujillo (Blue Beetle, Hulkling& Wiccan), Flame Con guest and comics writer and designer. “It’s a unique opportunity to meet with friends, peers, and fans in a more intimate setting. The stories we share as queer people can be so personal, and it means the world to know that readers connect with it.”
GLAAD Award-winning author and film programmer Anthony Oliveira (Steven Universe) shares, “Flame Con is easily my favorite comic convention. Nowhere else feels so much like home. It feels like someone took all the best parts of a con and just kept those, like if you made a whole con out of the weird queer section of every other expo’s Artist Alley!”
Tickets to Flame Con are available through Eventbrite and will feature daily and weekend passes, as well as passes to the official 2024 Flame Con party. Tickets can be purchased at flamecon2024.eventbrite.com.
Exhibitor table sales dates will launch later this month. Stay tuned for announcements.
For more information on Flame Con, please visit www.flamecon.org and for more information on Geeks OUT, please visit www.geeksout.org
Billy Eichner and Dyllón Burnside Join Unleashed LGBTQ Live Event - September 2023
Joining a Powerful Lineup of Talent, including Antoni Porowski, Indya Moore, Shangela, and other Industry Leaders making Noise in the LGBTQ+ Market
DALLAS — APRIL 25, 2023 — Unleashed LGBTQ, a first-of-its-kind conference and entertainment festival creating a space for brands, artists, and LGBTQ+ professionals to connect, is thrilled to announce new talent joining its lineup, including Billy Eichner and Dyllón Burnside, for its first live and in-person Unleashed LGBTQ 2023 conference, taking place at Gilley’s in Dallas, Texas, from September 22 - 24, 2023. Unleashed event organizers also welcome iHeartMedia back as media partners to activate the programming as the official audio partners for the festival’s first ever in-person event.
"Our first live, in-person, event is going to create a synergy between talent, the business community and the entertainment industry in a way no LGBTQ+ event has ever done before,” said Founder, Wesley Smoot. “Companies sending representatives to our event will be able to take advantage of all opportunities available, whether it’s for educational purposes, networking or entertainment, LGBTQ+ professionals or others focused on allyship, will reap the benefits of our educational and entertainment-based lineup. We have dedicated an entire area to workshops for attendees to learn new skills from today's thought leaders and we’re confident companies sending entire departments to Unleashed LGBTQ 2023 will have a more informed, supercharged team that will be lightyears ahead of other brands.”
Each day at Unleashed LGBTQ will begin with educational topics — from workshops and panels discussing business (advertising, marketing, DEI), society (non-profit, advocacy), and personal (financial planning, continuing education) development – and will feature high-tech brand activations and experiential marketing installments throughout the venue, before transitioning to entertainment that will include screenings, drag shows, stand-up comedy, and musical performances. Attendees will be enriched by professional development and networking opportunities through the Unleashed LGBTQ event app (developed by WebEx/Cisco) and at specialized mixers and unique branded activations through the award-winning Freeman event services.
The growing lineup of talent will include:
● Billy Eichner Co-writer and Star of Bros (Universal Pictures), Billy on the Street, The Lion King (Disney), American Horror Story (FX), Difficult People (Hulu)
● Antoni Porowski Emmy-Award Winning Show Queer Eye (Netflix), Host of Easy Bake Battle (Netflix), Author of Antoni in the Kitchen & Antoni: Let's do Dinner
● Indya Moore Emmy Award-Winning Show POSE, Yves Saint Laurent Cosmetics, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
● Shangela Emmy Award-Winning Shows We're Here (HBO), RuPaul's Drag Race, & RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (MTV)
● Dyllon Burnside Emmy Award-Winning Show Pose,Emmy Award-Winning Show POSE, Emmy-Award winning PBS docuseries PRIDELAND, Golden Globe nominated limited series MONSTER. GLAAD & HRC award recipient
● Daniel Franzese, Mean Girls (Paramount Pictures), Ru Paul's Drag Race (MTV), Looking (HBO)
● Kelly Ann Winget, Founder & CEO of Alternative Wealth Partners, Over $1B in private equity raised, Host of The Wealth Alpha podcast, and Author of Pitch the Bitch (April 2023)
● Brian Sims, Former Penn State Rep., LGBTQ+ Advocate & Speaker, Managing Director of Government Affairs & Policy at Out Leadership, Board Member at Campus Pride & GLSEN
● Naomi Green, MBA Speaker, Marketer, Professor, and Transgender Advocate
● Ashley Brundage, President & CEO of Empowering Differences, Author of Empowering Differences, Transgender Advocate, Former DEI Vice President at PNC Bank, Mother
● Dr. Carlton Thomas, Gastro-Intestinal Medical Doctor, Social Media Sensation, Contributor to Men's Health Magazine, LGBTQ+ Consultant to the White House & the CDC
● Matt Skallerud, Founder & President of Pink Media, Host of #iLoveGayToday, former President of IGLTA, Award-Winning Online Marketer connecting businesses to the LGBTQ+ consumers
● Vicky & Charisse Pasche, Co-Founders of Dapper Boi – body-inclusive and gender-neutral apparel – Marketing, Sales, and Entrepreneurial Experts, Wives and Mothers of Twins
● Stacey Stevenson, CEO of Family Equality, Co-Founder of The Changists (Law Firm Consulting), LGBTQ+ Activist, Speaker, Mother of Two
● Gary Sanchez Sr., Director of Community Impact at Visit Dallas, Former Chairman at North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Chairman at Chamber Foundation
● Brad Pritchett, Award-Winning Marketing Executive, Chief Experience Officer at DMA (Dallas Museum of Art), Host of The Good, The Brad, & The Ugly podcast
Unleashed LGBTQ is also partnering with the iconic Alamo Drafthouse to host screenings of new LGBTQ+ content from streaming services, movie studios, and television networks. Independent filmmakers can submit works for Unleashed LGBTQ 2023 Film Festival at:
https://www.filmfreeway.com/unleashedlgbtq
Unleashed LGBTQ, LLC is proud to have received support, endorsements, and/or grants from the following organizations: DTPID (Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District), Visit Dallas, North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce, NLGCC (National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce), & IGLTA (International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association).
Other partners include Gilead Sciences, iHeart Media, equalpride, and Kelly Ann Winget.
About UNLEASHED LGBTQ, LLC
Unleashed LGBTQ, a space for brands, entertainers, and LGBTQ+ professionals to connect, will host its inaugural, live event September 22nd - 24th, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. Attendees can learn about the latest products, services, and campaigns debuting in the LGBTQ+ market in a fun and interactive environment. Unleashed LGBTQ provides premier networking opportunities for professionals in a variety of industries. Unleashed LGBTQ will host speakers, panels, and performances from some of the biggest names in LGBTQ+ culture, including film, television, music, and business. Stay tuned for additional Talent announcements.
Tickets are currently on sale on the event website here: https://www.unleashedlgbtq.com For more information on partnerships and company group rates visit: www.unleashedlgbtq.com
CONTACT:
Nicole Rodrigues
NRPR Group for Unleashed LGBTQ
Nicole@nrprgroup.com
424-421-9610
To request press credentials email:
press@unleashedlgbtq.com
URGE Miami Festival Returns This Thanksgiving Weekend
With Three Massive Night Spectaculars and the Steamiest Beach Party on the Sands of South Beach
URGE Miami Festival returns this Thanksgiving weekend with three massive nighttime events and three sizzling daytime fetes including the Royal Palm Pool Party and the legendary Beach Party on the sands of South Beach. Produced by Luis Morera, Billy Kemp and Hilton Wolman, the LGBTQ+ festival weekend will take place November 25-28 and will feature a list of the world’s most famous circuit DJs including Alex Lo, Dan Slater, Edu Quintas, Enrico Meloni, Jerac, Joe Gauthreaux, Marvin Ayy, Mauro Mozart, Paulo Fragoso, Suri and Tom Stephan, with more to be announced.
“After the massive success of last year’s Thanksgiving festival, we are excited to do it all over again, bigger and better than ever before,” says Hilton Wolman.
URGE Miami Festival kicks off Friday, November 25 at 10pm when Barcelona’s Matinee Group makes its triumphant return to Miami with Matinee Pervert XXL. DJ’s Tom Stephan and Alex Lo will take over the decks at Miami's newest nightclub, M2 Nightclub, for their raunchiest production ever. The historic nightclub (formerly known as Paragon/Glam Slam/Level/Mansion and Icon) has been transformed with $10 million in upgrades to structure, sound and lighting. At 35,000 square feet, it will be the largest party ever thrown by URGE. Matinee Group is promising a level of production seldom seen before and they are flying in some of the hottest dancers from Spain and Europe to keep the dancefloor shaking into the wee morning hours.
At 2pm on Saturday is the Royal Palm South Beach pool party, presented by Eliad Cohen as part of the Papa World Tour. DJs Dan Slater and Paulo Fragoso will raise the temps with their high energy beats, making extensive use of the incredible facilities offered by Royal Palm. Expect plenty of wet and wild, splish and splashy fun and gorgeous men in skimpy bikinis.
The weekend’s Saturday night Main Event, URGE Warrior, will take place at one of Miami's premier film studios, home to some of the biggest blockbusters on HBO Max and Netflix, on their largest sound stage. DJs Suri and Mauro Mozart will battle it out with incredible beats in a spectacular production, sure to amaze.
It leads to the signature event of the weekend: the long-established Sunday Beach Party on the sands of South Beach. The sandblast begins at 2pm with DJ’s Enrico Meloni from Italy and Joe Gauthreaux from the USA dropping the beats on the largest stage and dancefloor and most colossal VIP deck this event has seen before. Kidd Madonny and his company, 3DX, are building the decor for the party and like last year, it will incorporate URGE Miami Festival’s yellow and white retro resort and cabana influenced theme.
“Circuit fans come from all over the world to experience one of America’s biggest LGBTQ beach parties,” Wolman explains. “We will not disappoint.”
This year’s host hotel is the Royal Palm South Beach. With 400 rooms, more than a quarter of which are suites, the Royal Palm is one of South Beach’s largest hotels, superbly located directly on the beach on Collins at the end of Ocean Drive. It offers a superior experience and will serve as the location of URGE Miami Festival’s Welcome Center and Saturday Pool Party. It is also a short walk to a majority of the parties. Special $249 room rates are available while supplies last.
A portion of the proceeds from URGE Miami Festival will once again benefit Miami Beach Pride, a not-for-profit organization that works to unite members of the LGBTQ community by celebrating the unique spirit and culture of its people.
Tickets for URGE Miami Festival are available now on the website. GA and VIP tickets are available, as is the popular 24-hour pass that includes the Sunday Beach Party, Sunday night event and Monday morning Afterhours event.
EPISODIC REVIEW: Low Hanging Fruit: UNCOUPLED
By Arnold Wayne Jones
“I’m not on Grindr – it’s nothing but bottoms… and tops, who are also bottoms.”
That’s the kind of wisely catty one-liner that could only be written by a bitchy gay man of a certain age. It’s also low-hanging fruit when it comes to queer comedy: A bit femme-ist, racy but passable in polite company, and, ultimately, true (especially in Dallas). It’s also emblematic of what’s great and slightly disappointing about Uncoupled, the new eight-episode Netflix series from iconic showrunner Darren Star.
Star made his TV bones with Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place, the ‘90s prime-time meta-soaps targeting Gen-Xers. They were meta, because the melodrama didn’t derive from middle-aged adult tropes about over-privileged 40-year-old cheating on their alcoholic wives involved in hit-and-run accidents during a corporate merger. No, they were about aspirational twentysomethings cheating on their girlfriends after binge-drinking before a big job interview. He rolled back the clock a decade or two and found relatable cliches with a less juicy, more supportive and, frankly, bland tone.
Star then really hit the jackpot with Sex and the City – unlike the hour-long network dramas 90210 and Melrose, a 30-minute cable sitcom where he could be as ratched as he wanted with nudity and language that was shocking for its era. S&tC was a Zeitgeist show that set a benchmark for bougie white girls to fetishize. It showed complicated characters who were also archetypes: The Cougar (before that was a thing), the Prude, the Career Woman and the Single Girl, trying to navigate the world of dating in their 30s.
The recent reboot of S&tC moved those characters into their 50s, which is also what Star has done with Uncoupled, only with a X-chromosome. (The Simpsons famously satirized Sex as being “about four women who act like gay men,” so Uncoupled just removes that filter.) Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) is the clingy half of a couple 17 years into a relationship. He throws a surprise 50th bday party for his partner Colin (Tuc Watkins), only to find out seconds before that Colin has moved out and is leaving him. Michael finds himself being forced to navigate the monkeypox-infested waters of gay dating a generation later, while coping with self-worth and depression not just about being dumped, but dumped by someone he’s still in love with.
Surprise parties? Conveniently inconvenient plot reveals? An awkward toast where we (and the central parties) are the only ones who “get” the subtext? Fish-out-of-water plot points? In the land of sitcom cliches, this isn’t even low-hanging – it’s apples that have already hit the ground and are getting soft on one side.
Uncoupled torpedoes into its complications so recklessly, you’d think Ryan Murphy had a hand in it. (Maybe he did: Murphy has a deal with Netflix, and maybe his style set the template for other content.) We haven’t even “met the characters at the point where we are supposed to have feelings about them. There’s man-whore Billy (Emerson Brooks), schlubby Stanley (Brook Ashmanskas), self-absorbed gal pal Suzanne (Tisha Campbell) and the remote lover, Colin. If this sounds like a plug-n-play redux of Sex and the City, well duh. But if you love S&tC but wished it had more dick, what am I complaining about?
Well, the characters for one. Michael’s desperation comes across not as endearing but as sociopathic; Colin seems selfish and cruel, unworthy of Michael’s ardor; Suzanne is abrasive and tone-deaf when it comes to reading a room.
Uncoupled is sassy and fast-moving, but it also plays out more broadly and one-dimensionally than it needs to; it’s as if Carrie Bradshaw’s reflective voice-overs became all the dialogue, leaving little for us as viewers to ponder over or decipher. The expression on Harris’ face when Michael hears the news couldn’t be more of a mugging if it were done in Central Park at gunpoint. A lot of the performances, in fact, seem to be played more for three-camera “before a studio audience” sitcom style than the filmed version. (That’s apparent in the writing as well: A dinner party where Michael is solo becomes a two-hander convo between Harris and Marcia Gay Harden, as if no other guests exist; a therapy session lasts barely five minutes; entrances and exits sometimes are shot as if an audience is expected to laugh when a door opens.) Its look and feel are more Grace & Frankie than Will & Grace.
Nevertheless, Uncoupled is worth a look-see, if not a full-on binge, for its insightful if not wholly accurate portrayal of gay culture, especially as it pertains to single men over 40: “Hurt people hurt people,” Stanley snipes. There’s pain underlying the comedy here. It ain’t pretty, but it’s real.
Mr. Man Unveils “Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide
Netflix Wins Title of Streamer with the Most-Gay Content
This Pride, Mr. Man is pitting the top streaming services up against one another to determine which network is the gayest with the best male nudity. The editorial team at Mr. Man had the laborious task of combing through all of the content on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and Prime Video to find their gayest titles. They then went even further, counting the number of intimate gay scenes within each title! Results for “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide were broken down into four categories: the series with the Most Gay Scenes, those with the Most Nude Scenes, and those with the Most Full Frontal and the Most Butt Scenes.
Netflix wins the Most Gay Scenes category. It comes as little surprise as Netflix is the network behind such LGBTQ hits as Grace and Frankie, Orange Is the New Black, Queer Eye, and its latest phenomenon Heartstopper, starring cutie Kit Connor. But it is the network’s other Kit, Kit Williamson, who stars in its gayest title. With 28 steamy gay scenes in it, Eastsiders, the popular series about a tangled web of gay relationships, has the distinction of being the gayest title on the gayest streaming network.
HBO comes in second place with 128 gay scenes, 17 of which come from Looking, HBO’s very first series to center around the lives of gay men. The show starring Jonathan Groff, Russell Tovey and Murray Bartlett enjoyed two seasons and a TV movie and nearly every episode featured a steamy gay scene.
In the Most Nude Scenes category, Netflix once again dominates with over 700 male nude scenes! El Marginal, the Argentinian cops-and-criminals show tops all other series with 28 scenes, ten of which are full frontal. Elite, its teen series features the most rear scenes with 26 bare bottoms!
HBO comes a close second in the Most Nude Scenes category with Oz, the series about inmates and correctional officers battling for power and survival, scoring the most naked scenes on the network. Mr. Man counts 72 nude scenes in Oz, with 43 being full frontal! In fact, the one category HBO leads in “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” is in Most Full Frontal Scenes, and it is in large part thanks to Oz.
Showtime, the network that introduced Queer as Folk to the world, ranks as the #3 streaming service in all categories in the battle. It’s show, Shameless, features male nudity in nearly every one of its 134 episodes and Gigolo, it’s reality series about real life escorts in Sin City, is second only to Oz for its number of full-frontal scenes.
Prime Video and Hulu consistently rank at the bottom of “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide but special recognition goes to Prime Video’s El Juego de las Llaves, the only series to be named in all four categories, and to Hulu, for scoring big in gay hearts with its two endearing series, Love Victor and Normal People.
All scenes featured in “Mr. Man’s Battle of the Streaming Services” Pride Guide are viewable in their entirety with free signup at https://www.mrman.com/promos/tv-pride-guide.
Neil Patrick Harris to Star in Uncoupled | Streaming July 29 on Netflix
Neil Patrick Harris | Santiago Felipe / Getty Images
Creators & Executive Producers: Darren Star (Sex and the City, Emily In Paris) and Jeffrey Richman (Modern Family, Frasier) globally premiere Uncoupled, starring Neil Patrick Harris July 29, 2022 on Netflix with eight-30 min. episodes
Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) thought his life was perfect until his husband blindsides him by walking out the door after 17 years. Overnight, Michael has to confront two nightmares - losing what he thought was his soulmate and suddenly finding himself a single gay man in his mid-forties in New York City.
Executive Producers: Tony Hernandez (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Younger) and Lilly Burns (Emily in Paris, Younger) of Jax Media, Neil Patrick Harris.
Studio: MTV Entertainment Studios
Review to follow release.
Darren Star & Neil Patrick Harris | Stefanie Keenan / WireImage
Neil Patrick Harris | Source: Fandom
GARDENER RECORDINGS RELEASES RUSSIAN DOLL MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
Gardener Recordings is excited to announce the upcoming release of Russian Doll: Seasons 1 & 2 (Music From The Netflix Original Series), available April 20th on all major digital platforms, coinciding with the Season Two launch on Netflix. Composed by Joe Wong – who has worked on some of Netflix's biggest hits including Master Of Noneand the To All the Boys… franchise, and their critically lauded The Midnight Gospel -- the album consists of his dream-like original score with highlights from the breakout first season and the highly anticipated second season. The album takes the listener on a journey through life, death, space, and time.
The first season of Russian Doll follows a woman named Nadia who is caught in a time loop as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City. She dies repeatedly, always restarting at the same moment at the party, as she tries to figure out what is happening to her. Season Two is set four years after Nadia and Alan saved each other and escaped the time loop in Season One — but now they’re stuck in a new kind of loop. This season, Nadia and Alan discover an unexpected time portal that sends them both on an era-spanning adventure through the past. The two must search for a way out of the loop together.
"In many ways, we think of ‘Russian Doll’ as a musical, with the score serving to bridge and guide us through the rollercoaster of Nadia’s puzzle box adventure," notes Natasha Lyonne, the show's co-creator. "With the new season, we knew we wanted to use the investigative beats of the season one cues as a jumping off point to an ever more dense and psychedelic landing. The soundscape also allows us time to sit with some of the higher concept moments in the hopes of making them feel personal to the viewer’s life experience."
"The score to Russian Doll is constructed much like the eponymous nesting doll,” notes Wong. “I developed a series of leitmotifs which can function alone or nested inside one another, resulting in fugue-like cues. This season, our characters time-travel to historical Hungary, as well as 1980s New York. When deciding on the musical palette for this season, I imagined the sound of a Lisztian figure transported a hundred years into the future. This episode--the season finale--contains an intermingling of all of the main themes from both seasons, imagined through this sonic lens.”
Of her collaboration with Wong, Lyonne adds,"It’s always such a joy to get to watch Joe work -- he’s like a one man Jughead band. My only hope is that someday I get to see him work with a full orchestra as we bring our next joint project to life.”
TRACKLIST - ‘RUSSIAN DOLL: SEASONS 1 & 2
(MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES)’
1. Death Air
2. Hard Reset
3. Tompkins Square
4. Bodega Register
5. Fractured Loop
6. Horse Huff
7. Stack Two
8. Shabbat Shalom
9. Alan’s Exercise
10. Alan’s Elevator
11. Calling John
12. Ruthie Vibes
13. An End
14. Fanfare
15. Showtime
16. Dream Mother
17. Tone Seven
18. Guardian Angel
19. Analog Doll
20. Inside Her Mind
21. Jelly Towel
22. Doctor
23. Secret Room
24. Where’s Ruth
25. Astor Palace Tunnel
26. Motherlode
27. Cistem
28. Family Train
29. Searching
30. Exit Death Air
ABOUT JOE WONG
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Joe Wong is a Los-Angeles-based recording artist, composer, producer, and podcast host. As a composer, Joe Wong’s projects range from Emmy-winning series Russian Doll and Master Of None; to critically lauded The Midnight Gospel, beloved hit YA film series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before; network favorites including Kenan (NBC) and The Big Leap (Fox); and meticulously-bizarre outsider fare such as Chad (TBS) and Superjail! (Adult Swim). In between those extremes, he has scored Sundance-winning narrative features and award-winning documentaries including The Pool, Independent Lens and 6 Days to Air.
Wong’s acclaimed debut solo album, the psychedelic, orchestral Nite Creatures, was released by Decca/Universal in 2020.
His podcast/radio show, The Trap Set, is a about the lives of musicians is hosted and co-produced by Wong. Over the course of over 300 long-form conversations, the show has revealed the life stories of a diverse group of icons. The exhaustive roster of guests includes punk luminaries like Ian MacKaye, cult legends such as The Shaggs, Cuban jazz virtuoso Ignacio Berroa, pop superstars such as Sheila E. and Phil Collins, and everyone in between.
Joe co-produced Fred Armisen’s Grammy-nominated Netflix special Standup For Drummers.
JVN POP-UP SALON | SXSW 2022
JVN Pop-Up Salon SXSW 2022 | Janet St Paul Salon 110 San Antonio St #130 Austin, TX
The Fab Five have taken over my hometown of Austin, Texas once before with season 6 of Netflix’s Emmy award-winning show Queer Eye— and guess what? I never got the chance to meet Jonathan Van Ness.
So when we heard about a JVN pop-up salon as part of SXSW, we hauled ass over! Inspired by the Getting Curious’ star’s new products, JVN Hair, salon owners Janet St. Paul and Natasha McMillen partnered with SXSW to create an inclusive space for attendees to enjoy some much needed pampering.
Partners in Business & Life: Natasha McMillen (left) & Janet St Paul (right)
Salon owner Janet St. Paul told Unleashed LGBTQ:
“What I love about this event is.. if you look around, in every chair, you’ll see a different age, gender, race. This makes us very proud.”
She also notes her excitement in partnering with JVN Hair:
“As a business owner, stylist, and member of the LGBTQ community, I’m so grateful for this opportunity… Not to mention I’m a huge fan of JVN!”
Gary Riggs, Wesley Smoot, & Natasha McMillen
Natasha McMillen mentions seeing five small children who traveled hours with their parents, waiting most of the day to get their hair styled and a glimpse of their hero, Jonathan Van Ness. “They came in with fashionable star-shaped yellow glasses feeling pumped to meet JVN. The way Jonathan resonates with such a broad audience is a testament to his work; there’s an energy that is just as infectious and genuine in-person, as it is on screen.”
The theme for this pop-up was called Come As You Are, which Gary Riggs described as: “Very fitting.”
Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness & Unleashed LGBTQ creator Wesley Smoot SXSW 2022
When asked what the JVN pop-up experience at SXSW was like, Jonathan Van Ness told Unleashed:
“It’s been fabulous, I love being in a salon. I’m working alongside so many talented stylists and getting really positive feedback about our new products. The experience is kind of surreal, we put a lot of care in developing JVN Hair. We launched in August 2021, so it’s amazing to see it all in this capacity. There’s so much more to come.”
Jonathan Van Ness tells readers, products are now available at: jvnhair.com, Sephora, and of course Janet St Paul Salon.
Jeremy Pope on making cover of OUT Magazine PRIDE Issue
By Daniel Reynolds
Jeremy Pope is the cover story of the new Pride issue of Out magazine. In it, the Emmy-nominated actor (Hollywood, Pose) discussed his journey of coming out as a Black gay man in the entertainment industry and beyond.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOPHIE CHAN ANDREASSEND
“There’s just a tricky way in which you have to move, especially in an industry that is predominantly white,” says Pope.
“Black men, I feel like a lot of times, our masculinity is our armor,” he says. “We’re meant to be built strong and tough because we’ve had to endure so much. So when you tell someone that you’re gay or you’re queer or you identify within the community, it’s like, do you lose that badge of honor? Do you lose that respect? Do you lose your safety because people feel like you’re vulnerable or you’re fragile?”
Additionally, Pope’s father, a pastor, is “extremely hypermasculine,” he shares, but the pair had a close bond. “I didn’t want to lose that dynamic,” he says of his early coming-out fears.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOPHIE CHAN ANDREASSEND
“I watched so many of my cousins and a lot of my Black friends maybe not have a relationship with their father.” There was also the church community to consider. “There’s an image that you have to uphold,” Pope says, adding, “You feel like you can’t make mistakes, because you are the example. You are the first family, especially in the Black community — what everyone is striving to essentially be, or your relationship to God is supposed to feel the closest.” Happily, he is he now closer than ever to his family after coming out.
Pope also self-directed his gender-fluid photoshoot of himself wearing a fishnet and pearls. Doing so is proof of “how far I’ve come.” He can now show the world that his body “can be lucid, it can be free, it can be broken, it can be masculine, it can be feminine, and…I’m allowed to possess all of those things.”
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOPHIE CHAN ANDREASSEND
“A couple of years ago, I would have been scared to be on the cover of Out,” he says, "but now, it feels like a whole different season and a whole different journey.”
Full story: click here
