Niecy Nash-Betts Opens Up About Hosting ‘Queer West’ Podcast

Completely happy Homosexual Satisfaction Day! Do you know that June 28 is widely known as Satisfaction Day in a number of international locations around the globe?

Satisfaction Day is widely known on June 28 to have fun the Stonewall Riots that happened in New York in 1969, when a number of demonstrations had been sparked in protest towards a police raid that happened within the early hours of June 28 on the Stonewall Inn pub in Greenwich Village. This Satisfaction Month has been actually enlightening for us, largely due to the Audible unique podcast Queer West, hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Niecy Nash-Betts.

Queer West: How The West Was Fabulous takes a deep dive into some actually fascinating tales of queer pioneers of the wild west, nation music and frontier historical past and tradition. We chatted with Nash-Betts in regards to the riveting nine-episode collection which launched this month. Nash-Betts spoke about her entrance into the podcast house, recording along with her accomplice Jessica (who she lovingly refers to within the collection as her “hersband”) and extra.

“All people has a narrative, and as I’m studying it’s dawning on me the experiences that I had rising up was the genesis for the leaping off level within the dialog,” Nash-Betts informed BOSSIP. “I had the added luxurious of with the ability to have my partner as my engineer so it was that additional layer of anyone who is aware of you and it’s like, ‘Keep in mind this? Keep in mind when that occurred?’ In order that’s the way it got here to be as seamless because it was.

The present’s tagline is How The West Was Fabulous however the tales informed run the gamut from celebratory to melancholy to mysterious. The vary displays the true range of the human expertise – one thing Nash-Betts says she felt proper at dwelling with.

“Whenever you’re Black and used to the yard barbecue, there’s at all times going to be an area in it the place there’s pleasure and ache, just like the tune says,” Nash-Betts mentioned. “Pleasure and ache, sunshine and rain. There’s at all times going to be some extent the place you bought to speak in regards to the onerous half, not simply the shiny half. There’s the for the tradition half after which there’s the historical past. These are two various things even within the queer neighborhood, or I ought to say particularly.”

tories of the American West usually depend on drained tropes of powerful cowboys, however actual historical past is way much less straight and slim and far more attention-grabbing. Be part of host Niecy Nash-Betts for a wild round-up of LGBTQ+ lives that obtained buried within the mud of fashionable tradition and historical past and try how queer individuals proceed to form the West right this moment–from homosexual rodeos to two-spirit id to trans truckers.

We actually loved each episode of the podcast, which fits past the stereotypical homosexual cowboy tales to discover how queer individuals have performed an essential function in shaping the West. The tales centered function acquainted characters like Calamity Jane and the solid of Oklahoma and fewer acquainted ones, resembling the person who made the primary homosexual nation album and an exploration of two-spirit individuals in indigenous cultures.

“I simply bear in mind having intensive conversations with my partner after I recorded ‘Calamity Jane,’” Nash-Betts recalled when requested in regards to the tales that drew her in deepest. “Was she masculine recognized? And the way everybody thought at that cut-off date she was so cool, proper? When did it shift to be like, ‘let me put disgrace on you… let me let you know 10 the reason why you going to hell.’ I simply I assumed the conversations that she and I had on the opposite aspect of that story is what made it so attention-grabbing. After which probably not even totally with the ability to put your finger on precisely what was taking place with “Mrs. Nash.” You at all times take a narrative and also you consider what that’s in modern-day? Was she trans? A number of the more durable tales are actually attention-grabbing and when you consider how after we unpack how tough and difficult everyone thought the rodeo was and it was the shiniest gayest factor on the planet, between caps and rhinestones and tassels. I imply, come on!”

Followers of Nash-Betts can be excited to expertise her within the podcast medium, the place she brings each sensitivity and her comedic aptitude to the microphone.

“Once I do something I attempt to convey my true self to regardless of the undertaking is,” Nash-Betts informed BOSSIP. “Even once I’m unhappy I’m humorous, that doesn’t go away. Particularly within the more durable tales, it’s like ‘The place can I discover just a little levity?’ So that there’s a experience that you just go on and it’s not only one be aware, proper?!”

Queer West is Nash-Betts first time engaged on a podcast but when the actress has it her manner, it gained’t be her final. She informed us that along with working along with her partner Jessica Betts on two songs (‘Satisfaction’ and ‘I’m A Winner’) they’ve one other undertaking within the works they hope might land at Audible.

“We like working collectively and any time we are able to discover the way in which we’re like, ‘Yeah let’s do that!”” Nash-Betts informed BOSSIP. “It’s simply my favourite factor ever. I really like ‘bringing your partner to work day.’ I don’t care if I’m going within the studio along with her or she’s approaching the set with me. I’ve had the luxurious of being on her aspect of the road with these two songs we have now out proper now and she or he’s been on my aspect of the road with Claws and Rookie FEDS. Any time we get the chance for our arts to intersect we take it. I hope Audible is with this present we wish to pitch them as a result of we have now such a superb time.”

We’ll must see what occurs to that, however within the meantime you may hearken to Nash-Betts (her partner/engineer Jessica Betts makes a few fast visitor appearances as effectively) on all 9 episodes of Queer West: How The West Was Fabulous on Audible.

Hit the flip for a fast episodic breakdown