Waffle Colored Knee-Grows ft. Queen

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Are they cute or are they just lightskin? Isake and Queen talk about colorism, pop culture things that have brought us Black joy. Please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CheersNQueers, and support our Patreon. 

Show Notes

Links to:

• Follow us on Twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Follow us on Instagram @CheersNQueers 

• Here is our Patreon if you want to give us your money

• Learn more about Queen

• Ms. Vixen Magazine

  • Website

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Facebook

• Listen to Tea with Queen and J

• Uncle Nearest

• Why use a copper cup for a mule

• Slay TV

Drinking

Black Ass Kentucky Mule

• 2 oz Uncle Nearest Whiskey

• Ginger beer to top

• ½ oz fresh squeezed lime juice

• Ice

• Mint garnish

Add whiskey and lime juice into an ice-filled glass (or a copper mug!), and stir together to combine and chill. Add ginger beer to taste. Garnish with mint. 

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Interstitial music by Abel Shiffera

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted, produced, and engineered by Isake Smith

• Edited by Lance John

• Social media by Jaylen Elise Colvin Taylor

Cheers & Queers S3 Ep 01 - Radical Ratchet Joy with Jewel Cadet

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Kirya and Isake talk with Jewel about party spaces, survival centered transformative justice practices, and what it means to be crafting the way forward with practice, grace, and twerking. Please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CheersNQueers, and support our Patreon. 

Show Notes

Links to:

• Follow us on Twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Follow us on Instagram @CheersNQueers 

• Here is our Patreon if you want to give us your money

• Learn more about Jewel Cadet - Jewel’s IG, A Ratchet Realm

• Big zaddy energy: Carmine Black is an amazing dance instructor who will break your brain and help you free your spirit

• Rabbit freezable cocktail maker is what Isake uses for frozen drinks

• Support Luv Story Bar!!!

• Get into all the things Jennifer Eden does

• Support the amazingly talented DJ Muse

Drinking

Kentucky Margarita

• 2 oz. Bourbon/Whiskey

• 1 oz. Lime Juice

• 1 oz. Agave Syrup

• Optional: Mint, Lime, or Salt for garnish

Just mix the liquid ingredients, pour over ice, and garnish if you fancy 🎩.. Also an option to make a slush drink by pouring over crushed ice. 

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Interstitial music by Abel Shiffera

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted, produced, and engineered by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Edited by Lance John

Cheers & Queers S1 Minisode 01 - A shot! Twentytwentywon

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We are back with a mini episode to begin Season 3! Kirya and Isake talk about the apocalypse, dry January, and give you some important show updates. Please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CheersNQueers, and support our Patreon. 

Show Notes

Links to:

• Follow us on Twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Follow us on Instagram @CheersNQueers 

• Here is our Patreon if you want to give us your money

• My Therapy Cards from an amazing Black femme

• Dry January has benefits and drawbacks (if you missed it, maybe consider Sober October). 

Drinking

Winter Cranberry Spritz

• Ingredients:

  • 2 ounces rosemary simple syrup

  • 4 ounces cranberry juice unsweetened

  • soda water or other carbonated water

  • ice

• Instructions

  • Combine simple syrup and juice in a glass with ice and stir. Top with soda water

Paper Plane

• Ingredients

  • 1 part bourbon

  • 1 part amoro 

  • lemon

  • seltzer 

• Instructions

  • Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker/glass, stir, add ice, top with seltzer

Imaginary Airplane

• Ingredients

  • 1 part bourbon

  • 1 part amoro 

  • 1 part Aperol

  • Lemon

• Instructions

  • Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker/glass, stir, add ice

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Interstitial music by Abel Shiffera

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted, produced, and engineered by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Edited by Lance John

Cheers & Queers S2 Ep 06 -Existential Authenticity ft. Be Steadwell

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Isake and Kirya giggle a lot with our guest, storyteller and musician Be Steadwell. We talk about her new album, Succulent, what is getting us through in the midst of a wild world, and what we are imagining things could be. 

Show Notes

Links to:

• Follow us on Twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Follow us on Instagram @CheersNQueers 

• Here is our Patreon if you want to give us your money.

• Here is Be’s Pateron if you want to give her money!

• That’s one thicc cat...

• Chani Nicholas book, You Were Born For This

• Be’s cover of Pony

• Thirst Trap video!

• #BlackBirdersWeek

• ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Imagines a World Free of Whiteness

• SM Rodriguez 

• Angela Davis’ book: Are Prisons Obsolete?

• Recent article by Mariame Kaba: Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish Police

• How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective

• Sydnie L. Mosley​

Drinking

Virgin Paloma

• Ingredients:

  • 1.5 oz lime juice

  • 1 oz grapefruit juice

  • 1 oz agave syrup or honey

  • Healthy pinch of sea salt

  • Soda water

• Instructions

  • Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake with ice. Strain over ice into a glass and top with soda.

Music

• All the music in this episode is by Be Steadwell

The Team

• Hosted, produced, and engineered by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Edited by Lance John

#OnFleet: Enterprise

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The first of our Star Trek mini-series! We talk through Enterprise and discuss if it’s really as bad as everyone says it is. (Spoiler alert, it’s the worst thing to ever happen to space, but listen anyway for a Black queer analysis of why it’s so terrible!)

Please fill out our listener survey and check out our Patreon!

Show Notes

Links to:

• Patreon

• Listener survey

• Follow us on twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Isake @is_she_okay on Twitter and IG & Kirya @kiryatraber (twitter) @kiryat (IG)

Drinking

• Alien Sex on the Beach

  • A sweet to semi sweet pink champagne 

  • 1.5oz your favorite whiskey 

  • Muddled citrus (Kirya’s version) 

OR

• 1.5 oz of Pimms and a splash of passion fruit juice (Isake’s version)

Music

• All sounds from Enterprise! 

The Team

• Hosted, produced, and engineered by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Edited by Lance John

Cheers and Queers S2 Ep 05 - A Quarantine Chronicle

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Isake and Kirya drink different things and meander through their lives in the time of the ‘Rona. BONUS: Now you can give us your money!(Please take a few moments to fill out our listener survey, the link is in the show notes below) 

Show Notes

Links to:

• Patreon

• Listener survey

• Sugaring Brooklyn

• American Theatre Opinion Piece on co-parenting with an ex.

• New York Times Cooking

• Isake’s health coach: Geek Girl Strong

• COVID and cats

• COVID and animals 

• Don’t mix cleaning agents!

• Apartment Therapy tips & tricks

• Follow us on twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Isake @is_she_okay on Twitter and IG & Kirya @kiryatraber (twitter) @kiryat (IG)

Drinking

• Isake: “Bourbon bees knees”: 1/2 oz honey (use the honey crystals from the bottom of the jar, if you got it!), 1/2 oz hot water, 2.5 oz bourbon, juice of half a lemon, and a sprig of thyme if you fancy. Put in a shaker with a large rock, shake and serve. 

• Kirya's "go to" cocktail "The Seven Day Work Week": 1 part Bourbon, 1 part seltzer, ginger beer to taste, cocktail bitters to taste, stir with ice. 

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music 

  • Satisfied, from the Original Cast recording of Hamilton

  • Magic School Bus theme song, by Little Richard

• Boomscat

• Abel

The Team

• Hosted, produced, and engineered by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Edited by Lance John

Cheers and Queers - Black Queers #OnFleet

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A blerdy review of our trek fandom with Cleopatra From the Bronx. Recorded live at Respect: Women’s Podcast Festival hosted by the Black Tribbles in at Amalgam Comics in Philly, August 24, 2019. 

Show Notes

Links to:

• Respect Women’s Podcast Festival

• Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse

• The Black Tribbles

• Airbnb Scam (stay woke fam!)

• Our Venmos: @IsakeKhadija @kirya-traber

• Follow us on twitter @CheersNQueers 

• Isake @is_she_okay on Twitter and IG & Kirya @kiryatraber (twitter) @kiryat (IG).

• Follow Cleopatra at @cleopatrafromthebronx on IG & Twitter

Drinking

Cardassian Sunrise 

-2 oz Blood Orange Grand Reserve Rosé

-1 oz Rowhouse Spirits: Drowned Devil Rum (the old demon)

-3 oz Grapefruit juice 

-2 oz KeVita Lemon Cayenne

-coconut water* 

*Optional

Combine spirits, grapefruit, and KeVita. Add ice, stir, and top with coconut water to taste. 

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music 

  • hip hoprap beat(star trek sample) by  adam d

• Outro: Discovery Theme by Jeff Russo

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez

Cheers & Queers - Wet Your Appetite...

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A smol aperitif to get you ready! We chat about co-habitating, marriage, plant witchery, and what the show is doing next. Follow us at CheersNQueers, Isake @is_she_okay on Twitter and IG & Kirya @kiryatraber (twitter) @kiryat (IG).

Show Notes

Links to:

• History of Aperitif

• James Bond Drinks

• Our Venmos: @IsakeKhadija @kirya-traber

• The Hard Questions: 100 Essential Questions to Ask Before You Say "I Do"

• Thee Stallion

Drinking

The Live In Lover

• 3 ounces silver/blanco tequila (We like Casamigos!)

• 2 ounces Campari OR Aperol

• 1 ounce seltzer

• 1 chunk watermelon

Pour into glass over ice, stir, serve. 

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music 

  • Hands by Boomscat

  • All other interstitial music by Abel Shiffera

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez

Cheers & Queers S2 Ep 2 - I Need a Space to Thrive

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Isake and Kirya have an unfiltered conversation about cultivating spaces for black queerness to thrive with, Jarvis Green, the Founder & Producing Artistic Director of Jag Productions, a Black theatre company in Upper Valley Vermont. We touch on friendships, family, and the presence and absence of queer narratives in our history and our lives.

Show Notes

• Jag Productions
  

• Revisiting Spike Lee’s Perplexing ‘She Hate Me’ on Its 11th Anniversary

Drinking

Old Vermont (this recipe makes one drink)

• 5 ounces gin

• ½ ounce Grade B pure maple syrup (Maple syrup from Vermont, of you can get it!)

• ¼ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

• ¼ ounce freshly squeezed orange juice

• 2 dashes bitters

• Ice

• Orange rind

Combine all liquid ingredients into a shaker, add ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass, twist orange rind, and place on surface of drink. Enjoy!

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music

  • Hands by Boomscat

  • Satisfied from the Hamilton Broadway Soundtrack

  • All other interstitial music by Abel Shifferaw

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez

Cheers and Queers S2 Ep 1 - A Lot of Rum & Feelings

We’re back for Season 2! We celebrate a year of making shows with a fight of rum cocktails, and updates on our lives and the world.

Show Notes

Links to:

• Housing

• A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home

• Unequal Lending Keeps Redlining Alive in Philadelphia’s Gentrifying Neighborhoods.

• City Caught Trying to Grab Senior Citizen Brownstone

• Chronic Illness

• “So much time spent in bed: Gloria Anzaldua, chronic illness, Coatlicue and disability,” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

• Relationships

• ‘The Ethical Slut’: Inside America’s Growing Acceptance of Polyamory

• What’s the Difference Between Polyamory & an Open Relationship?

• 9 Strategies for Non-Oppressive Polyamory

• Tensions of subjectivity: The instability of queer polyamorous identity and community

• Follow Poly.Land on twitter: @PolydotLand

Drinking

• Cocktail flight with Mount Gay Barbados Rum

• Rum & Coke

• 2oz rum & 6oz “Fentimans Curiosity Cola”

• Pour over ice

• Dark & Stormy

• 2oz rum

• 6oz “Brooklyn Crafted Classic Ginger Ale”

• a squeeze of fresh lime

• and a dash of bitters of your choosing (we used Urban Moonshine Original which is on the bitter side of bitters. You may want something sweeter!)

• Shake and pour over ice.

• Mojito :

• 7 to 8 mint leaves,

• ½ lime cut into 4 to 5 wedges,

• 1 ½ tablespoons of honey simple syrup (or to taste, if you like things a little sweeter),

• 2oz rum,

• ½ cup of club soda.

• Muddle half the lime wedges and mint (use the back of a spoon in a large cup if you don’t have a muddler).

• Add another lime wedge and the honey syrup to the mix and muddle more.

• In a different glass, add ice, rum, and club soda.

• Strain muddled liquid into the glass.

• Garnish with leftover mint and lime

• Rum & Lemonade :

• 6oz “Belvoir Elderflower Lemonade”

• 2oz rum

• Pour over ice

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music

• Hands by Boomscat

• Satisfied from the Hamilton Broadway Soundtrack

• All other interstitial music by Abel Shifferaw

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez

Cheers & Queers Episode 5 - LIVE!

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Our very first live show! We talk about the origins of Cheers & Queers, share what we find erotic, celebrate the birthday of the indomitable Audre Lorde with scholar and best aunt ever, Alexis Pauline Gumbs and the NYC based organizing center, The Audre Lorde Project, then play a drinking game with erotic Star Trek fan fic. Grab a drink and join us!

Show Notes

Links to:

• Implicitly, by jaylee_g and sundara, from The Caffeinated Neurotic https://jaylee-g.dreamwidth.org/54798.html

Drinking

• At Starr Bar NYC! http://starrbar.com/

• The Kaeperknick: “Jameson Caskmate, Pedicularis-infused Jameson, Amaro Nonio, Honey, Lemon. Take a knee and enjoy.”

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music

  • Hands by Boomscat

  • Satisfied from the Hamilton Broadway Soundtrack

  • All other interstitial music by Abel Shiffera

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez

Cheers & Queers Bonus Episode - All Black Panther Everything

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**HEAR YE, HEAR YE! THIS EPISODE IS FULL OF SPOILERS!**

We chat with Tony Ray, of Everybody Loves Tony Ray, about ALL OF OUR FEELINGS, good, bad, and complex. But in the end, we all agree: WAKANDA FOREVER.

Show Notes

Links to:

• Tickets to Universal FanCon (don’t forget to use promo code GiftedSounds for 10% off): http://bit.ly/2C0HC17

• Modern Wakandan font by Kaptured Kaios - FontSpace

  • http://www.fontspace.com/kaptured-kaios/modern-wakandan

Drinking

Recipe for Killmonger’s Blood of the Colonizer

• 0.3 liter unflavored vodka

• 0.6 liter red wine (Merlot if you like dry, port or shiraz if you like sweet)

• 2 dried poblano peppers (or your favorite dried pepper)

• 2 inches of ginger

• ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)

Crumble the peppers, peel and shred the ginger, place in the bottle. Pour vodka and wine over spices, seal, and store in a dark cool place to steep for 1 month. After the month, strain through a cheesecloth. You can serve at room temperature, OR add the cinnamon, let settle for another 2 weeks, and then serve at room temperature.

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music

• ‘Satisfied’ from the Hamilton Broadway Soundtrack

• Redemption Interlude & Paramedic- Kendrick Lamar + SOB + RBE from the Black Panther Soundtrack

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez

Cheers & Queers Episode 4 - Capitalism & Queers

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On this episode we chat about our favorite love relationships in fandom, how to pick a bubbly wine, and what might come after the revolution (aka how to get yo money right when money doesn’t exist anymore).

AND we hear from listeners and past guests who share their practical, visionary, and heartfelt thoughts on economics, capitalism, and blackanomics (or something like that).

Show Notes

Links to:

• Tickets to our Live Show: http://bit.ly/2nq8kL2

• Tickets to Universal FanCon (don’t forget to use promo code GiftedSounds for 10% off): http://bit.ly/2C0HC17

• Articles that define some of the terms we threw around

  • http://bit.ly/2nKaNAY

  • http://bit.ly/2FRRgFA

  • http://bit.ly/2E6yLk9

• UPDATE: Khane of Camera Ready Kutz now has opened a shop in brooklyn! http://bit.ly/2E9w7WX

Drinking

• La Peña de España 2015

Music

• Intro: Sage by Be Steadwell

• Additional Music

  • Hands by Boomscat

  • Satisfied from the Hamilton Broadway Soundtrack

  • All other interstitial music by Abel Shiffera

• Outro: Hey by Boomscat

The Team

• Hosted by Isake Smith and Kirya Traber

• Produced by Isake Smith, Kirya Traber

• Engineered by Lance John

• Edited by Jassel Hernandez