Queer Voices
Queer Voices
December 4th 2024 Queer Voices Lesbian comedian Kristin Key, TX State Rep Lauren Ashley Simmons and TUTS Actor Ben Chavez
We speak with Lesbian comedian, Kristin Key. Kristin Key is a nationally headlining, queer, musical comedian with SOLD OUT SHOWS nationwide - a fan favorite at clubs and theaters! Her hilarious viral videos - including the iconic LESBIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM - have garnered over 92.2 MILLION VIEWS online! Kristin has 650,000+ DEDICATED FOLLOWERS AND FANS across her social media channels. She's got 6 full-length COMEDY ALBUMS & 1 DryBar COMEDY SPECIAL and has appeared on NBC'S Bring the Funny & Last Comic Standing, VH-1, SiriusXM, and more. Kristen is bringing her Lesbian Army Tour to Houston Improv on December 12th.
Then, we speak with Lauren Ashley Simmons for State Representative District 146 about her path to becoming Texas State Representative for District 146. Lauren defeated an anti-trans incumbent in the primary and went on to secure the seat in the general election. Representative Simmons comes from the labor union universe and is ready to take the legislature in Austin.
Finally, Brett Cullum speaks with Ben Chavez who is in the TUTS production of Frozen which is opening next week. Ben is a performer who toured the country with Disney's ALADDIN, and settled here in Houston for a wonderful reason. He also plays piano at Michael's Outpost! You can reach him and find his music at https://www.benchavezmusic.com/
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast version of a broadcast radio show that's been on the air in Houston, Texas for several decades. This week, Debra Moncrief-Bell has a conversation with lesbian comedian Kristen Key.
Speaker 2:If I could build a lesbian time machine, what would the flux capacitor run off of? That one took me by surprise because I was like no one's ever asked me that before. Of course it would run on cat hair because it's a lesbian car, but that was probably the weirdest one. I was real happy that she took the time to think that one through.
Speaker 1:Brian LaVinca has an interview with state representative-elect Lauren Ashley Simmons.
Speaker 3:We had those hard conversations. We talked to people and for the most part people really understood and said hey, you know I might not be an expert on this type of care, but I know that I don't want Greg Abbott making decisions about the way I raise my children or making decisions about what type of health care I can access.
Speaker 1:And Brett Cullum talks with Ben Chavez, who is part of the Touch production of Frozen, which opens next week, where Voices starts.
Speaker 4:Now I drive a Subaru, donate to dog rescues. Have arm tattoos, thin butch or cottage core. We like to be outdoors in hats and cargo shorts, with our ugly shoes.
Speaker 5:This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell and I'm delighted to be speaking with Kristen Key. Kristen is a nationally headlining queer musical comedian who has been having sold-out shows nationwide and, I believe, even internationally. Her hilarious viral videos, including the iconic Lesbian National Anthem, have garnered over 92.2 million views online. She has over 650,000 dedicated followers and fans across the social media channels and more fandoms. This is more than a fandom. This is a movement. She's got six full-length comedy albums, a one dry bar comedy special and has appeared on NBC's Bring the Funny and was a finalist on the Last Comic Standing. Kristen, I understand that you grew up in the panhandle of Texas.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, I grew up in Amarillo.
Speaker 5:Lots of queers are from Lubbock, rilo, lots of queers are from lubbock and I always tell people it explains a lot about me when they know that you have taken quite a journey from those days and of course we had decades apart in our time in west texas. You come from a family where I believe your father was a minister. He still is. You did church a lot.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was more than just something we did on Sundays. It was something we lived every single day because my dad's a minister, both of my grandfathers were ministers, my uncle's a minister. It was like the family it's life, it was life. So we did two Sundays like the early in the morning, or like I say the early in the morning, or like I see the early show in the late show on sundays, and then, uh, the wednesday, and then, of course, bible bowl and and vacation, bible school and bible camp. So, yes, grew up very, very jesusy now a lot of people.
Speaker 5:They credit their time in the church as being part of their musical journey. Do you think that that contributed to your musicianship? Probably.
Speaker 2:I guess when you, I never knew a different life, but I do know people now that don't. They don't break into four-part harmony with their families around the holidays. I'm like, oh, you guys don't do that. Oh okay, yeah, yeah, when my family gets together we will randomly break into four-part perfect harmony, singing either christmas songs or oldies or whatever. But it's pretty common when you're around people that grew up with acapella singing, the family just will burst into song. And my wife was like that I've never. I've never heard of that, except for in the movies. I'm like, oh no, it happens.
Speaker 5:Churchy families sing a lot how did it happen, kristin, that you came from this little girl growing up in that environment in the panhandle of Texas and you became a lesbian comedian?
Speaker 2:I was a church girl and then I came out when I was about 16 and it did not go well, as you can imagine, coming from the panhandle of Texas. Then I went back in the closet and did stand-up because I was I want to say that like I was miserable, but I was and I was looking for I had that. You know what could possibly go wrong. I got nothing to lose kind of thing. And so I went and even though I didn't talk about being gay, at least I could be talking, at least I had a voice. And you know, I did all the things you do when you rebel against being in the closet and being kind of a self-hating gay. And I smoked the weed and I did all the things and I did stand up and it took me a long time to come out again and the second time I came out of the closet. Well, now I've just been getting gayer ever since. And that's when it just it dawned on me.
Speaker 2:Boy, I haven't talked about it this whole time. Now I'm going to talk about it. I survived a very hard time but I came through it on the other side and I have a career and I'm able to keep a roof over my head and I've got people that love me. So now I use this career to bring our community together, because I think it was the community that helped me find the other side to a hard time, to learn that I wasn't alone and that lesbian's not a bad word and that there are wonderful, wholesome gay families out there that support each other. And I'd always been told that lesbian's a bad word. There are no gay families. There are just people that are sad and all the things that I the untruths that I went out and found that, oh no, there's this wonderful world of very normal, boring gay people. I'm so, so glad to call my friends and my family and my fans.
Speaker 5:And one of the things you do in your act is you interact with your audience and sometimes they ask you questions. You field questions and then you sometimes the questions are funnier than the answers, but you manage to come back with a retort or a comment. What do you think is the strangest question you've ever been asked?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I've had some weird ones. I have a lot of them about my family. I've had like favorite foods. I've had weird ones I have a lot of them about my family. I've had like favorite foods I've had. Will you come over to my hot tub? Do you want to have a threesome? But I think the weirdest one was the one where someone said if I and it was a long question, but she said if I could build a lesbian time machine, what would the flux capacitor run off of? That one took me by surprise because I was like no one's ever asked me that before. Of course it would run on cat hair because it's a lesbian car, but that was probably that's probably the weirdest one. I was real happy that she she took the time to think that one through before. She's like okay, if I have one question to ask, I'm gonna make it a good one and not just like what's your favorite brand of comfortable shoes, which I've had as well and I believe there was one about serial killers oh, I've had that one twice.
Speaker 2:People are, I mean, I understand, as women, especially as gay women. We might think about that one a lot. I know I watch a lot of of, uh, murdery shows. But yeah, two people have asked me my favorite serial killer. I'm always gonna say the woman, the woman. Then I think the most famous female serial killer was Eileen Wuornos.
Speaker 5:Who is kind of a personal shero of mine. What?
Speaker 2:Was she even wrong? I mean, I still don't get it. I'm like no.
Speaker 5:And, of course, charlize Theron did such a tremendous job in that role in the movie. At what point were you combining your musical component with the comedy?
Speaker 2:Oh, I started out with just stand-up. So about six years in, I've been doing stand-up for about six years and I played the guitar just on the side, just kind of learning how and having fun. And then somebody asked me to write a song for their radio station. Come in, and just I was like, oh, that'd be fun, I'll just write a little funny song. And when I sit down to write it was called the Passive, aggressive Love Song. It was. Anyway. It was just about what you say to someone that you have a crush on, but you're not really going to say it. And so I sat down and wrote it. I wrote it so fast, it was so fun and it was so fun and I was like, well, this is really fun. And so then I would just write one song a year and have it at the end of my act.
Speaker 2:And someone finally man, I probably what 15, no, 10 years into comedy was like, why don't you just play the whole time? And I said, well, I don't want to. No one wants to hear me sing the whole time. They go well, you don't do with it. And so I just played it while I did my standup, and then I really had a lot of fun doing that, and so now I just kind of weave in a song here or there and then play a few notes underneath. I used to really like watching Victor Borga use the piano as a comedy tool, and he didn't have to sing songs, he didn't even have to play songs. And he didn't have to sing songs, he didn't even have to play songs. Just the act of having something that could create so much timing and suspense and effect Like oh, this is a whole new layer of stand-up. It's real fun for me to get to play with it.
Speaker 5:I was just thinking that there are lots of our people listening that are going to go Victor who he was an excellent pianist. Let's talk about the lesbian national anthem my shoes are comfortable.
Speaker 4:My purse is functional.
Speaker 2:It has birds, bees oh, wow, yeah, that was uh, uh, we have COVID to thank for that. I'd been on cruise ships for six years doing straight people cruises and just playing to regular old audiences. And then pandemic hit and my calendar got wiped and so I was home and, like most comedians and entertainers, trying to figure out how to entertain without a stage, and these live stream shows kind of popped up and I started doing a few different comedian friends of mine live streams and it got said as, like a side, like just a quick tag at the end of it, something about being, oh, I said something about coming out professionally and they're like, oh, like a professional lesbian. I was like, yes, the professionals, we have our own anthem and it was just that line that led me to write it for my own live stream show. I was like, oh, I'll just, I'll write the lesbian anthem and play it, you know, and I'll never do anything else with it. And then I was trying to grow my TikTok feed so I was like, oh, you know what, that would probably be a good song. I'll play that for my it.
Speaker 2:And then, when I started, the world reopened, trying to get lesbians to go to comedy clubs, because now it's a new goal. I'm like, well, you know what? I'm just going to get some more lesbians to my shows. And one night I was trying to figure out, oh, I'm going to do more gay stuff, since I see more short haircuts, I'll break out that lesbian anthem that I wrote that one, and see how it does.
Speaker 2:And it really went well on stage. And so then I reposted it online and it did much better online the second time I posted it and then it just kind of became something that everywhere I went, if I didn't play it, people would say are you going to play that anthem? I'm like, oh, that wasn't even one of my bits when I before COVID. And so you dust off your act and you come back on the road and you go oh yeah, that's not really a bit. And then you go why isn't it? Well, I guess it is now, and now it's it's the like the center point of the point of the, the the tour that I've had this whole year when did this particular tour start?
Speaker 2:this, the lesbian army tour, officially started in january of 2024. I had started, uh, creating the material that would be this tour around sept or October of 2023. And so that was when the idea hit me. I was in Plano Texas, and it was one of the experiments that I was doing. I really I wanted off of cruise ships. I love cruises, but I was just it's and I love straight people, Don't get me wrong. But it was the idea of is it possible at this stage of my career, to create or to find my fan base? Because I hadn't done that yet In August of 2023, I think I had like 10,000 Instagram followers.
Speaker 2:I was like, well, if we're going to do it, let's do it now. And so I was in Plano, Texas and I had used some Facebook ads to try to find lesbians by typing in what I thought lesbian interests would be, you know, like just vests and camping and stuff. And when I got there, there was way more than I thought there would be, and so I called them my army of lesbians at that one show in Plano. And then, when I went back to look at the clips, I was like, if this keeps going, I'm going to, I'm going to call it the lesbian army tour and just like, really lean into this. How funny it is that I went from no lesbians at my shows to a literal army of lesbians. So that's how it got started, and so I started working with some representation that saw my vision and I asked you know, can we put together a 10-city tour? And we got it all set for 2024, and we started with 10 cities and now we've got over 90. That we've done this year.
Speaker 5:And you recently were in Australia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went to Australia Next year's going to be the UK and Canada, which I love so much. They count as international. But yeah, yeah, it was crazy to me that as soon as we got to Sydney I got at the comedy club and there they are the same short haircuts and smiles and cargo shorts and all the lesbians. But I always look for the ones with the short hairs because we look like everybody. So you've got your moms and your teachers and then your butch ladies and your allies and guys and just I don't know, just our group. You can always tell my audience it's a little bit of everybody.
Speaker 5:I learned about you from little clips on Facebook. I'm so glad that you will be coming to Houston on December 12th at the Houston Improv. What is the best way for people to find out about getting tickets and availability, because I expect it will be a sold-out show?
Speaker 2:Oh, I hope so. That's so fun. Yeah, you can go to my website. It's the easiest place and it's wwwKristenKeycom and it's Kristen with a K and then two I's K-R-I-S-T-I-N-K-E-Ycom. It's got all my tour dates. There's a little link you can click for the full tour and you can see everywhere we're going coming up. We're announcing the 2025 dates, december 1st. And also, right above the tour section, you can click on all of the LGBTQ plus non-profits that the Lesbian Army we've raised money for over the year. It spotlights some of our favorites.
Speaker 5:So again we've been talking with Kristen Key, lesbian comic, comedian, musician, crocheter bowler I do it all you crochet, oh wow. I do it all you crochet, oh wow.
Speaker 2:I crochet like a mad woman.
Speaker 5:That's my main hobby it's a very therapeutic kind of thing to do. I've only dabbled in it. But yeah, multi-talented, there you go, and again December 12th at the Houston Improv. Kristen, thank you so much for being with us on Queer Voices.
Speaker 2:It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:My arms are always flexed. I stayed friends with my ex Because we share a pet it's a gay girl thing.
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Speaker 6:This is Brian Levink, and today I'm interviewing Lauren Ashley Simmons, our new state rep in District 136, I believe 146. 146. Lauren, tell me all about you and why you wanted to run for this office.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks so much, brian, for having me on. You know what it was just one of those things I felt compelled to do in a lot of different ways and for a few different reasons. So my background is in union and labor organizing. It's just my passion, something that I really love doing, and how I got into that work is, you know, I grew up, you know, kind of solidly, pretty stably middle class, and got to college my freshman year and became a mom very young, and it was something that my parents were not initially in support of. They were very disappointed and we didn't speak for a little while. And so it was, you know, me, my husband and this new baby in the world trying to figure things out. And so I went from a life where I had very few, you know, to any financial worries to, you know, being very economically disadvantaged in a relatively short time and so having to try to navigate, you know, different systems, finish school, you know, find a job, I realized that I was in a pretty.
Speaker 3:Eventually we got into a much more stable position, but there were a lot of people who I, you know, built community with my neighbors and, you know, in East Austin, um, where I was in school were not going to be, um, as well off as me, and it's just because people, you know, say the old adage of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. But how do you do that if you don't even have boots? And so I wanted to do some meaningful work. I wanted to do something with my life that I felt like I was helping people and giving back to people who had helped me, even when they didn't have, even when they themselves had very little. And so I found my way into community advocacy and organizing, which led to a career in union organizing, and so I've worked for a couple of big unions and then I ended off my just recently a career in nonprofit labor, but labor, but within that, you know, politics is deeply ingrained and intertwined in our everyday lives, and even more so when you work in the labor movement. And so I've always kind of been at what I say on the other side of politics helping people, you know, draw the connection between why their paycheck is short or why their rent is so high and what's going on in, either, you know, austin or Austin or DC and, um, you know, being kind of dialed in, maybe more so than you know the average person, I realized that I was just not super thrilled with the representation that I was getting in my district, um and in Austin, and as an organizer, we're very we're hypercritical of politicians, you know, rightfully so, because the people that we work on behalf are, you know, very deeply impacted by what happens.
Speaker 3:But paying some more attention, you know, I just noticed that the current representative had really started to take some positions that were not even just, you know, anti-worker, but they were going, you know, against communities that I was a part of, worker, but they were going, you know, against communities that I was a part of. And really, on the other side of that, it's the. It was what I felt like were misaligned values with our districts, but also a level of neglect. And so, for example, the last legislative session, you know, the representative voted for a book ban. They also voted for the gender affirming care ban for youth, and I found that very problematic one because it didn't align with our values on a large scale as Democrats.
Speaker 3:But on the other side of it too, I have a daughter with a chronic illness. Making health care decisions for your children is already hard enough without the government, you know, getting in between, that relationship between you know patients and doctors, between patients and doctors, and I didn't understand, of all the things that they could have really stood their ground on and been a voice for us, it was two things that were misaligned with our values and then didn't bring any type of relief to our district. It didn't put a grocery store in Sunnyside, it didn't raise the minimum wage, but what that did do was alienate already marginalized people and ultimately, some of those folks who had the resources to do so left this state and may never return. And so it bothered me on a lot of levels and also, too, I think about, you know, imagine your very first interaction with local government, your state representative, and it's going to try to speak on behalf of your community and your child and that person essentially turns their back on you community and your child, and that person essentially turns that back on you.
Speaker 3:And so, um, that was part of it then also kind of the looming threat and which eventually happened with our school district being taken over by the state and wanting somebody you know who was going to be vocal, not to say that you know this person would have fixed it with a magic wand, but wanting to know that the people that you elect and put in office care about the same things as you care about and you feel like a priority.
Speaker 3:And we just did not. I did not feel that way. After talking to more people people that I really trusted and I cared about I made the very, very hard decision to run, and I'm so glad that I did it. It was absolutely a labor of love. It's one of the craziest things I've ever done, but you know, being on the other side of that and getting through a general election and now being the rep elect, I feel very proud of what we did, because it was a coalition that helped us get there, but I also feel immensely accountable to the people who I'm going to represent in Austin. With all of that, I just really feel like the timing was right and I'm very glad that I actually took the plunge to do it.
Speaker 6:Talk to me about your primary process. That was an interesting race.
Speaker 3:It was. I think it just really was shocking in a lot of ways, because I had a team, a consultant, and I remember us talking very early, before I had officially announced, and he said well, your biggest issue is that you're running against an incumbent who has the establishment behind her and what you're going to be fighting for is viability. She's going to virtually ignore you as a candidate because that's what she's going to do. She's the current incumbent. She's not going to pay any attention to you. You're going to have hell raising money. You're going to have a hard time getting endorsements.
Speaker 3:So, with all that being said, our best approach is getting in the field and talking to as many people as possible, and it totally went a very different way. It went from her not ignoring me to really mainly focusing on me, my identity, the communities that I represent, things from my past, and it got very personal and it got really ugly. Honestly, I think a lot of that backfired on her. Most of the mail that she sent out about me was like personal attacks. We just stuck to her voting sent out about me was like personal attacks. We just stuck to her voting record that didn't align with the district and where her money came from, which was she was funded by a lot of very conservative leaning tax and individuals and Republicans. And so we just told the truth, we presented the case to the voters and ultimately we won out. But it was a very tough um primary. I remember um because I actually I came very close to beating her in march on march 5th I was I came in with about like 49.7 percent of the vote and we, you know we didn't get to 50 plus one, but we were ahead, and so somebody had given me a heads up like hey, you know, her tactic is gonna go from. You know the personal attacks on you, so she's going to lean very hard into what she feels is a winning message in the black community around. You know, gender affirming care, and she's going to read really, really hard into some very transphobic rhetoric.
Speaker 3:And so I remember calling some of the families that I had connected with who had left Texas, or some that were still here trying to figure out what they were going to do for their kids, and giving them basically a heads up like hey, you know, I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but some of this race is probably going to take an ugly turn and I just want to let you know that you know I'm very sorry and I apologize, because I said, you know, I know challenging her would put me, you know, in a in a position where I would be attacked as an individual. But what I really hated was that people who had already been, you know, just in so many ways um, had been so many in so many ways targeted, you know trying to make the best decisions for their kids, were ultimately going to be dragged into, you know, a very nasty race. And I mean we ended up making the front page of the Chronicle because there were signs popping up in the east side, the predominantly black side of our district, that said, you know, stop the castration of black boys, stop the sterilization of black girls. Vote no on Lauren Ashley Simmons. Vote against Lauren Ashley Simmons equating gender affirming care with, basically, genital mutilation. And it was disgusting, it was very, very hurtful to see someone who was supposed to represent all sides of our district and everybody really try to pit the black community against the LGBT community. One, because it's just a cheap shot in a very gross way to try to win a race, but two, to think so little of black people that were somehow, you know, this bigoted, regressive group that is going out of our way to cause harm to vulnerable people really bothered me. And it bothered me that she thought that that was a way to win the race, and so it motivated me even more to work hard, um, to not just win a race but to really repair some of this harm that had come out of our primary.
Speaker 3:And I think our runoff results really painted the picture of just how hard we worked on all sides of the district to really express that message. We didn't run away from it. We had those hard conversations, we talked to people and for the most part, people really understood and they said hey, I might not be an expert on this type of care, but I know that I don't want Greg Abbott making decisions about the way I raise my children or making decisions about what type of health care I can access. And ultimately, that was our winning message. We didn't run from it, we didn't shy from it, we confronted it head on and when we had those conversations, people got it. I'm an organizer, that's what I do. I have tough conversations all the time, and so I welcomed it. And as ugly as the race got. I really felt like there were a lot of beautiful moments on the campaign trail where people were making a choice, you know, to vote against somebody that had supported for a while, because they wanted to go in a different direction.
Speaker 6:I was looking at your website and there's a video of you confronting the HISD superintendent the state-installed one. Can you talk about that? That was a good video.
Speaker 3:I think about that moment all the time, because I was not even intending on going to the meeting One, because I felt like if I attend this meeting, I'm basically legitimizing the sham of a process. This is a hostile takeover. We've lost our democratic ability to elect school board members who hire the superintendent and we've lost our voice. And going to this meeting is just me confirming and affirming this person and I don't want to do it. And I was going to go to a different community meeting for our county and our county precinct. At the last minute I changed my mind and I said you know what? I'm just going to go observe. I know what I know about him because when I worked for the teachers union, he was a superintendent in Dallas ISD and it wasn't great. But I said you know what? Clean slate, let me just try to give this guy a chance because ultimately, our kids are at risk if he doesn't do a good job. And so whatever I can do to be proactive in this process, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3:I walked in there and sat in there for about 10 minutes and I listened to the community. I looked around the room and saw my community. You know where we were actually in District 146 at a middle school on the east side in Sunnyside, and I saw people who had gotten off of work in their work uniforms I had seen print. I saw a principal that I worked very closely with when I was a union representative who had been unceremoniously fired by email. He even attended a meeting after having another job in a different district because he still cared about his students. And so after looking at that and seeing these people give these really impassioned pleas about, you know, work with us, we want a partnership and then listening to him kind of just be extremely dismissive and, frankly, very cold, you know, to our community, I got up and I was like I have to say something. I have to say something. I don't have, you know, a well-written, thought-out response because people had, you know, written out beautiful responses. People had come with charts and graphs and, you know, really had put a lot of effort into trying to, you know, change the narrative that we don't care about our kids and that's why the kids can't read and do math, and really express to him that we were a community that cares about our kids. Our children need better resources. Let's work together.
Speaker 3:And so after I just felt like he was basically kind of dismissing everything, everything what people were saying in front of me. I got up and I said I don't really have anything, you know, to add to this conversation, other than I'm just going to give him a piece of my mind. And that's what happened. And someone recorded it and it started making the rounds on like teacher TikTok and then before we knew it, it was, you know, had blown up and had millions of views on on social media and I always kind of joke, I say, you know, had I known that was going to happen, I probably would have dressed a little bit better. But it was just in that moment I just wanted to stand up for not just my own children that I, you know, that are mine but the community and, you know, by extension, the district's kids.
Speaker 6:Was that before you decided to run, or was that after you had already decided?
Speaker 3:No, that was before I hadn running for office. Hadn't even crossed my mind at that point. One, because I was, you know, I really love the work that I do I wasn't thinking about running for office, Um. And then, two, I was actually, you know, working on my friend's campaign, Chris Hollins. So at that. So that was, you know, at a time where I just literally was just stretched to my capacity, um, kind of, you know, having quite a few irons in the fire, and it did play a role in my ultimate decision to run. But at that time I literally was just thinking about, like what the hell can we do to stave off what I feel like is going to be something that's going to destroy our district, and was just very focused on that at that time.
Speaker 6:Well, I like the point in the video where you say well, what happens when you leave? Who's going to pick up the pieces?
Speaker 3:Yep, yep. And as you're seeing, you know, and the thing is, what I've told people is I would have loved to have been wrong. I get no joy, I get no satisfaction from seeing how things have played out with the superintendent. But again, I had done my research, I knew who he was and also not even just him as an individual. I had seen these takeovers happen before. They happened in North Forest ISD. That happened in Marlin ISD where they had a. They had TEA come in and then after TEA left, they still weren't able to graduate. You know, seniors out of their class. I think they had like a large percentage of kids who weren't graduation ready. This is after a takeover. And so I've seen, you know in different, you know in different ways where these takeovers they come in, they up in districts and then people are having to literally put their districts back together after. You know TEA has pulled out, and so I very much want it to be wrong again, because it's our kids' futures at stake, but it's also the future of our city and the future of our state. These kids are going to grow up and be our doctors and a in part of the grand scheme of the governor's push towards vouchers.
Speaker 3:It was very much me being extremely frustrated but also extremely sad about what was to come and as we've seen it play out, it has gone.
Speaker 3:You know, quite literally, and it wasn't just me, it was many of us, because you hear people push back and say, well, where were y has gone. You know, quite literally, and it wasn't just me, it was many of us, because you hear people push back and say, well, where were y'all? You know, five years ago or four years ago, when the district was a disarray and I said I was here and a lot of us were here, but some of these problems were confined to, you know, lower income black and brown communities and it wasn't as much attention. You know pay. But now we're seeing across the district some of the things that we've always dealt with in our communities are, you know, leaving the confines of third ward and sunnyside and acres home, and now you know they're firing principals unceremoniously at schools and you know more affluent areas that have been successful. And so you know, just seeing just this, what feels like systemic dismantling of public education on a larger scale, happen right here in Houston is just extremely frustrating.
Speaker 6:It is part of a bigger plan or goal that they have and it's obvious, I mean coming from the president's appointment of secretary of education. I mean you can see it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you know I try not to get conspiratorial, but you have to think about who benefits the most from an undereducated populace. Politics to, you know, the prison industrial complex or however you want to slice it, when people don't have access to opportunity and people don't have, you know, found the foundational skills to be able to, you know, discern fact from fiction, not even just going into college, or you know, a trade to get a job, but literally how people are able to function and show up in society. You see, so much of you know that, even in our political landscape, you know they're talking, all there's so much talk right now about, you know, these people who voted for Trump saying that they hated Obamacare and not realizing that, you know, but they love the Affordable Care Act. Those are things you know, being able to understand and learn and interpret information. Those are things that you learn at a foundational, core level in school. And so, again, I always, kind of, you know, push back and pose the question who benefits the most from an undereducated population?
Speaker 6:The legislative session starts this year, 2025.
Speaker 3:So January we get sworn. In January 14th we're up there for 140 days trying to hopefully do good for our state and fix the state's problems. But you know there's always a little nonsense in an alleged session.
Speaker 6:I want to say congratulations, but I'm like I'm not sure that that's appropriate because I think it's going to be hellish and crazy up in Austin.
Speaker 3:You know what it is. It is, and in conversations that I've had with my team, I think I mentioned before you know what. How do we define success? What is what is a measure? What? How do we measure success? How do we do as much good as we can for our people in our community with the odds that are against us, with the odds that are against us? And so, really, for me, just trying to take into account where we left off in the 88th and what's going to be confronting us in the 89th, and really figuring out how do we arm our communities with as much knowledge as possible so that they can come and testify and speak on behalf of their communities, how can we stop some of this nonsense that we know is ultimately going to come up and be a big part of our session, which is going to be, you know, a lot of culture war nonsense that really, really doesn't do anything for our broader constituency as citizens in Texas, but it also is, you know, something that's going to continue to further alienate already marginalized groups and, in a lot of ways, put people in harm's way. And so, um, we're going to do everything we can, you know, to hold the line.
Speaker 3:Um house, district 146, our office is going to do everything we can to be a refuge and a safe space for when our community members have to come up there and, and you know and face some of that nonsense head on. But, um, as much as I know that it's going to be hard, I am glad that I, you know, raise my hand to do this, because you know I don't have a magic wand to fix all the state's problems. But what I can do is be a support and be a resource and be not a voice of my community, because I don't want to be the singular voice. I want to help give people the megaphone. I want to help put people on, pull people on the stage with me so that all of our voices are heard and that we have a seat at the table.
Speaker 6:Where can people find out more information about you and the work that you're doing?
Speaker 3:I would love for people to keep up with us on social media. So all of my social media handles and we're you know, we're going down with the ship on x. We're still on twitter because I was like you know what I? I'm a child of the internet, I'm a millennial. I've been in some pretty, I've seen crazy stuff before and I was like I just can't concede and give these you know, these crazy right-wing folks um, you know, full, just run up this. This is social media platform. So we're still there hanging on as long as we can, but and on Instagram as well, my website is LaurenAshleySimmonscom and then, as soon as we get our stateside communication set up, I'll circle back to you and make sure that you're able to share that with your listeners, because we want people to you know, communicate with us, interact with us directly.
Speaker 3:You know, this is not a job that you can do in silos. This is not a job that you can do when you're disconnected from the community, and so what I tell people is yes, I am the state representative for House District 146. But the votes that I take are, you know, and the things that I am working on are going to impact all Texans, and so I want to make sure that we're hearing from you know, the tapestry of our state, tapestry of our state. We're hearing from everybody and so that we can do the best job, to collaborate with our other colleagues on both you know, in both chambers, to do good work for the people of Texas, because that's what, that's what we deserve and that's what I want to be the representative that I felt like I always needed, and so that's what I'm working really hard to do.
Speaker 6:We're speaking with Lauren Ashley Simmons, the new state rep for District 146, here outside of Houston. Lauren, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3:Thank you, brian, for having me. I really appreciate you just giving the platform to people like me to better connect with our communities and really helping to. You know, we're in a big misinformation and disinformation war right now, and it's voices like yours who you know are helping us hold hold the line, and so I really appreciate all the work that you do.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much part of our queer voices community listens on KPFT, which is a nonprofit community radio station, and as such, kpft does not endorse or hold any standing on matters of politics. If you would like Airtime to represent an alternative point of view, please contact us through kpftorg or our own website at queervoicesorg. This is Queer Voices. This is KPFT. 90.1 FM Houston, 89.5 FM Galveston, 91.9 FM Huntsville, and worldwide on the internet at kpftorg.
Speaker 7:It is Brett Cullum, and today I am joined by Ben Chavez, who currently lives here in Houston. He recently was in a Tuts production of Newsies. He has been all over the place. He's done a tour with Aladdin. He's done New York on Broadway. He's done the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Mary Harry is a production that he's been a part of. He has appeared in tons of regional theaters and venues, like the Sacramento Music Circus. I mean, Ben is also a recording artist and a proud NYU Tisch graduate Huge honor. And I've caught Ben playing and singing at Michael's Outpost and he is just a delightful performer. So, Ben Chavez, welcome to Queer.
Speaker 8:Voices. It's so good to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 7:So, first up, you're in Frozen, which is what Theater Under the Stars is doing for the holidays this year. Very excited about it. What are you doing? How is it going?
Speaker 8:There's a lot going on, a lot of information. The music, of course, is spectacular and also very intricate, and I'm in the ensemble and also understudying Christoph, so I get to kind of work double duty here.
Speaker 7:As an understudy, do you have dates that you can go on? I mean, do you know? No, it just kind of ran.
Speaker 8:No guaranteed dates. We're just expected to sort of be out there ready at any moment should anything happen. Of course we hope nothing happens, but that's part of the. Gig is just being ready. That has to be in the outbiter, because you have to learn all of this. It is I mean, not the ensemble has quite a bit to do in this show, especially vocally. We have a lot of a lot of support that we give to the show and so my brain is kind of cut in half. In our rehearsals I'm doing my ensemble duties and whenever christoph is walking on I have like my little notepad on the side making sure I have all of his stuff right that's crazy.
Speaker 7:It's like's like doing double TV. I can't imagine. But that's great. And this is kind of Dan's vision, dan Connectus of this show right.
Speaker 8:Yeah. So this is kind of interesting. Tuts has special access to use this show and Dan has done a lot of work and a lot of research trying to make this our original Tuts take on this, and so he has tapped into some of his own Swedish heritage and done lots of research on art and folklore and all that kind of stuff and has brought in some really great photos and inspiration for us to look at that's based on some of his own family heritage. So I think that this production will have a lot of, of course, the familiar songs that people are used to, but we'll kind of have a new visual take that I'm really excited to see myself and I think audiences will really be dazzled by it.
Speaker 7:I am not as familiar with Frozen as I am with some of the other Disney properties. Is there a basic fairy tale that this was based on? Are you guys taking it back to like the roots of Frozen?
Speaker 8:That's a great question. I'm not even certain what the movie it's, what the original movie is based off of. This isn't a fairy tale that I'd ever heard before, but it's. It's really kind of no pun intended, it's kind of chilling. You know elsa, the older sister. You know she can't she can't come into physical contact with anyone for fear of freezing them over and she ends up freezing over the whole kingdom and isolates herself and she's just kind of having this inner struggle of I want to be a part of society but I can't hurt those that I love, especially her sister, anna. So I don't know what this story actually comes from, but it's an awesome story, it's definitely a favorite from the modern era.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and certainly a lot of people are excited about a lot of families. This is a great family show obviously.
Speaker 8:For sure it's great for families. It's also a great date night show too.
Speaker 7:So tell me a little bit about you, Ben. How did you get into music and theater?
Speaker 8:This journey for me goes back to when I was three years old. My first connection with performing and the arts was through the piano. My parents noticed that I had an affinity, a connection towards music. They noticed that I had a musical ear because I would listen to songs. We listened to a lot of Sinatra, a ton of Billy Joel and some Latin music as well, and I was able to retain those melodies in my brain and just figure them out on my own on the piano. My parents signed me up for lessons From you know, being an instrumentalist, I fell in love with singing and then acting and then dancing and I just kind of spent my after school hours doing all of the training and all of the things.
Speaker 8:I have never played a sport in my entire life. I'm thankful that my parents noticed that I was not good at sports, so I was never on any kind of team, but I was always doing all of the performing elements and I studied at NYU. I did musical theater at their new studio on Broadway, which was an amazing program. I was part of the second graduating class. Once I graduated college in 2015, I kind of just started working in regional theaters.
Speaker 8:As you mentioned, I did Mary Harry, which was at the York Theater. That was a fun little new piece that took me through to touring with Aladdin for two years one year before the pandemic, one year post-pandemic and after I got off the road I decided I really wanted to just, you know, kind of plant some roots and work a little more locally. So I've had the pleasure of doing. This is my now second show at Tuts and, as you mentioned, I play at Michael's Outpost, which is an awesome queer friendly. It's really a queer haven for so many people in Houston and they have awesome drag performances, awesome variety shows and, of course, piano bar, which I get to do every other Friday.
Speaker 7:Well, it's amazing to me that they have really embraced kind of this sense of Broadway, Like they have a show that's just the broads way and it's like these musical theater people that are so incredibly talented. That just makes me like what they they're playing at a local bar.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I totally feel you there. You know, houston is, in my opinion, such an underrated city when it comes to the arts. You know, people think you have to be in New York to be an artist or you have to go to LA to be a film person, or, you know, Chicago of course has a really booming theater district. But Houston is one of those cities that you don't think to move to. And I am not from Houston. I grew up in Jersey. You know, I was a New York City guy. When I was on tour with Aladdin I went to Montrose when we played at the Hobby Center and that's actually how I ended up here, because I met my partner in Montrose and we just kind of hit it off and after tour I decided to move to Houston. But you know, speaking of the Broadway show, we have such amazing performers in this town. Tuts is such a prime example of the kind of art power that we have in this city. It's just, it's amazing.
Speaker 7:How did you hook up with Tuts? Did you audition? Did they ask you I mean, give me a little bit about how you initiated this relationship?
Speaker 8:Yeah, since I got off the road I have been really wanting to build as many connections with local theaters as possible. So Newsies was I had auditioned for a couple other projects that I think you know, it was just not on the cards for me at the time, but Newsies was kind of an ambitious an ambitious audition for me because while I have spent a good deal of my life dancing, I never really considered it my my forte. So you know, newsies really made me get my butt in shape and I had to kind of regain some flexibility and some muscle strength. And so I'm very grateful that the director, ryan Scarlatta, and the choreographer in particular, william Carlos Angulo, saw something in me and they cast me in that show. And since then I've kind of had a newly reignited appreciation and love for dance. I'm really grateful to that show. And since then, of course, I auditioned for Frozen. And here I am and I'm just hoping to continue to perform in this amazing space.
Speaker 7:Well, ben Chavez, I am very impressed with you because I've heard you play piano, I've heard you sing Obviously Newsies, we got to see you dance. It's kind of like what can't you do? You're now a triple threat, officially.
Speaker 8:I like wearing different hats. I'm somebody who kind of gets bored doing the same thing for too long, so I really love to kind of dabble in a little singing, a little dancing, a little piano, some piano bar music, directing music directing songwriting. I like to keep myself occupied doing everything.
Speaker 7:Do you find that Houston keeps you busy? Do you find that there's enough for you to do?
Speaker 8:100%. Look, I love New York, of course, but I have never been so creatively active and employed than when I moved to Houston. Houston keeps me so busy. There's so much work available for entertainers of all sorts. Of course, there's theater. I mean, we have Tuts and we have a number of other professional theaters. People down here love supporting the arts financially too. I have been able to connect with a lot of private entertainment opportunities some, you know, some galas and some fundraising events. I'm often asked to do entertainment for that. It's definitely a smaller pool down here, which is great for us because we have the opportunity to do a whole lot of performing.
Speaker 7:Well, I think it's counterintuitive. I think a lot of people don't think of this Houston, and what all we have is a great outlet for that. So I am so thankful to hear that from you, because I really expected almost a different answer.
Speaker 8:No, I mean there's so much going on and, as I mentioned, our donors and supporters in town, I mean they're just really, really generous in their support for the arts and so they, because of because of all those folks generous support, I mean we have just so many avenues to go down to keep ourselves active and employed.
Speaker 7:What's your favorite thing to do? Like if you had to pick a genre or a medium. Like where would you go?
Speaker 8:I want, I really would love to go the. I'm a huge Elton John fan as well, spending so many years in the arts. I really love songwriting and I think that's that's. It's hard to say, because I do love theater so much too, but I love that. Elton John has, of course, released so many albums, but he's written for film, tv and for theater as well, and so I kind of would love to marry all of my passions and and create songs for the pop world, you know, but also create new pop inspired theater. So maybe down the road, you know, I'll get to do an original work at a place like Tuts. That would be a dream.
Speaker 7:You mentioned kind of some of your musical influences when you were growing up. Kind of walk me through, like who are your idols? Like obviously you mentioned Frank Sinatra and a couple of other people, but kind of zero in for me a little bit. Who are you listening to? If I went into Ben Chavez's playlists, what would I find?
Speaker 8:Well, I'm an old soul, I'm going to say that up front. And I'm an old soul I'm going to say that up front and I'm a millennial, so a lot of my music taste kind of stops in like 2001. Growing up, like I said, we listened to a lot of oldies. It was a lot of Sinatra, dean Martin, sammy Davis, jr. But I would say that my number one idol is Billy Joel. He was my music teacher. I'll say that is Billy Joel. He was my music teacher. I'll say that Because I was able to play music by ear as a kid.
Speaker 8:I learned his greatest hits, volume one and two. That was like the greatest gift that my parents gave me was that two CD set of his greatest hits, one and two. I listened to those tracks on repeat and extracted the chords from those from those recordings. Those you know I don't know 20 or so songs are what taught me everything I know on the piano. I've seen him now 12 times in concert. I would I'm like dying to meet him just to kind of thank him for for his music and his storytelling through music, because if it were not for that music and that two-disc set, I don't know that I would be so heavily involved in the arts these days, he just is an icon for me. So I would have to say number one, billy Joel, and then other piano greats like Elton John, stevie Wonder, carole King, and there's a guy now who's releasing some incredible pop, r&b, soul music. His name is PJ Morton, he's the keyboard player for Maroon 5, and he also has his own amazing solo career. So he's like the contemporary artist that is inspiring me.
Speaker 7:I noticed in your bio we mentioned that you're a recording artist. Is there anywhere where we can find like your music? Yes, when am I going to go? Hunt for that.
Speaker 8:Yes, this is good. I'm like, so happy to plug my own music anywhere I can, so all of my music. Now I have six, seven singles out that are on Spotify and Apple Music, also Amazon Music, anywhere that you listen to music. And if you have an Alexa or some kind of smart device at home, you can just tell her to play music by Ben Chavez and they'll do it. But I will say I just this past week released a new holiday single, which is called In my Arms this Christmas. Surprisingly, this song has had in its first week more streams than any of my other non-holiday singles, and so I think that holiday music may be my new niche. So, yeah, that song is fun.
Speaker 8:I collaborated on that song with a college friend of mine named Melanie Herrera. And then next week I have another holiday song coming out just in time for Thanksgiving, and that one is called Finally Home for Christmas. It's totally R&B, soul inspired. There's a horn section. That one's a really fun one. So please, please, please stream the songs. And the best thing you can do for an indie artist is to add songs to your own personal playlists, because you know Spotify really loves that and it kind of ensures that whenever you put on, you know, my favorites playlist, that that new artist songs will get some extra streams just because you're playing a playlist that you always play. So I encourage people to add my songs to their playlist if they enjoy them.
Speaker 7:We are in queer voices, so I wanted to ask you about your partner, husband, husband yeah. Yeah, how long has that situation been?
Speaker 8:happening. Well, the marriage is pretty fresh. It's been about eight months now and I feel like I've known him forever. So I mentioned before I was on tour with Aladdin and in 2019, we played the Hobby Center for three weeks and it was actually my first time ever visiting Houston. And in our three week engagement here, the second night I was with a castmate and he said you know, I've heard that Houston has a really great you know queer district. He said you know, I've heard that Houston has a really great queer district.
Speaker 8:So we went to Montrose and kind of bopped around to all the hot spots and the last place that we went to we were hanging out on the patio. My now husband was there with one of his workmates. He's a huge Disney fan and he overheard us talking about Aladdin and Disney and that's kind of what sparked our conversation. We just hit it off right away. We exchanged contact info, I got him tickets to see our show. He's from Mississippi, so he hadn't never actually seen a musical before Because they you know where he grew up. It was super rural and they just theater was not a thing In his late 20s. I got him tickets to his first musical, which I was in he was.
Speaker 8:He then became hooked on musicals and, as I continued to tour, we would, you know, we stayed long distance and he would visit me on the road or I would come back to Houston and visit him. We did that all the way up until the pandemic closed our show down and, miraculously, the show had returned to Texas. We were playing in Austin at the time and he was like why don't you just come, you know, ride it out with me for a couple weeks, which we all thought it was going to be, of course. And then, you know, five years later, I'm still here in Houston, we are married and this city, which I had never visited prior to 2019, has now become my home. So it's crazy how, how the universe works and how, when you find your person, it doesn't matter where you're from or you know what you're doing in life. When it's right, it's right.
Speaker 7:We are very lucky to have you, so we're going to thank him over and over again.
Speaker 8:Thank you, walker, thank you, yeah, yes, yes, thank you, walker. He's a bomb too.
Speaker 7:Ben Chavez in Frozen. It's the Tuts production for the holidays. What are the dates that it's running? Again, I'm trying to remember. Yes, we opened December 10th.
Speaker 8:Yeah, opened December 10th and we closed December 29th, so actually we're off Christmas Day, but we have a performance on Christmas Eve, which I think is super fun Christmas Eve afternoon, you know, if you've got families coming in town, it's a great way to just get out of the house and do something fun right before the Christmas holiday.
Speaker 7:Well, it's a very cool show to do for a holiday. Disney and that magical thing going on. It's a great whole family thing and we're going to be thrilled to see you on there and up there.
Speaker 8:And also to give a little shout out to Tuts. Tuts actually has two holiday productions going on. We have Frozen on the Zilka main stage, and then there's also a musical called Ugly X-Mid Sweater, which was written by Dan, our artistic director, and that's playing in the smaller space that we have here. So it's, it's a great idea to kind of do a double, a double header, and get tickets for both of our shows. We've got we've got lots of holiday spirit here you know what?
Speaker 7:I didn't even think about that We've got a double dose of Dan this year for the holidays.
Speaker 8:Yes, we do. He's directing one and he wrote another one.
Speaker 7:All these talented people. I feel like so unaccomplished when I talk to you folks.
Speaker 8:I can't do what you do. I can't interview people. I would be like okay, moving on. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:That was Brett Cullum in conversation with Ben Chavez, who is in Houston Theater Under the Stars production of Frozen, which opens December 10th. For more information and to buy tickets, search on Tuts Frozen. This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston and as a podcast available from several podcasting sources. Check our webpage queererVoicesorg. For more information. Queer Voices executive producer is Brian Levinka, deborah Moncrief-Bell is co-producer, brett Cullum and David Mendoza-Druzman are contributors and Brett is also our webmaster. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles.
Speaker 9:Some of the material in this program has been edited to improve clarity and runtime. This program does not endorse any political views or animal species. Views, opinions and endorsements are those of the participants and the organizations they represent. In case of death, please discontinue use and discard remaining product.
Speaker 1:For Queer Voices no-transcript.
