SPEAKER_01: Hello! From WonderMedia Network, this is Womanica. I'm Carmen Borca-Curillo, a junior producer and curator of this month's Womanica. This bonus episode is brought to you by Mercedes Benz. June is Pride Month, and to celebrate, we've been highlighting queer stars of stage and screen. Today, we're talking about someone who embodies that theme to its fullest. She brings her identity to the forefront of her work, whether she's on or off the stage. She's an educator, an activist, and a comic. Meet Kia Barnes.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people might know me as Kia Comedy, but I do so much more than that. My name is Kia Barnes, and my pronouns are she, her.
SPEAKER_01: Kia was born in a small town in Alabama, the 11th of 12 siblings. She grew up going to church, singing in choir, and polishing her comedy chops from an early age.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of comedy, a lot of roasting each other, very, very competitive. Everyone's an overachiever. That's really where the comedy came from. My siblings and I, my father, my mother, my grandmother, everyone has a great sense of humor.
SPEAKER_01: Her hometown's community was conservative, nearly segregated.
SPEAKER_00: Growing up as a little black girl in Alabama, I did not see myself represented as a person of color, especially as a queer person. Everything was white. That's what we learned about, period. Their history, their literature, their religion. I grew up in a place where the school right beside mine still had a black homecoming queen and a white homecoming queen the year that I graduated.
SPEAKER_01: Kia knew she was gay early on. After graduating high school, Kia went to Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: Which to me at that time was the big city.
SPEAKER_01: She was a campus fixture, Senator for the School of Education, charter member of the school's NAACP chapter, part of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
SPEAKER_00: What ended up happening is these organizations that I worked so hard for, once they found out that I was gay, it became an issue. At the time I was very much so closeted, but obviously not doing the best job of hiding it.
SPEAKER_01: That summer, Kia left Montgomery for Orlando, Florida to be part of the Disney College program. She'd spent her whole life in Alabama, and the program brought together kids from all over the world. She learned what diversity could really feel like.
SPEAKER_00: Different cultures and religions and regions and diets. All of the things that I heard about these people weren't true. And I realized that they can love me better than folks that I've grown up with and folks that I've worked with. Diversity is everyone being represented. And it's so important because when you don't see yourself in the literature, when you don't see yourself in the commercials, you just think that you're supposed to be working towards this thing that you can never achieve or even that you don't matter. You're like a side dish and you can never be the entree.
SPEAKER_01: After Orlando, Kia knew that she didn't want her world to get any smaller, but Alabama couldn't offer her the kinds of opportunities she wanted. So she followed her curiosity and a new relationship to Atlanta, Georgia. She set up shop as a teacher in an all boys charter school. Kia was a great teacher, and she was an incredible comic.
SPEAKER_00: And it was definitely a whole new world. And so I would roast my students. I was roasting them. They were roasting me. It was good times. One teacher heard me roasting the kids and he said, you should consider a career stand up. My other coworkers came into the classroom and after school, which it is very difficult to get teachers to do anything after school for free. They came and they watched me rehearse my set of jokes. So the first comedy show I did was called, Laugh Your Class Off. And I really just describe it as love at first laugh.
SPEAKER_01: Kia had adoring crowds in the classroom and in the comedy club. But there was an important distinction between those two parts of her life. Kia the comic was an out lesbian. Kia the teacher was not. At the time, Georgia was a right to work state and gay marriage hadn't been legalized. Kia risked getting fired if the wrong people at school found out about her sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: I constantly lived in terror of being outed or like somebody coming across my material and then really going through the handbooks, not just for the school, but the counties and seeing that there was no protection for me and that this was the reality of my situation. I can remember like literally nights crying in the shower because I thought I was going to lose my job. And this was what I had dedicated a decade of my life to.
SPEAKER_01: And then it happened. Kia was outed at her school. Everyone made her sexuality public without her consent.
SPEAKER_00: I had just gotten married and I asked my insurance company if I could add my partner to my plan. And they said that they did not cover anything like that, but they would ask the school. I asked them not to ask the school. They did anyway. So I was outed at my place of work and I went from stellar observations and being a department lead to getting written up for things and getting bad observations. I really kind of was almost pushed out of the classroom and entertainment and Atlanta's LGBTQ community really wrapped their arms around me.
SPEAKER_01: By this point, Kia's comedy career had taken off. She decided to dedicate herself to it full time. On stage, Kia didn't need to hide her sexuality. It was her routine.
SPEAKER_00: I really realized that I had to tell my story and present exactly how and who I really am. Probably after my first few months of doing stand up comedy, I decided to, you know, get good and gay. My career as a comedian actually grew pretty quickly because I'm an English language arts teacher and I know how to write. I put myself out there as a black lesbian comedian.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't all smooth sailing. The mainstream stand up circuit wasn't an all boys charter school, but it wasn't exactly welcoming to Kia. Comedians would comment on Kia's routine and her sexuality in their own sets.
SPEAKER_00: Comedians who followed me would just tell dirty jokes about what I really needed was a man and all these nasty things. And instead of going through whatever material they should have written, they would just make it all about me. Everybody thought they had the answers for what I should be doing, who I should be and how I should be presenting, because I'm always going to go with my gut feeling. What feels gratifying to me and why on earth would I stand up here and tell your story? Why would I be a free black woman in America and be up here lying when I have the microphone and you don't? I realized, you know, I'm probably not the only one experiencing this. So I started hosting my own comedy shows and I would only book mainly queer comedians and it would be the same thing them saying like, oh, I had the same experiences. Oh, it was terrible. Like, they made me feel like I didn't have a chance. They made me feel like I wasn't funny. Kia became an organizer for queer spaces, not just one-off shows, but after parties,
SPEAKER_01: weekly gigs, music showcases.
SPEAKER_00: And then I started producing the Andro fashion show because I wanted to see myself represented. I wanted to see masculine, like androgynous lesbian fashion. Although I do know that people are like supporting me and my work, people are breathing and living and comfortable and relaxed. It truly is a safe space where you don't have to worry about somebody getting offended because you hold hands with your partner or you don't have to wonder, well, is this next comedian going to make his entire 15 minutes about having sex with me and my wife?
SPEAKER_01: Kia also invited elected officials to those shows, bringing folks with political power into the spaces where they could meet the communities who needed their representation the most. One of those people was Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. In a full circle moment, she appointed Kia to the LGBTQ task force for Atlanta schools.
SPEAKER_00: I ended up getting to go back and sit at the table with the decision and policymakers and rewrite those same sentences that I read, kept me boxed in and I lived in fear about. So it did feel amazing to literally be able to sit there and say, we could just change this one word and add this word right here. And knowing that I got to make that difference and be that change that I so badly wanted and needed to see in my career as an educator or during my time as a queer kid who I didn't even know where to turn.
SPEAKER_01: I represent one time all the queer people of color in the building.
SPEAKER_01: In 2017, Kia helped create the Atlanta Equality March, a protest for LGBTQ plus rights. I love you all, I respect you all, I am you all and let's remember that it's a celebration
SPEAKER_01: of the work the community has done and it's also a memoriam for those the community has lost. A year before in 2016, a homophobic attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando killed 49 people and wounded 53 more.
SPEAKER_00: Pulse Orlando was where we used to party. I remember the hallways, I remember the bathrooms, the DJ booth, the patio area and seeing that whole situation play out on the news. It just literally hit very close to home.
SPEAKER_01: To this day, Pulse remains the single deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQ plus people in the US. When the one year anniversary rolled around, Kia couldn't believe it. There had hardly been any coverage memorializing the loss.
SPEAKER_00: And so my first event, I did a candlelit vigil at MSR Lesbian Bar, the only lesbian bar in the Southeast actually. From that, businesses and sponsors reached out to MSR to make it bigger and better and that's how we ended up organizing Equality March. And it was a huge turnout, thousands of people, elected officials. I also think that's like a great example of how one voice can make such a huge difference because we did raise money and we did donate it to that Pulse Orlando fund.
SPEAKER_01: Kia's work, like her beginnings organizing career-led events, is all about safety. Literally the safety of being able to come out and exist without fear and also knowing that you're going to a safe space. A venue full of people who respect and maybe even share your identity.
SPEAKER_00: I have to say that of all the blessings that have come from my career as an entertainer, the most gratifying part is seeing the smiles on the LGBTQ community's face when they come into my events and shows and productions. Because I am very intentional about making it about them and about us and about everyone. I'm out there thanking people for coming out and like complimenting the unique outfits and just trying to make everybody feel loved and important and accepted and special because I know that I so badly needed that. And my students who I couldn't save when we were in the classroom, they needed that. A safe space to me is where any and everyone can be accepted and appreciated for being uniquely themselves. And that is exactly what I try to do with all of my events. You'll never see my events with a high ticket price. I also always try to make sure I use LGBTQ owned businesses and I book LGBTQ talent. I don't care if it's pride and I have a huge budget. Why on earth would I pour money made off of our community into somebody else who just comes in for the big check and they haven't put in the work week after week to entertain and help build up this clientele. I just try to keep it good and gay.
SPEAKER_01: As Kia's initiatives grew in scope, so did the support she received for that work and the strength of the allies who backed her. One of those supporters was Mercedes Benz.
SPEAKER_00: And when you see mainstream corporations like Mercedes Benz throwing their weight and support behind us, it's undeniable that we are now a part of the story. We're not on the outskirts, we're not taboo. Mercedes makes me feel like they actually care. Not just to get the biggest names, but they do like the work of digging into the community and finding the real movers and shakers and giving us a platform and opportunity to share our stories and pull in the support of the community and continue to create even more queer safe spaces. My mother's always driven a Mercedes. I have a Mercedes too. And it's just the best. Nothing compares to a Mercedes. And that's a fact.
SPEAKER_01: Today, Kia is a member of the District Attorney's LGBTQ Advisory Board. There, she helps guide legislative changes to aid the LGBTQ plus community from allocating district resources to mental health aid to community safety. Kia's dedication comes from working as an educator, an activist and an entertainer. It's a testament to the spirit of pride, a party and a protest.
SPEAKER_00: The first Pride was a protest. There's nothing wrong with partying for Pride. I absolutely want to party for Pride because I think we have a lot to celebrate. But also remember, if you only show up for the parties and you're not showing up at the ballot, or if you're not donating to our causes and supporting the elected officials who are still fighting for gay rights today, you're really missing out on the main point of Pride because marriage is still not guaranteed. Now is a time where many states are rolling out rules where you really you literally cannot even mention gay in the classroom at all. So really, the purpose of Pride is still a protest. The glitter is a protest. All of it is saying like, we're still fighting for our freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout her career, Kia has fought for the right to be authentically herself. And that's the reason we're celebrating her story today. This Pride Month, Kia ended up on the third biggest billboard in Times Square.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could go back to every single one of my students who I could not stand up for. I wish I could touch every one of them on the shoulder and let them know like this billboard in Times Square, although it has my face on it, it feels so much more so a tribute to freedom and happiness and believing in yourself. That billboard looks like every single one of my students, every single one of my co-workers that was held back or teased. It's not just me on that board. The church, all of that, everybody that has something to say like, boom, maybe you were wrong because that's not a gay billboard. That's mainstream. That's everybody. And just like Mercedes Benz co-signing with the queer community, times are changing. Times are changing. We're not the bad guys. We're not the monsters. People aren't afraid of us. We are just as much a part of the community as everybody else. That's about it. Just happy, girl. I'm just happy. It's such a beautiful time for me. I'm about to go see myself in Times Square with my fiancé during the Juneteenth weekend. All kinds of freedom in this space.
SPEAKER_01: All month, we're talking about Pride On Stage. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Jenny and Liz Kaplan for inviting me to guest host. Talk to you on Monday.
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