In this premiere episode of “Bellies Out!” Joe Baez interviews Mx. André Terrel Jackson. André talks about their childhood, their current relationship with their body, what it’s like dating in the bear scene, and their visions for fat politics.

You can find Joe on Instagram as @thejoebaez. You can connect with André on Twitter, Hive Social, TikTok and Instagram at @TrickiVisaj. You can also connect with André on their personal Instagram which is @andreterreljackson. You can find all of André’s work on their website AndreTerrelJackson.com.

In this second episode of “Bellies Out!” Joe Baez interviews Dr. Caleb Luna. Caleb talks about their childhood, their disability, their health and movement practices, chub/chaser dynamics, and the state of fat politics today. You can find Joe on Instagram at @thejoebaez. You can follow Caleb on Instagram and Twitter at @dr_chairbreaker. You can also get in touch with them at their website, Caleb-luna.com.

This audio will take you through the life of a one Black, nonbinary, queer, disabled person. You will be exposed to the mundane everyday tasks associated with a bodymind that is mine. Have you ever woken up and forgot to put on your ears?! I hope that you gain a little perspective outside of the idea that Blackness begins at struggle, that disability is always sad, and queerness is unwanted. Each of these facets of my identity is infused in all of the others. Come with me into a world of the ordinary joys.

What is disability justice and how is it connected to everyday lived experiences? This piece was conceptualized through a disabled lens. Listeners are taken through each of my diagnoses as a way to exercise vulnerability, knowledge sharing, and connectivity. Disability justice is a political and social stance that intricately weaves together social identities and liberation with disability at the core. This work is important because all too often disabled people are pushed out of the spotlight and discouraged from acknowledging who we are. There was an intentional choice here to highlight the “unruly” body and mind that I have because it makes some people uncomfortable. I want folks to lean into the discomfort they might feel when discussing (or not discussing) disability.

Queer and trans* Texans have faced scrutiny and precariousness for decades. But in 2022, a series of sweeping legal decisions, increasing economic inequality, and state-level political attacks very publicly threaten the safety and stability of many in Texas’s queer communities. This audio short explores how artists and activists across the state are making and using stages at pride celebrations to draw attention to the histories of and possible futures for queer and trans* people in Texas and beyond.

Archival audio of Sylvia Rivera speaking at the Gay Pride Rally June 24, 1973 at Washington Square Park, NYC courtesy of the LoveTapesCollective, with special thanks to the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

By using the death of Sarah Hegazi, a queer Egyptian woman who died in exile after being imprisoned and tortured in 2017, this audio brings into question the place that queer women occupy within the heteronormative carceral state and the tension that arises when these same nation states claim to support women. Furthermore, it interrogates the limit of state feminism in Egypt and questions how gender is mobilized to further carceral logics and institutions.

In this audio short, Joe Baez gives an intimate portrayal of living in a fat body.

In “Puerto Rico Obituary,” poet and activist Pedro Pietri calls upon colonized folks to “kill, kill, kill the landlord of their cracked skull” by celebrating their identities, using “…their white supremacy bibles for toilet paper…”

Meditation is a practice that can teach us how to “see what is” beyond the messages we receive and, in that way, can be a pathway to internal decolonization and liberation. A radically accessible care praxis, mindfulness pushes us to question if we are unruly, unworthy, or if that is a message we have been sent by capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacy.

In this audio short, Caitlin invites us to fake it ‘til we make it, breathe into bell hooks’ teacher-healer ideal, and to kill, kill, kill the landlord that tells us we are less worthy of peace and joy; that ease is not our birthright.

Or, as Caitlin so charmingly says, call bullshit and step away.

If it sounds fun or supportive, start or deepen your meditation practice for free with Caitlin on Insight Timer.

Special thanks to Caitlin’s big brother Jon Wubbena (jonthefunkymonk.com) for creating the intro song and sound support.

Thanks, also, to the Smithsonian. "Puerto Rico Obituary" by Pedro Pietri from the recording entitled Loose Joints: Poetry by Pedro Pietri, FW09722, courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. (p) 1979. Used by permission.

This audio examines how cases of femicide in Egypt are mobilized to further empower carceral logics and institutions. By examining recent femicide cases in Egypt and the states unequal response to them, this audio highlights how the Egyptian carceral state uses the murder of women to mark certain masculine subjectivities as predatory and to further enforce a paternalistic relationship where the security state always emerges as the (masculine) savior of the murdered victim.