A new production company made up entirely of LGBTQ people of color is premiering a pop-culture, social-justice talk show on YouTube next month.
OUTPour is set to debut Aug. 21 on the show’s eponymous YouTube channel. OUTPour’s producer, Antar Bush, calls the show “edutainment” (education and entertainment) that will feature a cast of LGBTQ hosts of color as they discuss relationships, pop culture, parenting, fitness, personal finances and social-justice issues. The show’s target audience is millennials, ages 18-30.
The show features a roundtable discussion by a panel of five Philadelphia-based hosts with varying professions, including a sex therapist, a family-court advocate, a social worker and a public-health researcher. Topics will include online dating, faith and spirituality in the black LGBTQ community, ballroom culture and code switching, to name a few. Along with the roundtable chat, the show will also include person-on-the-street interviews.
Robert Graves, the show’s writer, director and special correspondent, said the program is catered specifically towards LGBT millennials of color.
He added he wanted to create a show for millenials with more than pop-culture gossip.
“Our goal is to provide a different narrative than what some people might expect,” said Graves.
Eran Emani, one OUTPour’s hosts, said that the show combines the perfect blend of pop culture and social justice. She plans to discuss transgender rights and her decision to wait until she completed graduate school to transition.
“This show gives us a platform to discuss issues that other people may not be talking enough about. We have an episode talking about Stacey Blahnik’s death and that sparked discussions about my own transition,” she said.
OUTPour is the first offering from TARBoy Productions, a Philadelphia-based production company that creates original programming by LGBTQ people of color. The name TARBoy comes from the “tar baby” nickname that Antar Bush, who started the production company, was called when he was a child. The nickname was a take on Antar’s name and Toni Morrison’s novel “Tar Baby.”
Bush said he is launching the production company to design content exclusively for and by LGBTQ people of color.
“When people think of LGBT people of color, they lump us all together. We’re not all the same,” he said. “This show is a direct response to those who think that way. I wanted to show the different levels of diversity within the community while at the same time educating folks on the different subsets of LGBTQ communities.”
Bush is an HIV-navigation program coordinator for the city’s Department of Public Health. Prior to that, he worked for the health department as a health education coordinator.
Bush worked for more than a decade advocating for LGBTQ-POC representation. In April, he was the organizer of the first-ever Black Pride Parade at Philly Black Pride, an annual celebration for LGBTQ people of color and their allies. PBP was created in 1999 by the COLOURS Organization, the only LBGTQ health-service organization in Philadelphia primarily serviced by and for people of color.