November 2nd 2022 Queer Voices

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Montrose Grace Place -- Tokyo Night Festival Sumo Matches -- Fitness guru/novelist Shana Ross

We speak with Courtney Sellers, executive director of Montrose Grace Place. A native Houstonian, Courtney started as a Direct Mentor and Treasurer with Montrose Grace Place in 2015. In 2017 she took over as MGP Executive Director, helping to add a second night of services, increase resources, and make Montrose Grace Place more accessible for more LGBTQ+ youth. Courtney is passionate about amplifying the voices of youth experiencing homelessness and the specific intersectional needs of MGP youth who are victims of both racism, sexism, and homophobia & transphobia. Courtney loves to spend time with her daughter and their dog, exploring Houston’s many thrift shops, and making a lot of noise about public transportation in Houston.

Guest: Courtney Sellers
https://www.montrosegraceplace.org

We speak with organizers of the Sumo match at the Tokyo Night Festival event. Tokyo Night Festival was started when Chef Naoki, owner of Shun Japanese Kitchen, decided to bring together amazing chefs that have been inspired by Japan to create Japanese street food with their own flair. Tokyo Night Festival aims become the largest attractions in Texas through bridging Japanese communities and those that love Japanese culture, by bringing a piece of Japan to Houston.

Guest: Tam Lo
https://www.tokyonightfest.com

Then, we speak with the incomparable Shana Ross for part two of her interview, fitness guru and author of the novel, Tribeless. For many adoptees, feeling out of place with no sense of true belonging is all too common. From the time she was a small child, Shana Ross struggled with these emotions. She felt mismatched from her family and her environment – like an outsider waiting to be let in.

And then the truth came: her parents told her she was adopted. From that moment forward, Shana felt that her inner nature overruled nurture at every turn. She felt isolated and alone.

Tribeless is Shana’s account of her tumultuous upbringing by parents who never understood the biracial child they adopted from an agency in 1950s Texas. She shares the pivotal events that finally pushed her to challenge the Texas court system in 1994 to unseal her closed birth records and begin a two-year search for her birth mother that ended in heartbreaking failure. Her quest gained new hope with the advent of online DNA testing that led to the discovery of her accepting tribe twenty-two years after her search first began.

Tribeless: Discovering the Truth about Nature vs. Nurture as One Woman Finds Her Birth Mother is a guiding memoir for adoptees who have craved a family that truly understood them – for those who have been waiting for their true tribe.

Guest: Shana Ross
https://www.amazon.com/Tribeless-Discovering-Nature-Nurture-Birthmother-ebook/dp/B0BFK5VDTF

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:

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