Project Team
Milan Terlunen is a researcher, teacher and podcast-maker. Although not raised religious, he grew up immersed in Christian culture, music and theology through attending a Methodist school for 7 years. Because of this, there are specific hymns that can still reduce him to tears. As an undergraduate he was a welfare officer for his university’s LGBTQ Society and facilitator of a Queer Studies discussion group. He graduated from Columbia University in 2022 with a PhD in English and Comparative Literature. Together with Olivia Branscum, he hosted and produced the podcast How To Read for many years. In his free time he bakes, watches movies and plays in a long-running queer D&D game in Brooklyn, NY.
Colby King is a researcher, digital marketer, and social justice advocate from Texas based in New York. He is a graduate of Columbia University with B.A. in African American Studies and Psychology. His work emphasizes and often focuses on the intersections of race, sexuality, religion, and the criminal justice system. He is a former Research Assistant for the Development Cognitive Neuroscience Lab as well as the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice at Columbia. He has worked on projects for the ACLU, Vera Institute for Justice, Planned Parenthood, and New York County Defender Services. His experience as the queer child of a Black woman minister in Texas and a member of the Ballroom community have helped shape this project. In addition to his role on the project team, he also appears as a speaker in the third episode.
Olivia Branscum is a philosopher and podcast producer with a background in sound art. She grew up attending an Episcopal church. She graduated from Columbia University in 2022 with a PhD in Philosophy, and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma. She has an ongoing painting and ceramic sculpture practice, and loves yoga, walking, and music (mainly post-punk/coldwave/minimal wave, classical, ambient, and experimental genres).
Aya Labanieh is a Syrian-American writer, translator, and academic. She is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University’s English and Comparative Literature Department, working on postcolonial literature, conspiracy theories, and heterodox memory cultures. She is invested—on a personal and academic level—in unearthing forgotten stories that do not accord with our modern expectations. For example, in 2021 she published an Aeon article on forms of indigenous queerness in the Middle East, and the colonial origins of the region’s homophobia. Moreover, she is deeply committed to public humanities and democratizing knowledge: she has led multiple projects to bridge the gaps between academia, literature, and local communities, and in 2023 served as Research Associate of Community Engagement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Evan Li graduated from Columbia University in 2024 with a degree in Computer Science. He is from Boston, Massachusetts, and works as a software engineer in NYC. Evan is interested in digital humanities and helped with the project during the Summer of 2022.
Ana Maria Rodriguez (they/them) is a software engineer based in Queens, originally from Texas and Colombia. They graduated from Columbia in 2023 with a degree in computer engineering and a minor in Ethnicity and Race Studies, interested in the use of technology as an educational tool. Although only briefly involved with the project, they are grateful for the chance to have seen it come to life.
Episode Speakers
Episode 1
Reverend Derrick McQueen, a passionate theologian and social justice advocate, holds a Ph.D. in Homiletics and New Testament from Union Theological Seminary. With a background in theater arts and theology, he integrates academic insights into practical theology, focusing on issues like social justice, poverty, sexuality, race, and gender. As an ordained Teaching Elder in the PCUSA, he serves as Pastor of Saint James Presbyterian Church in Harlem, while also contributing to LGBTQ inclusion within the Presbyterian denomination and working on various boards dedicated to social justice and interfaith collaboration. His diverse interests, from preaching and teaching to community activism and theater, reflect his commitment to reclaiming Christian identity and fostering compassion within humanity.
Episode 2
Reverend Dr. Nigel Pearce has had a “circuitous” route to becoming pastor of Grace Congregational Church (UCC) of Harlem. After growing up Catholic, he spent time in Pentecostal and Baptist churches. He was drawn to Dr. Martin Luther King’s emphasis on social justice. Through King he discovered Gandhi’s nonviolent protest and eventually chose to study at an interfaith seminary where he learned not only from Christian thought leaders but from Hindu priests, Muslim imams and Jewish rabbis as well. He was chosen by the congregation of Grace Church to be their Senior Pastor in 2007. Initiatives in this role include organizing a food pantry, projects to build affordable housing in the local neighborhood and various endeavors to designed to celebrate the artistic history, legacy, artistry, and music of the Black church.
Lisa Pearce is First Lady of Grace Church. The daughter of two pastors, she was raised in a loving and nurturing Baptist church and community. After leaving home, she explored various other churches and theologies that aligned with her values of love and inclusion. She studied womanist theology, a tradition which centers the histories and experiences of Black women, with Dr. Katie Cannon at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. Grace Church holds a special place in her heart and she has endeavored to serve all church ministries, preach the gospel and support others in the community.
Episode 3
Iman Hill, also known as hip hop’s “Mona Lisa,” is a multifaceted artist, advocate, and archivist from Atlanta, now based in Brooklyn. Her creative works span music, modeling, photography, and videography, featured in publications like Vogue and Nylon. As a community organizer, she champions for the black trans community and launched “Kunt Kollections,” an archival project documenting the history of the ballroom scene past and present. Recently, Iman’s exhibit “The Sweetest Hangover” celebrating the beauty of the ballroom scene was featured at BronxArtSpace.
Kalik B is a dancer, model, and teaching artist from Brooklyn, NY. He has received training in and performed multiple dance styles since his youth, with an emphasis in hip-hop, musical theater, and vogue. With nearly 14 years of training, his distinctive vogue style meshing vogue femme, hip-hop, and acrobatics has become one of the most recognizable and influential of his era. He has performed, choreographed, and taught the art form at New York Fashion Week shows “The Blonds” and “Hood by Air,” modeled for Coach New York, Adidas, and Paper Planes, and was a finalist on the HBO Max Series Legendary–the first reality television dance competition showcasing Ballroom and Vogue as its primary focus.
Ciara Lyons is a Black woman of transgender experience from NC but based in the Bronx, NY. A dance artist and LGBT activist, she is a former Peer Vanguard at Destination Tomorrow in the Bronx, NY where she created programs for LGBTQ+ youth and connected them to vital resources across the city. She was recently featured in a Transgender Awareness Week Campaign by Google and a 2024 recipient of the Bronx Cultural Vision Fund through the Bronx Council on the Arts.
Shai Pratt is a community leader, mentor, actor, and advocate for LGBTQ+ youth of color from Brooklyn, NY. A member of the ballroom community for over 10 years, he has helped mentor Black and Brown LGBT youth across the East Coast of the US, building and transforming ballroom houses while connecting youth to necessary resources needed for their personal development. He is also an actor and artist with forthcoming projects currently in development expected to be released within the next year.
