Quarantine Sessions: Amber Hurst Martin
I’ve worked at a LOT of companies in the media space. I’ve volunteered on all their diversity groups for queer and trans employees and produced videos every year for pride. Over the past four years that I’ve been fortunate enough to date Amber, we’ve offered to share our experience as an interracial queer couple in numerous video projects.
When Faculty asked me if I knew any black queer storytellers we could cast in our Quarantine Sessions series, I was worried. If I invited my partner to share again or another one of our incredibly talented friends, what would their experience be like? Would their story and voice be heard? Did Faculty staff have the awareness to create art around a perspective that might fall outside of their own? Or would this end up being a heavily edited “identity” piece, published for tone and then it would be back to business as usual?
It’s not unique to be trotted out on camera during pride season or black history month as an employee of a company in the media space, but the line between tokenization and allyship is thinner than most might expect. In fact, I learned early on as a producer that pitching any content real to our life experience would garner the predictable suggestion, “sounds great for pride” or “let’s save that for February.”
I am trans and queer everyday, not just in June. Amber is black all year, not just in February. We’d grown weary of offering our voices, stories, and likeness to companies that wanted to use us to show off their diversity numbers but wished we’d stay quiet and hold up white, cis, hegemonic voices the other 10 months a year.
This time, I tried something new. In an honest discussion with the team at Faculty, I explained that I wasn’t interested in casting a black performer just this one time. I said this has to be one of many. That black people and queer people should be featured so much going forward, that when they tell their stories, it’s about anything other than being an other. Everyone heard what I was saying. They promised to cast with a more diverse lens in the future, always, not just this once. As a company, we’d offer up the space we have and then get out of the way.
The story Amber tells in this piece is part of her larger show that she and I built together over the last three years. It’s personal. It’s our baby. We’ve never let in branding or funding that might try to police the message. Bringing it to producers who might not understand its subjectivity felt exhausting. Luckily, working with Faculty’s Creative Director has yielded some of the best creative insights and story decisions that Amber’s experienced so far. The whole team has been incredibly thoughtful, supportive, and passionate about making this piece of art. Quite frankly, it’s been a pleasure. And it’s the proof we needed that other QTBIPOC artists we recommend will be held up often and authentically. So here’s to many more stories, ideas, and chances to get it right.
You can find more information about Amber’s work and show on her website and Instagram.
Here’s the story:
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