Creator, writer, director: Aymar Jean Christian
Starring: Erik Lamar Wallace, Kiam Marcelo Junio, and Saya Naomi

Nupita Obama follows queer artists of color as they work to secure love and housing. The pilot, “Nupita Obama Creates Vogua,” launched Open TV (beta)’s Open TV Presents series about artists exploring alternative relationships. Currently in the early stages of development, the first season picks up four weeks later, expanding the cast and narrative to more emerging Chicago artists who will contribute acting, music and performances. The full story depicts a diverse queer community coming together over 24 hours through art to survive and support one another, despite jealously, insecurity and scarce resources.

Nupita Obama marries queer performance with unseen stories centered on queer love. It extends to television recent queer theories about intersectionality – the works of Jose Munoz, Roderick Ferguson, Kara Keeling, E. Patrick Johnson, among others – by extending performance art to serial comedy. Nupita Obama proposes a different fantasy of love in post-gay marriage America. What if, instead of striving to find the one, upwardly mobile person to help us achieve mainstream respectability, we worked toward loving and supporting each other in all our complexity?

To learn more about the production of the Nupita Obama pilot and an exploration of “queer production value,” check out this research: 

The Value of Representation: Toward a Critique of Networked Television Performance. 2017. International Journal of Communication. 11, 1552-1574

‘Nupita Obama’: The Value and Method of Queer Pilot Development. 2016. No More Potlucks, 44.

Trailer for Open TV Presents: Nupita Obama Creates Vogua:

To learn more about the artists in Nupita Obama, you can watch video profiles of Erik Wallace, Saya Naomi, and Kiam Marcelo Junio on the Open TV website. Here is Kiam’s profile: