Two Queens in a Kitchen
Two Queens in a Kitchen: Season 3 (2018)
Created and directed by: Elijah McKinnon
Two Queens in a Kitchen is exactly what the title says: two queer, trans, or femme-identified people in a kitchen making a healthy snack and talking.
Creator Elijah McKinnon crafted the show as a platform to elevate the artists both on OTV and in our broader community to have frank, organic conversations in the place most Americans gather: the kitchen. As OTV’s head of marketing at the time, it was a creative way to shine a light on the people co-creating the platform behind and in front of the camera, at a time when it was harder for OTV to earn media in the mainstream press. It was also one way Elijah highlighted the many creative people they supported through their consultancy, where they were developing artists outside of OTV.
For Elijah, an expert chef, the kitchen connects them to their family history, a place of connection, nourishment, and artistic mastery. In a country where most food and culture is processed and manufactured by white corporations, Two Queens in a Kitchen honors how queer people of color joyfully sustain themselves outside of harmful institutions.
The artists featured on Two Queens in a Kitchen are wide-ranging in terms of identity, cultural skills and roles. Season one featured writers and directors Ricardo Gamboa (Brujos) and Sam Bailey (You’re So Talented), who were creating series for OTV, but also Roy Kinsey and Darling Squire, independent artists in music and dance who were working both with OTV and with Elijah in their other projects. Season two added an in-studio audience and featured community leaders like SAIC professor Oli Rodriguez and Kristen Kaza, with whom Elijah founded their Reunion community space in Humboldt Park, alongside onscreen talent like Rashaad Hall (Brown Girls), Nathaniel Tennenbaum (Kissing Walls) and Felicia Holman (Futurewomen).
Always one to outdo themselves, Elijah shifted formats in Season 3 by making it a two-hour livestreamed program and more focused on a particular Black cuisine: southern food. Hosted by Northwestern University professor, dean and at the time chair of the OTV board Dr. E. Patrick Johnson (also an expert chef), the series featured two of OTV’s most consistent stars Erik Lamar Wallace and Saya Naomi alongside independent writers Britt Julious and Ashley Ray. Mister Wallace performance a live set to an in-studio audience.
As one of OTV’s longest-running series and perhaps the most representative of its diverse artist roster, Two Queens in a Kitchen represents how Elijah connected their many skills: original unscripted directing and producing, culinary arts, live music and performance, interdisciplinary conversations and platform marketing, all in a colorful, thoughtful and edifying package.