mj rodriguez as blanca,


dominique jackson as elektra, jason a. rodriguez as lemar.


(far left) mj rodriguez as blanca. photos by: jojo whilden/fx


AT THE END OF THE DAY WE ALL WANT THE SAME THING, TO BE ACCEPTED, WE WANT TO BE LOVED AND WE WANT TO BE AFFIRMED FOR WHO WE ARE.”


Tell us about how you came to create the concept and storyline forPOSE. The kernel of the idea forPOSE began in 2004. I was


an undergrad in college and was studying cinema at Binghamton University. I had a professor who introduced me to the ball world by screeningParis is Burning and fell in love with the community. And, it all happened right around the same time that I was stepping into my queer identity. I grew up in New York City, in the Bronx and my


parents were raised in Harlem. To discover the ball world in my early 20’s, that it had existed for decades, and to know it was right around the corner from where my parents were raised, really blew my mind. It also broke my heart because by that point—we’re talking about the early 2000s, so many people were now dead—specifically the ones who were inParis


is Burning. To have the experience of seeing this community, its power and the incredible fortitude it took to walk unapologetically in 1980s New York, stunned me. It was such a powerful time of change, socially and politically and I’m grateful to see well-done representation happening. I’m curious, how long wasPOSE in development? Just like every other young gay boy, I lovedFlash


Dance, so I came up with the idea of this young boy named Damon who moves to New York and wants to become a dancer and then gets in the ball culture. I thought it would be an interesting show and literally thought, “That’s an interesting idea, I hope someone actually decides to make that show.” Then I fell into education, worked as a college administrator for the better part of my 20’s and then early part of my 30’s. I bounced around a couple of


different colleges and then finally, after turning 30, I had this moment of real reflection with myself that I had to do something else. I just knew that I couldn’t continue to be a fraud and tell students how to live their best lives, when I wasn’t doing that myself. So I moved to L.A. at 32 and to make a very long story short, I entered UCLA’s M.F.A. screenwriting program. My second year in the program, I took a drama


pilot course and decided the idea that I had come up with literally 10 years earlier, might work and thought, “I should just drop that off and let’s see what happens.” I wrote that original pilot,POSE, at UCLA and for a better part of about a year and a half, maybe two years, was going in and out of rooms with executives, pitching it.


JULY 2018 | RAGE monthly 47


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