Indhira Udofia, a student in the joint program of social work at UNC Greensboro and North Carolina A&T, opens the show with her experience of embracing her queerness after participating in True Love Waits. Reverend Solomon Missouri, senior pastor at Invitation AME Zion Church, shares how purity culture presents a double standard when it comes to the Christian mandate to care for the sick. Writer and speaker Angie Hong expands on an essay she wrote for The Atlantic about the connection between purity culture and the March 2021 spa shootings in Atlanta.
In the second half of the show, poet and educator Ashley Lumpkin tells a story about “the talk” she didn’t have with her parents, and Ryan Clark of “Touch Podcast” shares what it’s been like to work through the harms of purity culture in the context of his marriage.
Special thanks to Jeff Polish of The Monti, who coached each of the guests through the process of developing their story for the stage. Thanks also to Rylee Ennis of The Monti and Nathan Novero of Touch Media for their work to film the event, and to Jenni Lawson, Al Wodarski and Sean Roux from WUNC for all their work to make this event possible.