FREE Screening: Three Decades of Queer Atlanta -- The American Music Show

Running for 25 years on Atlanta public access television, The American Music Show was a wildly inventive, defiantly low-budget variety program created by Atlanta artist Dick Richards alongside collaborators Potsy Duncan, Bud Lowry, and James Bond.

Produced for as little as $5 an episode, the show became an unlikely cultural incubator for queer artists, drag performers, punk musicians, and underground creators who rarely had access to mainstream media platforms.

The program also made television history by featuring early appearances from future icons, including:

• RuPaul — in one of her earliest televised performances
• Lady Bunny — developing signature performance styles
• Jayne County — during Atlanta’s early punk scene

Beyond performers, the show documented the nightlife, clubs, cruising spaces, and artistic communities that shaped queer Atlanta from the early 1980s through the 2000s.

This event is sponsored by The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs. Thank you for helping support the arts in our great city!

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Host or Publisher Matthew Terrell