The Lavender Lemonade Collective strives to create a community that allows art from a uniquely LGBTQIA+ lens, that makes space for all races, religions, body types, abilities and genres— all past the coming out.

Our Projects

• Transmission Folklore Seasons 1 & 2
• Deep Blue Stars
• 24-Hour Performance Festival: Anteros

Our Origin Story

Stories that feature LGBTQIA+ folks are not often written for us or by us.It feels like when we do come up, we’re background characters in a straight narrative. We’re lessons, we’re trauma for other people’s consumption, we’re lazy tropes, we’re coming out, with or without our consent. Our stories are subjugated to a category on streaming services but we are not all the same. It’s not just coming out anecdotes or violence. Often it feels like our lives are boiled down to our identities and characters who act like us, who love like us, are boiled down to be a lesson.Don’t get us wrong, Mik C. Koats (they/them) and Orion Tuesday Ibert (they/he) both are passionate about their identities but we have other passions too. Mik has a deep understanding of late Victorian fashion and Orion has a soft spot for fun tea blends. Orion loves graphic novels and Mik roleplays original characters. Mik has never been to the rodeo and Orion wishes he could see whale sharks in person. We are whole people, who are beyond our coming out.A category doesn’t cut it. There are sci-fi epics, romcoms and narratives that don’t have a category yet, that center around LGBTQIA+ characters. There is more than one way to tell a story; especially a queer story.We started Lavender Lemonade Collective with this in mind, in January of 2020, just before we went into quarantineWe strive to make media we’re proud of and create things that push what people think. Our art is designed to help the community see themselves represented; not just when people come out but before, after and when it doesn’t matter.Life gave us lemons— so we made lemonade and planted the seeds in our stories.

Our Team

mik c. koats (they/them)

mik c. koats (they/them) is a nonbinary playwright and co-founder of Lavender Lemonade who graduated from the University of Houston's Playwriting and Dramaturgy program in 2019. Mik's work has recently been seen with Theatre 66's NEOS Showcase 2020 at the Alley Theatre (Roll for Length), in UH's 2019 Ten Minute Play Festival (Pliny is Wrong With Me), as well as a finalist at The Kennedy Center for the Arts College Theatre Festival's Ten Minute Play Contest (Revival).You can find their work at mikkoats.com.

Orion Tuesday Ibert
(they/he)

Orion Tuesday Ibert is disabled non-binary creative who co-founded Lavender Lemonade as an artist, voice actor, and sound designer. Formerly involved with GLSEN as a National Student Council Member and GLAAD as a Student Ambassador, Orion has taken a more creative approach with their past activism efforts to not only make LGBTQIA+ content, but to also include the experiences of children in LGBTQIA+ families.His work can be found at orionibert.com.

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