NYC Trans Oral History Project

Capri recounts their childhood in a military family and the resulting relocations that their family underwent. They address family dynamics that continue to affect their inner monologue and relationships. Capri discusses reluctance to come out as non-binary at both school and work due to feelings of insecurity stemming from being the only person addressing pronouns. They are pursuing a career in p...

Interview of Chanel Lopez by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Iele Paloumpis by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Imani Henry by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Jules Skloot is a dancer, performer, and teacher from the midwest living in New York. He discusses the nuances of the It Gets Better Project, discovering binding, and the slow acceptance he received from his parents. Skloot also discusses his experiences growing up in a creative and unique household while navigating his Jewish culture. He describes the buzzing excitement of being recognized as a “...

Amanda Armstrong recounts her organizing as a graduate student militant in the 2009-2012 protest wave in Berkley and Oakland. She joined occupations and building take-overs organized by students and campus workers fighting budget cuts, joined Occupy and Black Lives Matter protests, and helped found a left caucus that came to power in the graduate workers local of the University of California syste...

Interview of Juliana Moraes by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Kristen Lovell discusses her time working "the stroll," in the West Village in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She recounts the community, conflict and challenges faced by fellow sex workers, including access to street hormones, discrimination from local businesses, and strategies for avoiding police arrest. She discusses the changes in police policy following the September 11 terrorist attacks, a...

Interview of Raffi Marmaba by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Sandra Mesics by NYC Trans Oral History Project

B. Hawk Snipes discusses their growing in the Bronx, their time at the La Guardia High School of the Performing Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology, and eventually becoming an entertainer in television. They share on being a black non-binary person with both male and female energies, and their draw throughout their life to being free and expressive. B. Hawk appeared in the hit television...

Hannah Soldner relates her experiences growing up as the youngest of four siblings near Fort Collins, CO. She discusses early experiences with faith and gender nonconformity and how each informed the other, a relationship which culminated in her founding a trans bible study with a trans man named Miles. She also discusses her relationship to privilege, and work as a filmmaker and writer.

Hazel Katz is video artist. She works with the Parole Preparation Project, an organization that supports people who are incarcerated.

Tashan Lovemore shares his path to his "limitless" gender, pushing against narrow expectations of masculinity and manhood while finding contentment and confidence in his own gender. He grew up in the suburbs of New York City on Long Island to a Jamaican and American family. Later Lovemore met Sir Knight, and they founded BlackTransTV and BLK RYL PRODUCTIONS, through which they release regular vide...

Rose Wood has worked with the ONE foundation, the Health Education Aids Liaison (HEAL), a violence project, the Maple Thorp Residence, and the Bailey House which were all associated with helping individuals living with AIDS. In addition, she was a performance artist who worked in venues such as Esquelita, The Box, Cutting Room, Slip Room, Flamingo East, Silver Swan, and Piano’s. In her interview,...

Geleni Fontaine is an acupuncturist, RN and healer based on Brooklyn. In this interview, they share on their growing up in a working class Cuban family in Park Slope, Brooklyn, prior to the neighborhood's gentrification. Geleni politicized as a feminist through Brooklyn Women's Martial Arts, which later became the Center for Anti-violence Education. Through organizing there, Geleni became involved...

(Entrevista en Español/Interview in Spanish) Esta entrevista de Alejandra Rodriguez por Tamar Oyola Santiago, trata sobre las dificultades de Alejandra, no solo en su transición, pero también como immigrant de Mexico a Estados Unidos. Alejandra habla de la falta de aceptación a su verdadera identidad como mujer por parte de su familia, no solo en Mexico pero también en Los Estados Unidos. Sin emba...

Sage discusses their growing up in a conservative evangelical Christian family in the Appalachia Mountains of Virginia, breaking from their family's religion through encountering children's and young adult fantasy novels, and becoming a non-binary librarian today. Sage reflects extensively on their religious trajectory, leading to their polytheistic and goddess-centered paganism today. Sage also d...

(Entrevista en Español) Lorena Borjas habla con Lorenzo Van Ness sobre su vida como activista de los derechos de las mujeres trans inmigrantes indocumentadas y trabajadoras sexuales en Jackson Heights, Queens, Nueva York. En esta amena conversación, Borjas comparte de su vida antes de venir a Estados Unidos, su llegada a Nueva York, el inicio de su trabajo comunitario y lo que tal trabajo conlleva...

Kate Doyle Griffiths discusses their politicization as a socialist, bringing an anthropological lens to their political, personal and sexual life. Griffiths reflects on growing up in Housten, Texas in desegregated schools, the peculiarity of their step family arrangements, their activism at New York University and Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), and later work with the socialist organizati...

Imara Jones reflects on the challenges and rewards of producing independent media for diverse millennial audiences, including her talk show The Last Sip and her docuseries Translash. She addresses the high level of visibility for trans people that marks our current moment, pointing out the limits of this visibility, including tokenization and the pressure to monetize trans identity. Reflecting on...

Hannah Baer discusses her journey to transition, influential early experiences in activist spaces with organizations such as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, psychotherapy training, and navigation of online spaces as a trans woman. She shares wide-ranging thoughts on queer communities, her subjectivity and relationship to privilege, and pivotal moments in her relationship to her identity as a...

Che Gossett shares on the left political history of their parents, their time spent in multiple abolitionist, black and queer organizing groups, and their becoming a critical scholar of trans studies, art criticism and race. Specifically, Che discusses their time in Critical Resistance, Hearts on a Wire (a Philly-based trans prisoner zine), and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Study plays...

Barms is a construction worker apprentice and a communist. In this interview, they discuss the role of philosophy and abstract thinking for themselves and many trans people as a strategy of managing powerlessness and dysphoria. Barms discusses their political organization Red Bloom, where many members are queer and trans, and the dynamics of sexual assault and gender abuse that have torn apart oth...

(Entrevista en español) Lorenzo Van Ness entrevista a Brigitte Jamilet Hernández Martínez sobre su vida, quien comparte detalles de su niñez y adolescencia que recalcan la importancia que tiene su familia, sobre todo sus padres, en su vida, a pesar de que viven en México. En esta conversación, Hernández Martínez habla de algunas dificultades que ha enfrentado a lo largo de su vida, los cambios que...