Kokumo
Pronouns: She/her
- She is an activist who is active in numerous organizations around Chicago, specifically Affinity Community Services, Broadway Youth Center and her own venture KOKUMOMEDIA. She also organised Trans, Gender Non-Conforming and Intersex Freedom (TGIF); Chicago’s first transgender festival and picnic, and the world’s first Black transgender pride event.
- She is also a performer and writer, who stared in her own one-woman play entitled, “The Faggot Who Could Fly”. This is her story of being a transgender woman who survived sexual abuse and domestic violence in order to recognize her trans-womanhood.
- As a Program Design Specialist, she works to create culturally-competent programming that speaks about the experiences that youth are going through. She was named as the recipient of the Outstanding Service, Youth Award by Pride Index at their 6th annual Esteem Awards ceremony, and was recently recognized as one of Windy City Times’ “30 Under 30″ and appeared on the cover of Red Eye’s July 9th story, “Gender Warriors.”
- Her “artivisim” — has included symposiums, one-day festivals, and her debut solo album, I Shall Not Be Denied, due to release next summer. She is currently writing a three act choreopoem, slated for completion in the Spring or Fall of 2013, entitled “Beauty is My Revenge”. It will be centered on the lives of four transgender women of color and it will showcase their experiences with sexual abuse, the sex trade, their families and the world.
(via transgenderqueerful)
#1 Must Have: A Blog to Celebrate Queer Culture
When A. Slaven was growing up in rural Ohio, she didn’t identify as anything but a weirdo. “There was so little context for being a queer person in the place where I’m from,” she says. “I didn’t even think about it. I just always felt very different.” It was only when she left the sticks for college in a nearby city — and developed her first reciprocated girlcrush — that she realized there was a name for the way she felt: Queer. Suddenly life was less lonely.
Now 33 and living in Seattle, Slaven is a librarian by day and club promoter by night. Along with her creative partner, lawyer/photographer Adrien Leavitt, she’s the brains behind #1 Must Have — a blog (named for the Sleater-Kinney song) and photozine documenting queer culture. For the last year, the two friends have been posting color portraits of the Seattle queer community — sans captions. The point is to show how queer people of all ages live. We caught up with Slaven as she prepared for the project’s New York gallery debut, at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.
Why start a zine about queer culture?
Part of why we started doing it is that the It Gets Better Project got so popular. We don’t think that you should just suck it up in high school and wait. We wanted to represent taking charge, empowering yourself, not just waiting it out and hoping that some day we can adopt a kid and shop at Whole Foods.
Girl-to-Get the fuck out of here
Pardon my french.
But I need to say something about this.
Okay, so there’s this website where you try to get people to raise money for whatever project you have so that it can get fully funded by the website.
That’s where my friend let me know about THIS project. Called Girl-to-Girl.
href=”http://igg.me/p/265596?a=1755030”
SO, here is the summary *straight from the website* : Girl-to-Girl is a reality web series that follows the daily lives and interactions of eight young, up-and-coming, lesbians as they spend a summer living together in The G2G House. The goal of this project is to enhance the very limited world of gay and lesbian media. While entertainment is our medium, the true purpose of Girl-to-Girl is to provide GLBTQ youth with content that is relatable and realistic. We hope to provide said youth with a sense of community that we lacked growing up and coming out.
and here is why I am SO enraged: I need to calm down from my anger to put into words why this makes me so angry.. let me put it into a list.
1. This web series follows eight WHITE CIS SKINNY WOMEN. I’m sorry but where’s the diversity in that.
2. They are basically trying to raise money to pay the rent to film a FUCKING REALITY TV SHOW.
3. They claim that the point of this whole thing is to widen the “limited view of gay and lesbian media” by making a show about eight lesbians. I’M SORRY, HAVEN’T YOU SEEN THE L WORD. That’s already a show. Now, I agree that there is a limited perception and view of the LGBTQ community in the media. I agree with that wholeheartedly. But they are just adding to the probelm with yet another limited view. A white, female, lesbain perspective.
4. How fucking dare you. How dare you claim that your show will bring a sense of community for youth who identify as LGBTQIA when you are only representing one of the most privileged and represented percentage of that community.
5. NO. Just, no.
Fuck this project bro.
The real T.
In case you don’t know.. (which a lot of you probably don’t)
There’s a whole hell of a lot of Trans* events happening at Roosevelt University this month!
That’s right, because Feminist United and RU proud have decided to collaborate and dedicate this whole moth of November to Trans* events, panels and workshops!!
How fun, right?
They kicked off the month with a Trans* 101 (the basics) workshop. Led by some lovely people from the BYC (Howard Brown Youth Center. They even gave out some handy handouts that I’ll go through and post from a little later.
In the coming weeks there will be performances from AFYT, a panel on the intersections of the Trans* community and them some gurl!
How much will it cost you?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! It’s all FREE. Not to mention free food will be provided y’all.
So get up in these links below (the event pages on Facebook) and RSVP and invite all your friends!!
werq
F. U. Facebook page: href=”http://www.facebook.com/FeministsUnited”
What’s the T? Facebook event page:
voting while trans*
thepedagogyofmysticalcreatures:
Transgender people, the majority of whom have never had problems voting in the past, may now lose their right to vote due to dozens of new voter suppression laws. Over 25,000 transgender people could have their voting rights taken away. In response to these dubious new laws, we have released two resources to help transgender people reclaim their voting rights.
Voting While Trans: Preparing for the New Voter ID Laws will explain what identification you need to vote in your state. And the Voting While Trans Checklist is a one-page guide to educate poll workers and election officials on the voting rights of transgender people.
(via fuckyeahsexpositivity)
Almost Is Not Is: Trans Health As It Should Be
Considering the recent issues the trans women’s community has had with FWHC, and how issues like these are not uncommon (“trans inclusion” at a women’s clinic means inclusion, and the provision of care no woman needs, for trans men, while excluding trans women), it is important to…
(via fuckyeahsexpositivity)
Trans friendly Rape Survivors Resources
(Source: vagina-pagina, via theuntitledmag)
