Evan Greer is a radical trans-identified / genderqueer singer/songwriter, parent, community organizer and workshop-facilitator based in Boston, MA. Evan writes and performs high energy acoustic songs that inspire hope, build community, and incite resistance! At 25 years old, this queerly punk folk artist tours internationally as a musician and facilitates interactive workshops that support movements for justice and liberation. Wielding an arsenal of fiercely radical acoustic songs that vary in style from pop-punk to foot-stompin bluegrass, Evan has been honored to collaborate, tour, and share stages with artists as musically diverse as Pete Seeger, Immortal Technique, Billy Bragg, Pamela Means, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Boots Riley of The Coup, Emma’s Revolution, State Radio, The Mammal s, Anne Feeney, Wayne Kramer of MC5, Defiance Ohio, Leftover Crack, Holly Near, Chumbawamba, and Vicci Martinez (featured on NBC’s “The Voice.”)

On the road over 150 days a year performing and facilitating interactive workshops for all ages that connect many struggles for justice and liberation, Evan’s primary goal is to directly support grassroots movements with music and education, and also to generate funds for local struggles in the communities (s)he visits.

Evan tours frequently by greyhound bus, car, foot, subway train, airplane, and most recently bicycle, having returned from 1600+ pedal-powered miles around Florida during the Respect Yer Mama Bicycle Tour with Shannon Murray. (S)he is a member of the Riot-Folk! Collective, an innovative group of radical musicians who work together to use their music as a tool for social change. Evan has spent time as a relief worker in New Orleans, a street medic at the G8 protests in Scotland, and has been a youth and community organizer in the Boston-area since high school. A deep involvement in movements for social and ecological justice gives Evan a unique perspective on how to inspire other young people to take concrete action towards a more just and sustainable world.

Evan’s high-energy acoustic songs have been featured on NPR, recorded by well-known artists, and used in high school and college courses. An original blend of catchy melodies, punk rock energy, and shear musical charisma make her instantly at home on a stage or in a classroom, Evan’s lyrics, stories, and analysis offer a challenging and empowering alternative to traditional discussions around social and environmental justice.

Links to Evan Greer:

Official Website of Evan Greer

Evan Greer with the Riot-Folk! Collective 

Evan on Bandcamp

Back to the Roots on Bandcamp

Eli Conley crafts intricate Americana songs from the raw material of his life as a gay transgender man with Virginia roots. “Oh what gorgeous, soulful music!” gushed the acclaimed singer/songwriter Laura Love, “Eli Conley’s writing and singing are exquisite.” Eli is also a powerful live performer, stirring the soul with his utterly memorable tunes and his exquisite voice.

Eli displays his country choirboy croon in full force on his first release, the All the Livelong Day EP by Eli Conley and Hip for Squares. The five-song EP features Maia “Papaya” Wiitala on standup bass and harmony vocals and Talia Cooper on harmony vocals. It is available for free download.

The EP’s title track is a bluegrass-tinged love song between two men in east Tennessee with a buoyant melody — “You’re lovelier than April / You’re handsomer than May / You’re hungry as an apple core / sing all the livelong day.” “Dry As Sin” is a haunting ballad tracing the intertwining impacts of moutaintop removal mining and supermax prisons on the lives of Appalachian people. “Pinocchio” sets your foot tapping as it encourages you to question whether there is any such thing as a “real” boy or girl. “Send Out Your Sentries” explores family and distance, beginning starkly with Eli’s hushed yet supple voice and deftly finger-picked guitar. The song features Maia Papaya in fine form on the upright bass, swelling to a harrowing crescendo where Eli soars effortlessly into his upper register and back down again. “We Will Rise” is the EP’s clarion call for a building social justice movement. Laura Love called it “a gorgeous anthem.”

Eli Conley and Hip for Squares brought their fine playing and lush three-part harmonies on tour to the Pacific Northwest in August 2011. “Fans of Girlyman, a more established feminist band with gender-queer membership, also should like Conley’s trio,” wrote the Eugene Register-Guard.

Links to Eli:

Official Website

Watch more of Eli’s Video’s on Youtube

Eli Conley on Reverbnation – Listen to music and find out about upcoming shows

Eli Conley on Facebook – become a fan here!

Eli on Myspace

Kelsey Jarboe’s work is about collective memory, historical revisionism, and escapism, incorporating field recordings with songwriting, samples, spoken word, and abstract vocal improvisation. It attempts to evoke both familiarity and alienation: the uncanny of a home we have only seen on television or heard of in myth. The music is strongly influenced by both experimental and pop histories and is ideal for reclusive science fiction geeks.

Most recently, they have written music with the Theater Offensive’s True Colors Out Youth Theater program in Boston, and performed with local songstress Amanda Palmer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. They also occasionally cameo at the Oberon for the drag/cabaret/genderblender show TranniWreck. In 2010, they performed in the Works-in-Progress Festival at the experimental performance art venue Mobius in Boston, and at the Somerville Armory with local legend Rick Berlin. Before that, they also played at the Arisia Science Fiction Convention and an anarchist gatheting in the woods.

Their live shows always involve high energy, catharsis, humor, and audience participation. One review of their most recent release, “Magical Realism”, wrote, “Poignant, powerful, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes whimsical, ‘Magical Realism’ expands significantly on last year’s excellent ‘Among Your Kind.’ A real masterpiece.” — Love and Mathematics (loveandmath.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/kelsey-jarboe-magical-realism/)

Links to Kelsey Jarboe:

Listen to Music by Kelsey Jarboe on Bandcamp here!

Kelsey Jarboe: Official Blog

I’m Jackie Isfabulous a mtf transsexual. I started my transition in may 2010. I started living full time in Nov of 2010. I have legally changed my name and my gender marker on my ID .

 I grew up a quiet kid with and always loved music. It wasn’t until 2009 when a couple of friends who attended berklee school of music invited me to jam and i haven’t stopped since. A friend of mine Dj chillkut formed a duo called The Bozo Nightmare when i was Johnny Rev.

We have played over 20 shows together and released and EP on our own. This past summer I began performing as a solo artist playing 11 shows in july and august including The Phreakin Queer Music and arts festival in Philadelphia.
This past fall I returned to the studio and recorded a solo album titled Proud To Be. I am living a life now that I only thought was a dream ! Believe in yourself and all your dreams can be reality!

~ Jackie Isfabulous

Links to Jackie Isfabulous:

Bandcamp: Jackie Isfabulous – Proud to Be (album)

Bandcamp: The Bozo Nightmare – The Moon and the Stars ep (album)

The Bozo Nightmare on Youtube

Jackie Isfabulous on Twitter

Jackie Isfabulous on Facebook

With the completion of 6 original albums and presently working on other independent recording projects, he is featured in numerous local open-mics, showcases, and concerts throughout the US. Wordz the poet emcee has also been featured on many TV and radio shows both locally & nationally, including “Philly Word Live”, 88.7 FM, 96.5 AM, “In Bed with Butch”, “106th and Park”, and has also appeared on the cover of Original Plumbing Magazine.

Links to WORDZ the poet emcee:

Official Website

Reverbnation

Facebook

Twitter

Elias is a singer, writer, academic, activist, and performer who travels internationally (when he can afford it) and by land (more often, thank you Canada) and is living currently in Chicago, Il. He writes music and performs with various guest artists including Jenny Urban, Madsen Minax (of Actor Slash Model), Kadji Amin (of Humble Tripe), and others.

He is also in the band The Homoticons.

Elias Krell is a PhD student in the Performance Studies program at Northwestern University. He received his Bachelors of Arts and of Music from Oberlin College and Conservatory where he completed a five-year Double Degree program in Classics and Voice. He got a Masters in Music from the San Francisco Conservatory and sang opera professionally for three years before coming to Northwestern in 2008.

He entered the Comparative Literary Studies program at Northwestern and then transferred into Performance Studies to pursue his interests in doing and studying performance. He is also active touring and performing music around the country.

Links to Elias Krell:

Official Website

Myspace

Jay Sebastian Very B.F.A, M.A.T, is Co-Founder and Director of Tongue in Chic Gallery, a community that empowers transgender and gender variant people who have chosen sex work as their profession.

Jay uses film, self-portraiture, sculpture, installation, performance and musical composition to reflect on societal constructs around gender, kink and sexuality. His performance name is Little Orphan Tyranny-whose mission is to queer people one lapdance at a time.

Jay hosts and promotes Queer, sex-positive events that spread awareness about underserved and stigmatized populations in an effort to empower and build solidarity among communities.
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Links to Jay Very:

Official Website of Jay Very

Official Website of Little Orphan Tyranny

Official Website of Tongue in Cheek Gallery

Kickstarter for the Jay Very Story

Visual Voices:

Deadline: Feb. 15 2012  

Still Accepting Submissions!

Now Calling 4 Submissions for Trans-Genre’s first ever Visual Anthology, a multi-media compilation of Video, Poetry, and Art exclusively from the Transgender Creative Community.

This year we’re going all the way with our first  ever DVD/Zine compilation and we want you to be a part of it!!

What we’re looking for:

We want your best:

• stories
• animated shorts
• music videos
• performance
• poetry
• comics
• and other forms of visual art

Submission Requirements:

• Must be a Registered Artist with Trans-Genre (sign up here!)
• Work must be of original content and not infringe upon any legal or moral copyrights.
• Priority given to previously unreleased exclusive material

Zine Submission Guidelines:

Leah B. of Gender EDGE will be handling all Zine Submissions. Please Contact Leah B. with any questions.

• Size: max. 10″x8″ (but should be legible at as small as 4.5″ x 7.5″)
• Formats excepted: .pdf, .jpg (other formats accepted upon request)
• B&W or full color submissions accepted
• 300 dpi

Email Zine Submission to Trans-GenreSubmission@live.com. or upload through our Yousend it account below:

https://dropbox.yousendit.com/Visual-Voices-Submission

Video Submission Guidelines

Helyx Chase will be handling all DVD Submissions. Please Contact Helyx with any questions.

• Max file size: 1GB
• Duration: minimum 1 ½ to max. 20 minutes
• Formats excepted: .mov .MPEG2 (.mp4 .avi .dv )

Upload your Video submission online thru our YouSendIt page:  https://dropbox.yousendit.com/Visual-Voices-Submission (We thank you for your patience as large files may take awhile)

Please remember to include your name, email, and submission info!

If you prefer to mail a hard copy please Contact A.J. Bryce at Trans-Genre@live.com to request the mailing address and more info.

Midwest GenderQueer, commonly known as JAC Stringer, is a transgenderqueer femme radical activist and performance artist. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, JAC strives to create visibility, community, and resources for trans, genderqueer, and queer communities in the Midwestern United States and beyond. His work focuses on trans, genderqueer, and queer communities, sexuality, gender identity disorder removal, (dis)ability, and identity empowerment.

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JAC has lectured across the country at organizations, schools, conferences, and symposia. As a performer, JAC has done genderfucking drag, dance, music, spoken word, and performance art across the USA and Canada. JAC uses hot pants, poofy skirts, and gender theory to create a intriguing space centered on bodies, ability, androgyny, and beyond. JAC has founded and lead several activist movements, education projects, and artist initiatives including The GenderQueer Coalition, GenderBloc, The Queer Peer Education Program, and The Queer Canon Zine. He currently serves as founding director of The Midwest Trans and Queer Wellness Initiative.

Video:

Midwest GenderQueer – Legal Name Change

JAC is a leading activist in Gender Identity Disorder removal and is a very invested in health care reform and comprehensive sex education. He is a strong advocate for sexual assault awareness and prevention with a focus on queer identities and is a trained survivor advocate. JAC is an Advocates for Youth Alum, is a Youth Advocacy & Education Committee leader in his local GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) chapter, and an organizer on several local and national organizing boards committees including TransOhio, The Philadelphia Transgender Health Conference and The International Drag King Community Extravaganza. JAC is a life-long dancer, poet, pianist, and lyrical vocalist. Selections from his one-human shows Glamboyant and Bar Stories have been performed with Gender Queeries Tour and The Tranny Roadshow. JAC is a co-manager and performer in the internationally recognized professional drag troupe The Black Mondays of Cincinnati, Ohio as well as being the founding director and producer of Fabulously Fluid, Ohio’s premiere annual genderfuck drag showcase.

Glamboyant is being fitted for stage and set to debut 2012-2013. JAC began writing, dancing, creating art, and radically rocking the boat when he was a child. He now considers his work’s purpose to be to promote unity, action, and empowerment within trans, genderqueer, and queer communities and to achieve rights and recognition for these communities through education, art, and various other forms of revolution.

Links to Midwest GenderQueer a.k.a. JAC Stringer:

Official Website

Midwest GenderQueer on Facebook

Midwest GenderQueer on Twitter

Midwest GenderQueer on Tumblr

Midwest GenderQueer on YouTube

Angelica’s journey began when she graduated high school at the age of 17, to avoid 1 more year of spiritual torture. Angelica traveled, from Racine to Rochester, NY where she was recruited by the U.S. Navy. They knew this black blonde-haired boy didn’t belong when she showed up to the physical with her toenails painted, but they enrolled her anyway. Angelica spent 6 months in the military stationed in Yokusko, Japan which ended abruptly after she was almost killed by a few of her shipmates who hung her out of a 3rd story window to force her to admit she was gay. That was the catapult that gave Angelica the drive to begin to live her life for herself.

When she got back on American soil, she began the transformation process at the age of 19 while living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Angelica then began a long career of modeling & acting under the radar. Her agency had no clue for years, until she confided in a gay booking agent at the agency, who became a friend and ally, in getting Angelica work in music videos, runway, and print & commercial, which took away some of the stress by having someone on the “inside” who knew and was looking out for her. But, Angelica would turn down work, after assessing certain jobs would be too stressful for her if anyone were to find out.

Angelica’s purpose in life and as an artist is to find a place of acceptance, love & respect through her music and art, within herself and not from the outside world. Her journey to ALR is documented in her lyrics and the music. It is her belief that her art, synonymous to her life, will reach those who have been looking for the same things. Angelica Love Ross is what the industry would call “independent” or “indie.” A term she embraced when she broke from cultural norms.

Links to Angelica Ross:

Music, Videos, and Show Dates on Reverbnation!

T Continue – A great site for networking within the Trans Community

Schmekel is New York City’s only All-Jewish All-Transgender Polka-Punk band. Their music sounds a bit like The Kinks crashed a Bar Mitzvah, while their lyrics combine bawdy humor and critical awareness, encouraging audiences to laugh at butt jokes while deconstructing systems of oppression. Schmekel’s triumvirate of bespectacled transsexual singer-songwriters comprises guitarist Lucian Kahn, keyboardist Ricky Riot (formerly of Twilight of the Idle), and bassist Nogga Schwartz. Genderqueer drummer Simcha Halpert-Hanson keeps them in check.

Lucian’s musical and literary work under his previous identity includes performances with polystylistic new music composer Alex Temple and publications in The Exquisite Corpse. A recovering academic, Lucian constantly seeks out new ways to misuse his MA in History of Religions. His noble dream to start a band of Jewish trans men called Schmekel became a reality when he met Ricky and Nogga at the New York City Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center’s Trans-Masculine Drop-In Group. Ricky and Nogga had met in Hebrew School. Ricky’s former band, Twilight of the Idle, released two albums and played at a variety of well-known queer events, such as Brooklyn Pride, Tranny Roadshow and Camp Trans. He is featured in Trans Fusions II, the second compilation by Trans-Genre. Ricky knows Simcha from Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. Simcha studies and thinks about Judaism, Jewish consciousness, writing and how to combine all three in poetic and persuasive argument formats. They are the former drummer of the obscure Boston band, The Jackie Hoez and the current trans-awareness educator for New School University’s faculty and students.

Schmekel is currently raising trans visibility and a ruckus all over New York City, and is in the midst of planning an East Coast tour.

Links to Schmekel:

Schmekel Videos on Youtube

Schmekel on FB

Article featuring Schmekel on Jewcy

(Ksenya) Leah B. stands militantly behind a philosophy and evolving concept entitled Gender EDGE. Utilizing punk ideals and a constant DIY approach Gender EDGE focuses on the continued empowerment of the transgender / gender variant community through artistic mechanisms.

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Glamtronica

Find Music for Alien Beauty by clicking the Links Below!

Official Alien Beauty Website

Friend Alien Beauty on Facebook!

Alien Beauty on Myspace!

Alien Beauty on Soundcloud

Hip Hop/Rap

Heidi Barton Stink is a transgender HipHop artist based out of Minneapolis. She writes and performs positive HipHop with an emphasis on social justice and trans and queer rights. A talented performer and wordsmith, she is a rising star in the world of independent rap. She has free music to download (The Familiar Pattern EP) at bartonstink.bandcamp.com/ and facebook.com/bartonstink where you can also watch for her upcoming shows.

She is also working on her debut album Mouth-Breathe Ad Nauseum with See More Perspective doing the production. The lyrical content of The Familiar Pattern EP comes not only from a fresh perspective as far as traditional hiphop is concerned but it also represents voices that aren’t normally heard in mainstream gay culture. Shying away from the sexualized lyrics and party songs that have been a staple of “HomoHop,” Heidi’s songs hit on topics such as the lack of inclusion and visibility of gender variant people’s needs in the mainstream (“Direct Action”) addiction (“Pick your Poison”) and the shame a transgender-queer faces growing up in a gender-normative “liberal” city (“Love Who”).

Heidi’s beats, like her verbal style have a wide range; from the warm positive midwestern style, experimental electro-pop to east coast epic with production by Homo-Hop MC/Comedian Soce The Elemental Wizard on the song “Direct Action”.

“Love Who” by Heidi Barton Stink from Dan Huiting on Vimeo.

Music video for “Love Who” by Heidi Barton Stink. Shot on February 19th, 2010 at Bedlam Theater. Directed by Dan Huiting.

Check out these links to Heidi Barton Stink:

Download Heidi Barton Stink’s EP for free here!

Friend Heidi on Facebook here

Original Plumbing Interview

Acoustic, singer-songwriter

Ryan Cassata, is a 16 year old, singer-songwriter from Long Island, New York. Ryan plays guitar, piano, harmonica, and vocals. At the young age of 14, Ryan began to gig on Long Island. Now only two years later he has played over 100 shows and has already completed a Florida tour, and a New England tour, titled the “Love Around The World Tour.”

Ryan Cassata is the composer of the soundtrack for “Loop Planes”, an independent film about a transgendered teen and his relationships. Loop Planes appeared in the South By Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival (2010) and also appeared in the Tribeca Film festival. (2010) Ryan Cassata also appeared on The Larry King Live Show (2009) and the Tyra Banks Show (2010) for being transgender himself. Aside from being a musician Ryan is a strong advocate for the Transgender community. He has taught at many schools on Long Island, and even made it up to Albany to talk to New York State Officials. Ryan appeared in Hamptons Bay Magazine (2008), and Go Magazine (2008), for his hard work and advocacy. He also appeared in Bay Shore High Schools’ “Maroon Echo” twice for his advocacy along with his musical achievements.

Links to Ryan Cassata:

Ryan Cassata Music on Myspace

Ryan Cassata Videos on Youtube