Emerson is a trans-man, faerie. His focus is social justice, activism, environmental equality, and literary liberation. Right now, he works as a freelance writer, book artist, farmer and founder of burgeoning small press, Love & Freak.

Emerson is currently enjoying a break from journalism (He reported and wrote for: The New York Observer, New York Politicker, and Radar Magazine) and is currently authoring and hand-binding a chapbook series that examines the classification, characterization and identification of people as “freaks”. He loves blueberries, twilight, roller-ball pens, glitter, coffee, and all sorts of witches in general.

Check out Emerson’s official Website/Blog! click here!

Trashcanpoet is the rhyme-spitting alter ego of Miles Gabriel Burke, an Oakland-based slam poet, writer and spoken word artist. He was first published at 17 and co-founded the alt/hip-hop group RUUDE in Atlanta before moving to the Bay Area, where he has been a finalist for Berkeley’s and San Francisco’s national poetry slam teams and has performed with Fella-Fem, The Men’s Story Project, Artists Against Rape, and the Queer Girl Theatre Project (of which he was the first male-identified member), among others. In addition to performing, he is currently working on a novel, Oaklandia, which is half semi-autobiographical and half pure unadulterated bullshit.

Links to Trashcanpoet:

Official Site

Trashcanpoet on Myspace

poetry, music

oakland, ca

Performer/author/musician solidad decosta is an uppity Portuguese woman who isn’t afraid to claim her black Latina maternal ancestry. Equal parts street journalist, storyteller and crone-ta-be with Leo moon credentials, her work encompasses the why and where of life outside the boxes in a label obsessed world, and the what, when, who and how of everything else.

solidad has performed at a variety of venues throughout the US, including St. Marks, Antioch University, Pitzer College, Bumpershoot Literary Stage, SomARTS and Brava! Center for the Arts. Her work has appeared in Shampoo, Mirage#4/Period(ical), ALLiance, P!, Angry Poet, Street NOTES and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In addition, solidad has facilitated writing and performance workshops at Cell Space, STARC, Dancing Tree, SF Juvenile Hall, Alameda County Youth Facility and Pitzer College. She holds an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts, and was the 2008 recipient of the Kari Edwards Scholarship at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program.

Official Website of solidad decosta

Click here for Show Schedule

Shock Value – Video

Athens Boys Choir is a Gender-Deviant, Multi-Media, Spoken-Word/Homo-hop Extravaganza. The name Athens Boys Choir can be a bit deceiving but you can’t blame a Transsexual Jew living in the Deep South for having a sense of humor about the whole ordeal.

He (Katz) has been on the road since 2003 performing for audiences that are becoming more diverse everyday. You don’t have to be a spoken-word enthusiast to enjoy the lyrical stylings of the Athens Boys Choir. Katz has the unusual skill of opening even the most skeptical minds to the world of performance poetry.

With Four CD’s released, Katz/The Athens Boys Choir has established himself as a force in the spoken-word/queer/pop culture/ homo-hop movement; you choose how it moves you.

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Check out this Awesome Athens Boys Choir Video!

Links to Athens Boys Choir:

Official Website

Myspace

Facebook

]]> http://trans-genre.net/content/athens-boys-choir/feed/ 1 http://trans-genre.net/content/comp-cd-2/ http://trans-genre.net/content/comp-cd-2/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:37:13 +0000 Lxadmin http://trans-genre.net/content/?p=819

Let’s Rock Together!

That’s right folks! We are at it again!

Announcing the Call for Submissions for the 2nd Trans-Genre Compilation CD! (set to release Jan. 2010)

What We’re Looking for:

• Musicians
• Bands
• Spoken Word
• Storytelling
• other Audio
• Artists
• Graphic Designers

…to showcase their amazing talent on the next Trans-Genre Compilation CD!

We’re Sending out the call now to give you all plenty of time to get your stuff together. Last Year we featured over 15 Artists, Musicians, Performers, & Speakers on the “Trans-Fusions CD. This Year it could be you…

Requirements:

• Must be a Registered Artist with Trans-Genre (not registered yet? Submit your profile here! )
• Work must be of original content and not infringe upon any legal or moral copyrights.
• Images (for the cover, inside booklet, back, and CD) in .jpg*, 300 dpi (prefered)
• audio in .mp3, .wav*

*other formats accepted with prior approval

You can Submit Directly through the Site with our Simple Submission Form Below, or by emailing A.J. Bryce at Trans-GenreSubmissions@live.com

*It is possible that all submissions may not make the final cut due to space limitations but we’ll try our best to include as many as possible!

Trans Writer and Activist with a Passion for the Written Word

There’s not much for a born-and-bred Massachusetts Democrat to do in a Midwest town like Wichita, Kansas, right? WRONG! As a recent addition to the GLBTQI community of Kansas, Elliot Coale Holloway has had to find ways other than the exceedingly in-your-face, direct activism he was used to doing, and that is coming through by way of writing.

Elliot was born in Western Massachusetts to his two adoring parents in Spring 1989. By the time he graduated high school in 2007, he had not only begun to transition from female-to-male, but had also made such noteworthy achievements as presenting a workshop about anti-transgender discrimination at the 2007 True Colors Conference in New Britain, Connecticut and joining four other young activists in receiving the 2007 Elsie Frank PFLAG Scholarship. Since then he has done his best to continue on his activist work through both protests and pride events, as well as through writing.

Now that he calls Kansas home, he feels that he has been given a great opportunity to do his good work of promoting trans-equality and visibility, and plans to do this by being as “loud and proud” as possible.

Links to Elliot Coale Holloway:

Friend Elliot on Myspace!

Elliot is also on Facebook! just search for “Elliot Coale Holloway” to find him!

Ryka Aoki de la Cruz is a writer, composer, chemist, black belt, and moonshiner who has recently featured at the National Queer Arts Festival, the National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, Ladyfest South 2007, Atlanta Pride, UCLA’s OutCRY, and Fresh Meat.

In 2005, Ryka was the inaugural performer for San Francisco Pride’s first ever Transgender Stage. She has also worked with the American Association of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors, and two of her compositions have been adopted by the group as its official “Songs of Peace.”

Ryka has been honored by the California State Senate for her work with Trans/Giving, LA’s only art/performance series dedicated to trans, genderqueer, and intersex artists. She was formerly head judo coach at UCLA and Cornell University, and is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.

Listen To “A Daughters Prayer” by Ryka Aoki De La Cruz

Find Ryka Aoki De La Cruz on the Web!

Rykas’ Official Website : RykaRyka.com

Friend Ryka on Myspace here!

Visual Art, Writer, Spoken Word Performer, Actor, Activist/Speaker

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a Visual Artist, Writer, Performer, Actor, Carpenter, Welder and Activist. He lives in New Mexico, with his two genius dogs. He works as an organizer with LGBT and straight ally youth and as a journeyman stagehand/carpenter.

Cooper’s visual art and performance have been exhibited nationally.
He is a veteran performer of the legendary Sister Spit tours, as well as the Lowdown Highway book tour. He has performed individually at institutions of higher learning ,sleazy bars and everything in between all across the country.
You can check out some of his writing in the anthologies Lowdown Highway, From the Inside Out-Radical Gender Transformation FTM and Beyond, and the forthcoming anthology Gendered Hearts. Cooper is widely known as the dude on the cover of the Drag King Book. He is currently working on his first novel. He would love to jump in your van for a tour!

Contact Cooper

Articles featuring Cooper:

Dealbreakers – Our Chart

TransNation Article – San Francisco Bay Times

Author

Jacob Anderson-Minshall writes the syndicated column, TransNation. He co-hosts the Gender Blender radio show on KBOO radio, co-authors the Blind Eye Mystery series, freelances for Just Out, Bitch magazine & KBOO news and co-hosts the QLiterati! reading series.

Gender Blender airs monthly on kboo.fm one Tuesday 6-7 pm PST. QLiterati! is the 2nd Tuesday of every month at Portland, OR’s QCenter. TransNation comes out every Thursday. Jacob’s writing in Just Out comes out bi-weekly

Jacob Anderson-Minshalls’ Links:

Anderson-Minshall.com – Official Website

TransNation – Jacobs Column

Blind Eye Mystery Series – Myspace

QLiterati – Myspace

Gender Blender – on kboo.fm

(Former female Sam Peterson describes his forays into a brave new world of masculinity via therapy and testosterone: one that involves “manfirmations,” sublime hilarity at the expense of self, and just general all’round trananigans. – ThaManSam.blogspot.com)

Sam Peterson is a Sam-of-all-trades. He’s tattooed AIDS activist/performance artist Diamanda Galas, been filmed by the Discovery Channel for their documentary on artists and piercing, been filmed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (TransGeneration, The Eyes of Tammy Faye), taught feminist porn-writing with Gynomite!, escaped from a cult, and played guitar at CBGBs. And that was before he manned-up!

There is no voice on the interwebs quite like Sam’s. His trans-cendant writing arcs past the union between the hormone-filled syringe and an anticipatory thigh. The path from F to M, so frequently rendered by a butch line drawing, in Sam’s world is a full-blown ecstatic vision. Sam decodes trans as the ultimate Trickster, waiting for that moment of silence to create mischief and even mayhem.
Sam hails from Austin, via Manhattan by way of D.C. seeing it ALL along the way. He works in Chapel Hill, NC now, painting out of his home studio, writing incessantly, and cracking wise about the tragicomic pratfalls of being a middle-aged former woman with an 18 year old boy’s brain, which, after decades of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and body modification, seems pretty darn placid.

Sam is gregarious, warm, and articulate. He would be delighted to speak at your college, school, bath house, or bank. Join him for a night of witty, gritty, savory, and sweet readings that will leave you wanting more.

For booking information, please contact Sam through Trans-Genre, or you can Email Sam Directly.

Links to Sam Peterson:

Sam’s personal blog – Tha Man Sam

Artwork by Sam Peterson – Hands of Sam

Spoken Word

Kit is a transgender boi, who has been slamming since he was 18 and has won numerous slams and toured all over the country. Kit has featured with nationally recognized poets like Jason Carney, Iyeoka Okoawo, Reggie Gibson and Michael Brown.

Before the age of 21, he landed a spot in the Lizard Lounge national slam team, competed in the Individual World Poetry Slam, and won the world’s largest slam. Kit’s words speak as if having a heart-to-heart with you, taking you to his home in Hawaii, to the streets of pride parades, and through his transition as an Asian American female to a male Transgender artist.

Kit’s pieces will bring you to tears as he navigates topics such as racism, sexism, and transphobia even within minority communities. Kit also uses comedy to speak to audiences providing a complete picture filled with positive and comedic stories about being queer, transgender, and Asian.

Currently he is one half of the nationally touring duo, The Good Asian Drivers, a music and spoken word group with award-winning composer and singer-songwriter Melissa Li.

Current Tour Schedule

Links:

Good Asian Drivers Website : the official Website of Good Asian Drivers, with more photo’s, music,  info, and an updated tour schedule.
Good Asian Drivers Myspace page : Friend the Good Asian Drivers on Myspace here!
Good Asian Drivers Youtube : find videos for Good Asian Drivers on Youtube!

(<–photo by Kelly G.)

Writer, Musician, Performer, Activist

Jamez Terry (alias Vermicious Knid) is a zine-writing, fiddle-playing, tomato- loving, radical tranny boy. In 2004, he co-founded the Tranny Roadshow and has since brought fantastic trans performance art all around North America. Jamez’ performances blend storytelling, humor, poetry, music, and sometimes circus costumes, drawing audiences into his unique world where laughter, adventure, and revelation abound.

Jamez has published more than 50 zines in the last 10 years with writings that include politics, fiction, poetry, personal stories, and humor. His zines have been featured in exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Center for Book Arts, as well as in the Zine Yearbook #8 and many other printed collections. In 2003, Jamez co-founded the Denver Zine Library, which quickly became one of America’s preeminent zine libraries and was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Jamez has worked in multiple queer activist settings, providing trans education at conferences, schools, churches, and nonprofits around the country. In addition to trans 101 and other introductory topics, Jamez has conducted workshops on HIV prevention for trans youth; zines and the trans community; working with trans survivors of sex assault; and addressing trans issues within radical communities.

In addition to being a traveling tranny performance artist and educator, Jamez is a history geek and an aspiring minister. These days, you are as likely to find him giving presentations on presidential assassins or liberal sermons as to find him on the performance stage.

Jamez moves as often as possible, in order to keep wreaking havoc in new parts of the world. He is currently living in Chesterville, ME, but dreaming of his eventual return to Alaska.

Links:

Tranny Roadshow
Denver Zine Library
Weekend Edition

Performer, Speaker, Spoken Word

Vince “Loki” Diaz is a 26 year old Comedian, Pagan, Priest, AND Goth who grew up in a Latino Roman Catholic background. He has been featured in American Goth, a documentary by Ryan Rhea (2005), and has done sporadic tour dates within the Missouri pagan and gothic communities.

Born in San Truce Puerto Rico, and raised by Latino Roman Catholic Assimilationist Republicans, Loki has much to say. His sometimes whimsical- most times powerful- stories hit you like a subway train. While trying to Balance his life as a pagan minister he tries to point out the “Queergods” that the gender binary obsessed culture fails to recognize. He currently resides in Portland Oregon spinning tales to expand thought.

Inspired by artists like George Carlin, 2 Gryphon, Margret Cho & Eddie Izzard, Loki decided that anything is possible, including expanding peoples’ consciousness through humor. And more amazing, though, is the possibility that people will listen.

Links:

Friend Vince “Loki” Diaz on myspace here!

Performer, Speaker, Spoken Word

Kestryl Cael is a performer, activist, slam poet, and gender revolutionary. When forced to choose a label, he identifies as a transgender butch. Kestryl Cael has appeared on-stage at conferences, colleges, festivals, and local theatres. He considers it his artistic duty to engage his audiences in critical thought without letting them take him (or themselves) too seriously.

XY(T), Kestryl’s solo performance debut, had it’s world premiere in Portland, Oregon, and it’s NYC premiere at UNDER St. Marks, as part of the 2008 FRIGID Fringe Festival. Critics described Kestryl Cael’s work as “provocative,” “brave,” “appealingly wry,” “heartfelt,” “profound,” and “essential.” XY(T) will next appear as part of the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC).

Kestryl wrote his first play at age seven, an epic melodrama involving masks, unicorns, tigers, and entirely gender-neutral casting. After being cast as “The Father” in his 2nd school play, he has consistently been cast in roles that conflict with the gender of his audition—most recently, he portrayed a high-femme drag queen rendition of “The Duchess” in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Kestryl Cael was an ensemble member in “The Language of Paradox,” a performance group directed by Kate Bornstein. Having graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in Theatre and Anthropology, he is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Performance Studies at NYU.

Kestryl Cael is currently developing 348, his newest solo performance piece. 348 is a searing examination of madness and forced institutionalization in America, rooted in Kestryl’s own experiences of being held against his will in a “therapeutic boarding school” for a year as a teenager. As part of PoMo Freakshow Productions, Kestryl is currently working with his partner, Sassafras Lowrey, to develop a performance examining the politics of passing. Traitors without (T)reason explores the themes of betrayal, privilege, invisibility, sacrifice, subversion, and loss that are inextricably tied into public passing.

Kestryl Cael lives in New York City with his partner, two puddle-shaped cats, and a chihuachsund.

Links:

Pomo Freakshow – Official Site

Friend Kestryl on Myspace here!

Author, Artist, Performer, and Activist

Sassafras Lowrey is a genderqueer high femme, militant storyteller, author, artist, performer, and activist. Ze believes that everyone has a story to tell, and that the telling of those stories is essential in order to create social change.

Hir visual art has been showcased in conferences and galleries across the United States, including the “Fresh Meat” Gallery in San Francisco, and the legendary “Southern Comfort” conference in Atlanta. An accomplished storyteller, ze was an original member of “The Language of Paradox” founded and directed by Kate Bornstein and was honored as one of Portland’s top emerging writers by In Other Words Feminist books and resources in 2004. . Ze is also a contributing author for LGBTQ: America Today a three-volume 600,000 word encyclopedia from Greenwood Press.

Hir first book GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly is scheduled for release from the queer publisher Homofactus Press. Additionally, Sassafras is the editor of the Kicked Out anthology also from Homofactus Press which is bringing together the voices of current and former LGBTQ youth from around the world who were forced to leave home as a result of their sexuality and/or gender identity.

Sassafras Lowrey has led workshops at schools, conferences, and for community groups across the country including The Portland Zine Symposium, NYAC’s (National Youth Advocacy Coalition) conference in Washington DC, and Sylvia’s Place emergency LGBT youth shelter in Manhattan. In addition to workshops and presentations, Sassafras designed and taught the ‘Gender Revolution: Explorations in Gender Transgression” at Portland State University as part of the revolutionary Chiron Studies program.

Sassafras is available to teach/facilitate workshops and lecture on a variety of topics, all of which can be tailored to a specific audience. You can find more information about bringing Sassafras to your campus or organization including rates, and detailed workshop descriptions here…

Sassafras lives in New York City with hir partner, two puddle-shaped- cats, and a princess dog.

Websites:

Pomo Freakshow Official Site!

Friend Sassafras on Myspace here!

Kicked Out on Myspace here!

TransNation Article – Sassafras Lowrey