Transcripts

But first, we’re bringing you a special piece from our friends at KCRW’s Bodies podcast. It’s a piece that’s both powerful and informative, and it does this thing that I really love: it’s reporting about a trans person, but it doesn’t do all sorts of unnecessary explaining about pronouns or identity. Instead, it focuses on what the person does, and their impact on the wider community. 

"Do Less Harm" is about a person named Lill, who lives in Appalachian West Virginia — it’s coal country, and it’s also the overdose capital of the United States. An increasingly dangerous drug supply and a lack of safe supplies like clean syringes leave people who use drugs vulnerable to disease and death. Lill is trying to fill that gap, providing safe supplies and care all over West Virginia — even as the government tries to stop them.

And as for the next Transcripts episode, well-- it might be made by YOU! We’re soliciting audio from both new and experienced audio-makers, stuff made in ProTools and stuff made with an iPhone, whatever, as long as it’s unique and trans. We have a little budget to pay for some new pieces, too, which is cool! Full details will be up on our twitter account @transcriptspod and you can vote for the first season’s “theme” starting on October 25th. So go over and follow us if you don’t already, and get thinking about what story YOU could tell.

Learn more about Lill, and the science behind harm reduction:

• Episode Transcript
• Resources for Safer Drug Use
• CDC Recommendations to fight HIV in West Virginia
• Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction
• Drug Use for Grown-Ups by Carl Hart

We dropped a shortened version of this audio a few weeks ago. We're thrilled to announce that we can now present an extended version of this episode, which features all the original voices plus a new interview with Kayla Gore, Co-Founder of the Memphis-based organization My Sistah's House. 

We hope you take this opportunity to listen to the whole show again! But if you just want the new content-- which is amazing-- feel free to start at 29:14. 

More from us soon! Thanks for listening, and we're especially grateful for all who have shared their voices with us. 

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Donate to My Sistah's House here.

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This episode was supported by a grant from Virginia Humanities. We're part of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, a program of the University of Minnesota Libraries. 

Sound design is by Sam Leeds with Ariana Martinez. Musical direction is by Homoground. You heard music by Brand New Key, Delish Da Goddess, Special Interest, khx05, Mama Duke, and data data data. You also heard protest tape from Richmond-based radio reporter Mallory Noe-Payne of RADIO IQ.

And go check out the artist féi hernandez, who designed our podcast logo; they have a great new book of poetry out called hood criatura.

Special thanks to LaVelle Ridley, Kai Minosh Pyle, one anonymous reviewer, and Tuck Woodstock. Thanks also to Mara Lazer and Cookie Woolner for additional scene tape. And finally, thank you to everyone who supported us over the last few months; we really appreciate your feedback and generosity.

The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, which is based at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Major funding for this episode came from Virginia Humanities.

Hi everyone, this episode I’m turning the mic over to Leo Valdes, a PhD student from Rutgers University. They’ve been working with the Voces Oral History Project at UT Austin and the Latino New Jersey Oral History Project, and recently have been conducting interviews w trans Latinx people about their experiences with Covid-19.

This interview is in Spanish, with short interludes narrated in English. Even if you are a monolingual English speaker, I encourage you to listen the best you can, and hear the emotion and clarity in Viviana's voice. Also, Leo's a great writer and their interludes are beautiful. 

Additional music in this episode is from Blue Dot Sessions, and from Thalía's song "A Quien Le Importa."

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Transcripts is a project of Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, a project of the University of Minnesota Libraries. And we have a BRAND NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT at @transcriptspod, please go give us a follow and spread the word. Thanks again for being on this journey with us, and talk to you soon.

Today, an episode of Queer The Table, a show that describes itself as about "the joyful, messy, radical magic that happens in spaces where queerness and food intersect." I met host Nico Wisler when they were working on an episode of the podcast Bodies, but they reached out recently to share this amazing interview they did with Black trans activist Ianne Fields Stewart of The Okra Project. You'll hear how the project got started, what they're doing to keep supporting Black trans people during COVID, and how they're trying to leverage their suddenly much-larger platform while being mindful of their own capacity, which is NOT EASY. Take a listen.

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Quick programming note-- in TWO weeks, we'll be putting out our first non-English-language episode, a collab with a new Latinx oral history project, and then in FOUR weeks we'll have a brand new in-house produced episode from the Tretter Trans Oral History project! This new episode focuses on trans Southerners and their struggles to achieve housing justice, even though "home" is a fraught and sometimes even traumatizing idea. We have such a powerful set of voices, plus some genuinely incredible radical trans southern music, and we're so stoked to share. So be on the lookout for that soon!

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We're Transcripts, a project of Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, a project of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Keep listening for more from us-- we're about to launch some big things, including virtual community events, new social media, and more! So as always, please rate and review, share with a friend, and help us grow. Talk soon.

With that in mind, it feels like today is the right day bring you a piece that focuses on thinking transness across borders. This episode is called "They / Them," and it's from Fil Corbitt's new show The Wind. I love love love these deeply felt conversations about language beyond the gender binary in English, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Portuguese and Hebrew. I learned a lot, and I think you will too. 

We're Transcripts, a project of Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, a project of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Keep listening for more from us-- we're about to launch some big things, including virtual community events, new social media (!!!), and more! 

So as always, please rate and review, share with a friend, and help us grow. See you next time. 

I decided not to post yesterday on our regular every-other-Wednesday schedule because honestly, I didn't know what to say. But I definitely don't want to go another two weeks without bringing you this trailer for Transition of Style, a podcast that takes fashion seriously as a trans way of forming our identities. I really love how host Phil aka Corrine thinks about style as a way to unpack gender-- it reminds me of what the scholar Jules Gill-Peterson says about gender as an aesthetic form, which is a whole conversation that maybe I'll ask Jules to come talk about one day. But! Here's the trailer for Transition of Style, from Phil aka Corrine.

Thanks so much for listening-- this is Transcripts, a project of the University of Minnesota Libraries, bringing you both original content and unique voices from across the trans audio landscape. Happy new year and stay safe out there.

Today's episode is called "Parable and Preppers," from the new podcast Queers at the End of the World. This is show is by Nina McQuown and Nat Mesnard, and it's a show about "nerdy queer and trans folks prepping for the apocalypse [...] by talking about books, games, shows, movies and comics." 

This conversation really takes you on a journey: from a bunker is Southwest Virginia waiting out Y2K, to an exploration of cross-dressing as survival in Octavia Butler, to how to have your Go-bag ready.

This is going to be our last episode in 2020, and thanks to each of you for being part of what gave me joy this year. And thanks, too, to the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, a project of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Have a great new year, and we'll talk to you in 2021.

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You can find out more about Queers at the End of the World @queerworldspodcast on Instagram, by going to queerworlds.com, or by emailing queerworldspodcast@gmail.com. The incredible show art is by Ellie Yanigasawa, @elliethecosmicjelly on Instagram. 

This week: a clip of an episode that Mara Lazer made for a mini series called "e4e", embodied 4 embodied. In conversations with trans viewers and makers of porn, Mara investigates porn as a healing portal for trans people seeking embodiment.

Find Mara on Twitter @LazerMara

You can listen to the whole episode on The Heart's website or  by searching "stop living on video" by The Heart wherreverrrr you listen to podcasssstsss  (bonus consonants added by Mara, lol)

"stop living on video" was written, sound designed & produced by Mara Lazer, edited by Nicole Kelly & Phoebe Unter, with editorial advisement from Sharon Mashihi and Ari Mejia.

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Transcripts is a production of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, a program of the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're currently funded by Virginia Humanities. You can learn more about us at bit.ly/transcriptspod. Thanks for listening

You might have noticed that we took a short break last week-- we'll be back in your feeds this upcoming Wednesday with an amazing piece by friend of the show and award-winning trans audio producer Mara Lazer. In the meantime, we wanted just to let you know that féi hernandez, the illustrator who did our AMAZING show art, has a new book of poems out called Hood Criatura, and there's a virtual launch party TONIGHT (if you're hearing this on December 5th). Whether you can make the party or not, I HIGHLY recommend that you go check out their work at their website, feihernandez.com.

Hope you have a great rest of your weekend!

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Press description of Hood Criatura:

In this stunning debut collection, Inglewood-raised poet féi hernandez weaves an intricate latticework of stories in the betwixt and between. Hood Criatura explores the intersections of trans and queer resilience, citizenship and belonging, and resistance against gentrification that threatens both city and the body. hernandez’s poems take us through a coming-of-age story that delineates the existential wars of gender, race, sexuality, and im/migration, as well as the pains and joys that bind communities, family, and love. In a world that seeks to simplify and reduce the self to binary boundaries, Hood Criatura serves as a reminder of what it means to exist unbounded, to claim all of the multitudes within us that make us who we are. Masterfully juxtaposed in myriad poetic forms throughout the book, these poems are a love letter to all of us who exist within liminal spaces and who dare to claim one’s true self.

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
, Virginia Humanities, and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. 

This week, we bring you a small show that's doing an incredible job bringing the voices of incarcerated people, including trans and gender non-conforming people, to the airwaves. It's called Kite Line, and it's based at WFHB Community Radio in South Central Indiana. I love finding shows that are doing crucial justice work in so-called "red states." No one, and no place, is disposable. 

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Original show notes:

Our episode this week is a conversation between Rojas and Cyrus, two advocates with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.  CCWP is an organization that exists, in their words, to “monitor and challenge the abusive conditions inside California women’s prisons. We fight for the release of women and trans prisoners. We support women and trans people in their process of re-entering the community.” Rojas and Cyrus address the conditions of transgender and gender non-conforming prisoners, or GNC prisoners, in the California prison system. Subject to increased surveillance and retaliation from both cops on the outside and correctional officers on the inside, Rojas speaks out about what they were subjected to while within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation- or CDCR.

You can find out more about the California Coalition for Women Prisoners at: womenprisoners.org

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
, Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab, and Virginia Humanities. Check out our website at bit.ly/transcriptspod, and don't forget to rate and review us. Thank you!

This week, an audio meditation that my friend Arlie Adlington and I made about trans care and support across borders. We produced this short piece earlier in the pandemic for Jacobin's podcast The Dig and their series Antibody: thanks so much to everyone at The Dig, and especially Liza Yaeger, for allowing us to share this with you all. 

Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you're feeling able to participate in acts of solidarity and care this week, whatever that means to you.

The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation, the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab, and Virginia Humanities.

This week, we're presenting a pilot podcast episode from the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ (Plus) Oral History Project, which is based in Roanoke, Virginia, a small city in the Appalachian foothills. Gregory Samantha Rosenthal, a dedicated oral historian and public scholar, is training queer and trans people to collect stories from their peers and elders, and this podcast is derived from those oral histories. I love these voices and I love the spirit in which they're collected. The tape is sometimes gutting, but it's not without bright spots-- especially listen for the tape of "the condom lady" 20 minutes in. 

The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
 and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. I'm producer Cassius Adair. 

Another installment in our Fall Anti-Fascist Radio series, this time from the Asheville-based show The Final Straw Radio. I'm so heartened by the work that audio producers are putting in so we can hear the voices of incarcerated trans people-- doing an interview with someone who's in prison takes some different methods, and I'm really grateful that we get to share this interview with you. (PS-- there are two interviews in the full episode, we cut out the second one for time, but I encourage you to listen to both on the website for the original audio!)

Thanks so much, and please rate and review if you'd like to help us out! And donate to your local mutual aid fund. 

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Original Show Notes:

First you’ll hear Jennifer Rose. Jennifer, formerly known as Jennifer Gann, is a member of the Fire Ant Collective which just released it’s 6th issue and is due to put out another very soon. She is a trans woman who came up in the southern California punk scene, became politicized and began organizing inside of prison since the late 1990’s. Read the transcription below. You can learn more about Jennifer Rose’s case by visiting BabyGirlGann.noblogs.org where you can find out how to donate to her legal fund. You can read issues #1-5 of Fire Ant Journal up at Bloomington ABC’s website & #6 at Blue Ridge ABC’s website. And you can write to Jennifer at:

Jennifer Rose E – 23852
Salinas Valley State Prison D3-1250
P.O. Box 1050
Soledad, CA 93960

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
 and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. Find out more about us at bit.ly/transcriptspod. 

Next up in our "trans anti-fascist Fall podcast series," an episode of Rustbelt Abolition Radio about how queer and trans struggles are linked to abolishing prison and detention centers. It's difficult stuff, but timely and important. Some of this audio is hard to hear: you can use the episode transcription to follow along or as an alternative method of engaging this material. 

Quick note: since this episode was first released, some things have changed-- Dr. Treva Ellison now works at Pomona College, and the scholar-activist Tourmaline was referred to in this episode by a former name. 

This episode contains descriptions of physical violence and abuse in detention.

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ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES:

In this episode we examine the relationships between carcerality, gendered and sexual violence on the one hand, and on the other: queer and trans liberation and the abolitionist horizon.

Josue Saldivar and Karolina Lopez from the Arizona-based organization Mariposas Sin Fronteras discuss the ways that migrants fleeing heteropatriarchal and transphobic oppression in their home countries are re-subjected to this abuse through the gendered and sexual operations of the U.S. carceral state and its militarized borders. We also speak with abolitionist scholar and activist, Treva Ellison, who examines the ways in which racial capitalism has continuously reproduced queer criminality, and how queer abolition may fundamentally shift our understanding of the geographies of carcerality.

To learn more about Mariposas Sin Fronteras and ways to support their work, click here.

Image credit: Abby Gordon

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
 and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. You can learn more about us at bit.ly/transcriptspod. Thanks for listening. 

To inspire us to keep up the good fight, this episode kicks off a short series of shows about combatting fascism from a trans perspective. First up, from History is Gay, a Nazi-fighter from a century ago. (Note: this episode is slightly abridged for time.) 

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Original show notes:

Claude Cahun's name might not be well known, but their work as an artist has been hugely influential in the lives of many Western pop culture icons (David Bowie, for example). But the line between life and art wasn't always so clear for Claude Cahun and their life partner Marcel Moore. Whether it was fucking with gender norms in self portraiture or fucking with Nazis during World War II, Claude never did things in a straightforward manner. We'll say it again, "Nazi punks, f*ck off!" Now with surrealism! Longer notes and some extremely classic trans images here. 

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
 and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. 

Slow-Burn Seeking, is a short work of audio fiction inspired by text from dozens of 80's & 90's era personal ads drawn from an archive of the On Our Backs women's erotica magazine. Using only remixed text from these ads and from their own contemporary dating profile, Ariana Martinez composed this heart-to-heart conversation between a lovesick queer, nonbinary person still finding their footing and a benevolent queer ghost (voiced by Casey Orozco-Poore). This re-imagined conversation makes space for more expansive readings of gender than were present in the original archival material and lays bare some of the questions and anxieties that come with seeking love and physical intimacy as a nonbinary person. 

This work originally aired on March 17, 2020 on BBC Radio 4’s Short Cuts with support from Falling Tree Productions. 

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
 and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. 

On today's Transcripts, we're bringing you an episode of Tuck Woodstock's show Gender Reveal. Recently, Tuck's been on the front lines of the uprising in Portland, Oregon, reporting on racial justice in the midst of tear gas and police abuse and federal agents snatching people up in vans. But in their other life, Tuck is an amazing podcaster and overall good trans media-maker. We're especially excited to share this epsiode because Transcripts is about centering trans activism and its many histories, and you'll get to hear Tuck's interview with the amazing Alyssa Pariah (she/her), a Black trans activist and one of the smartest liberation thinkers out there. 

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Content warning from Tuck: "today's episode includes frequent discussion of murder, police brutality, and death, as well as brief explicit descriptions of sex. So please take care of yourself."

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This is Transcripts, bringing you both original programming and a round-up of the best and brightest in trans audio. We're a program of the University of Minnesota Libraries. To learn more about us, go to bit.ly/transcriptspod. See you in two weeks for more trans activist brilliance. Thanks for listening!

We're back with another "Transcripts Presents" episode, bringing you the latest and greatest in trans audio. We have some amazing stuff queued up for you this summer while our team is working hard fundraising for the next few episodes. Today, we're bringing you the trailer for a brand new show that we love: Country Queers. It's about home, resilience, and building power where you are. And it's really really good. 

And hey, if you like what we're doing, please rate and review us in your podcast app! We're not selling ads or anything, but we really want to make sure folks can find the show, and ratings / reviews helps that to happen. Thank you so much. 

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Original show notes: 

When Rae Garringer set out to gather rural and small town LGBTQIA+ histories in 2013, they had no formal training in oral history or audio recording. They were motivated by a deep frustration that it was so hard to find rural queer stories, and an intense personal need to connect with other rural queers. In this episode you'll learn more about Rae and the history of the ongoing multimedia oral history project: Country Queers.

Learn more at www.countryqueers.com and become a patron of the show at https://countryqueers.com/help-fund-this-project/. And be sure to check out the amazing work of the STAY Project and Southerners On New Ground for more intersectional queer and trans work focused on rural spaces. 

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This is Transcripts, bringing you both original programming and a round-up of the best and brightest in trans audio. We're a program of the University of Minnesota Libraries. To learn more about us, go to bit.ly/transcriptspod. See you in two weeks for more trans activist brilliance.

Hi y'all, this is our first "Transcripts Presents" episode, where we bring you the latest and greatest in trans audio. First up, a sample of Diamond Stylz's show "Marsha's Plate." Diamond was one of the guests on episode one-- she's the one who became an activist after making it big on YouTube and now runs Black Transwomen Inc. She also runs her incredible podcast along Mia Mix and Zee, fellow Houston-based digital strategists, black feminists, civil right advocates, and black trans people. 

This episode, Black Podcast Joy, really showcases what I love about this show-- it's honest, straightforward, and you can hear trans people disagree with each other in nuanced and loving ways. 

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Original show notes: On Today’s Menu: on Marsha’s Plate we talk about how extending your self as a trans resource can put you in harms way, we talk about our favorite Black podcasts in the industry, then we talk about Black trans folks you should be watching.

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If you loved this show, please go subscribe and drop some money in the Marsha's Plate patreon at Patreon.com/MarshasPlate. This is Transcripts, bringing you both original programming and a round-up of the best and brightest in trans audio. We're a program of the University of Minnesota Libraries. To learn more about us, go to bit.ly/transcriptspod. See you in two weeks for more trans activist brilliance.

We're dropping a bonus track today because we think you need to hear this conversation RIGHT NOW. This is the recording from our show launch event at the Minnesota Institute of Art in Minneapolis. Hear our hosts Myrl Beam and Andrea Jenkins in dialogue with LaSaia Wade (Brave Space Alliance) and Diamond Stylz (Black Transwomen Inc). They discuss the uprisings against white supremacy and police brutality, the relationship between anti-Black racism and COVID-19, and how YOU can help them in their work. 

The audio is a little wonky because it's a Zoom call. Transcription will be up on our website soon. Special thanks to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Third Thursday Event Host Ameriprise, to the Mark and Mary Goff Fiterman Lecture Fund, and especially to Anniessa Antar. 

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Donate:

Black Visions Collective

Black Trans Femmes in the Arts

Black Trans Protestors Emergency Fund

The Okra Project

For the Gworls - Medical Fund

G.L.I.T.S. - Gays and Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute

Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project

Art Hoe Collective

Homeless Black Trans Women Fund

Trans Women of Color Collective

Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative

The Transgender District

Borealis Philanthropy

Trans Justice Funding Project

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Even though transgender-themed TV shows like Transparent and Pose have achieved mainstream popularity, trans people still face huge barriers to employment, housing, and safety. In fact, many trans people of color say that their lives are harder than ever before. In this first episode, "I’m Seeing My Liberation Right Now," hosts Myrl Beam (Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Minnesota) and Andrea Jenkins (Minneapolis City Council) investigate how trans activists are grappling with those contradictions - and what they’re doing to change the system.

Guests include LaSaia Wade, founder of the Brave Space Alliance, Diamond Stylz of Black Transwomen Inc., Gabriel Foster, founder of the Trans Justice Funding Project, Rickke Mananzala, former Executive Director of FIERCE, and Dean Spade, founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law.

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Donate to Brave Space Alliance and Black Transwomen Inc! 

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Learn more at bit.ly/transcriptspod.

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Myrl Beam, senior project scholar, producer, and oral historian for the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project.
Cassius Adair, lead producer.
Rachel Mattson, managing producer and curator of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies.
Myra Billund-Phibbs, production assistant.

Sound design: Ariana Martinez
Musical direction: Casper
Podcast logo art: féi hernandez
Digital designer: Lars Mackenzie
Transcriptionist: Raines Whittaker
Banner design: Students in Fall 2019 Augsburg College Design & Agency class

“Villian,” by Jupiter Gray
“Trenches,” by Carlx
Protest recording by Tom Callahan at Sensitive Visuals
Selection of “Guaranteed Broken Heart” used with permission from Karen and the Sorrows

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Special thanks to:

Erisa Apantaku
Vidhya Aravind
Hideo Higashibaba
Juliet Hinely
Kelly Jones
Anja Kanngieser
LaVelle Ridley
Tuck Woodstock

Donate to Brave Space Alliance and Black Transwomen, Inc.

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Music: "Villian" by Jupiter Gray.

Sound from 2017 trans liberation march in Chicago courtesy of Tom Callahan of Sensitive Visuals.

Podcast art by féi hernandez.

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A program of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota. Learn more at bit.ly/transcriptspod.