WEBVTT - Ellipses, Not Periods 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.640 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to ook F Daily with 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.840 Me your Girl, daniel Moody recording pre recording from the 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.959 home bunker, Folks, I am taking a few days away, 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.319 but you know that I'm never too far away, so 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.400 make sure that you are following me on social media 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.280 at D two sense Danielle Moody underscore on TikTok, Folks, 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.600 I am very excited to welcome to the show. Transgender 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:45.720 rights activist Dominique Morgan. Dominique is the first transgender woman 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.640 Black woman to have a street named after her in 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.600 the entire country in Omaha, where she grew up. And 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.960 in this conversation, we talk about you know what block 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.720 black trans women face in this country. We talk about 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.720 you know, her as a role model, and the work 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.320 that is still needed to be done for trans people 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.200 to be able to live free and safe in their bodies, 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:21.559 and the horrendous laws that are being introduced to limit 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:27.240 their humanity. And so this conversation was recorded prior to 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.520 the seismic shift that we've had in our politics with 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:35.319 a switch in candidates for the Democratic Party. But nonetheless, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.360 the issues and the stakes still remain the same. So 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:48.640 coming up next, my conversation with transgender activists Dominique Morgan, Folks, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.520 I am so very happy to welcome to WOKF Daily, 0:01:54.080 --> 0:02:01.520 the director of Fund for Transgenerations, a activist, a warrior 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:06.520 for justice in so many different ways, and I think 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.400 still to this point, the first black trans woman to 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:17.320 have a street named after them in the entirety of 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:23.920 the United States. Dominique Morgan, talk to us about that honor. 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.080 I mean, in all of the streets in all of 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.520 the United States. In Almaha, Nebraska, there is a street 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:37.160 that is named after you in a historically black neighborhood. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.760 Walk us through how we got there. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.640 You know, the short answer is black women. And the 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:50.280 background of that is Miss Kathy Tyree, who has been 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.040 in community back home for years, activists and an actress 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.840 and a musician. And one day she was just like, 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.440 do you think they would do this? And you know, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.320 she was like, I'm going to pick up the application, 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.840 I'm going to put it in. And there were multiple 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.000 black women who pushed this forward. The city council person. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.360 It needed to be a unanimous vote or they would 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:11.880 have had to go door to door for people to 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.080 say they wanted to happen. So Miss Jackson, I be 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.840 Black Girl. It had to be sponsored by a nonprofit organization. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.560 So it was these multiple moments where black women were 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.000 saying this was important. And as a street I grew 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.480 up on in North Omaha, and Simone Sanders is a 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.560 good friend of mine, I know, you know Samone. So 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.320 Simone had gotten her street renaming earlier that year back 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.960 in our hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, and it was just really, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.320 I don't have the words for to understand how it feels, 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.640 because there are moments it just feels very surreal in 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.880 regards to just what it means. That's the same street 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:51.800 that I got arrested on when I was twelve years old, 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.280 the first time that I had an interaction with the 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.560 police system. And that day my juvenile judge, who is 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.400 a person who sentenced me to juve, now, she was 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:07.000 there at the street naming, and so that street for 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.600 many reasons, both of my parents have passed on. But 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:11.400 the house I grew up in is the house my 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.280 grandmother owned. It was a beautiful not a period to 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.919 the end of that sentence. But and I my brain 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.680 is I'm with these journalism folks. Whatever the symbol is 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.320 that tells you that there's more to the paragraph, but 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:25.320 it makes it clear. 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:30.760 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, ellipses the ellips yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.159 It was. It was very much that for a life 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.400 that has already I've already been very privileged and blessed, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.120 but it was a clear it was ellipses for anyone 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.159 who's been through the things that I've been through, that 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:43.400 there's more. 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.320 I love that and you know the fact that you 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.400 ended that with with there's more, right, Because what I 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.960 find is when we are talking about the lgbt Q 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:59.040 plus community, but when we're talking specifically about black queer people, 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.680 black trans folks, it is almost as if everything is 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:08.200 a period and not an ellipses, that there isn't more 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:16.320 behind the stats, behind the stereotypes, behind the trauma. So 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:20.359 can you talk about what it even means to say 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.479 that you've had so many points of privilege in a 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:28.120 community that we don't normally equate with having any privilege 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.919 at all, and what that means to you to be 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.279 able to say that in comparison and in conjunction with 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.920 other people's experience inside of the community. 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:45.000 It's so important for me to inventory one if I 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.880 focus on the pieces of my identity that are marginalized 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:51.440 and the way they're marginalized, and I don't look at 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.200 my access. It just internally doesn't allow me to acknowledge 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.599 my journey and what I've done and what I've accomplished 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.920 and what I really have. I think it doesn't allow 0:05:59.960 --> 0:06:03.240 me to be thoughtful and weaponize what I have in 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.120 the best way. Right. And then on the other side, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.840 I never have a fear around calling people into their 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.720 privilege and access because I'm doing the same work and 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.240 I know if I can do that work when I'm 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.000 looking at a white man and asking him to do 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:20.800 that work, when I am sitting in a room with 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.680 a white woman and they start crying. It's like, if 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.800 I can look at my journey from prison, ten years 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.560 in prison, eighteen months in solitary confinement, literally six months 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.360 being housed on death row, and I can talk about 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.599 where I am now, what that means. It means that 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.160 I don't want any sort of excuses from anyone else. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.000 More importantly, it is important as a black trans woman 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.760 for me to figure out how I disenter myself in 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.039 opportunities that come to black trans women because so many 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:54.240 folks talk about divesting from scarcity. If your cup is full, 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.120 if you know your cup is full, even if you 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.440 want more poured into it, it just that's a rule. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.080 And so if I am not thinking about what level 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.000 my cup is a naturally I'm gonna want more and 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.520 more and more. But if I'm thinking about it, I 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:10.760 can have all I need and I can be thoughtful 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.240 about making sure that my siblings have what they need, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.680 and not by me sacrificing. Like being thoughtful means I 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:20.920 don't have to do the work from sacrifice. I can 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.640 do the work because I'm like, oh, you're good, and 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.400 we can make sure that other people are good. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.840 At the same time, I love that by saying that 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.080 we don't have to do the work from sacrifice, because 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.680 there has in many ways. I feel that a lot 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.200 of people inside of movement, particularly the LGBTQ movement, though, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.880 believe that in order for there to be any achievements 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.960 that there must be suffering attached to that. Can you 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:54.840 speak to that point about how one can embody activism 0:07:55.640 --> 0:08:00.000 center justice. Let's just say whole justice, whole life justice, 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:05.200 this and it not come from a trauma lens that 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.960 I don't need to suffer in order to be able 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:13.000 to be in solidarity that there can be again more 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.200 than the period at the end of the sentence. Can 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:15.920 you speak to that. 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.920 I tell people often that a lot of the skills 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.960 and ways of knowing that I have that allow me 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:28.040 to navigate spaces and still kind of be grounded come 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.600 from my incarceration. And I say that because one it's 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.520 not I'm not saying that the walls and the institutions 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.280 gave me those moments. It's the people. It was me 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.720 having access to these people that people have said have 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.160 nothing to offer, that taught me some of the most 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.720 powerful moments. And I used to sit with this Arch Kirby. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.319 My prison number was five six eight ninety two and 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.640 that was issued to me in like two thousand and one. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.800 Artist number was like two three zero zero zero something, 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.679 So that's how long he was incarcerated. He was doing life, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:04.920 and he worked in the laundry room, and he did 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:06.600 the same things every day, and he should be like, Arch, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.160 aren't you tired? And he used to be like, I 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.880 can choose to be tired, or I can choose to 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.040 figure out how to find joy in what's in front 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.679 of me. And I think in activism. We are given 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:21.880 these kind of cars that we're dealt. Right, it's like 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.439 planning spades. Sometimes you don't get a hand and you 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:25.720 might not have no spades at all. 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:29.920 Baby, we still got to get well. 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.280 And if you've really been in it, you can't even 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.000 if you're defeated, you can't act like you're defeating. Right, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.080 How to make you think this to a diamonds is 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.480 aasu spade? Come on? And I think that culture, I 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.920 think that mentality. The riches already have the riches because 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.520 I get to do this with my people. If you've 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.800 ever been an activist for yourself alone, which is what 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.160 incarceration is for a lot of people, there's a loneliness 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.480 to it. When I learned that there was something called abolition, 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.240 when I became the executive director of SO I can 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.640 pink and realize ten fifty people will get into a 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:07.120 room and move, I'm like, that's dope. Just the people 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:11.040 coming together is the gift. And I think an outcome 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.360 of white supremacy is putting us in that mindset of scarcity, 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.720 and not just scarcity from access to things, but scarcity 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:21.800 in the belief that we didn't accomplish what we wanted 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.760 to accomplish, and a lot of that is because they 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.400 position us to try to set goals like end world hunger. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.160 I ain't got that, baby. My grace quotient can't hold that. 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.480 I can feed the block, though, And if I focus 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:40.360 on attainable goals, I more times than not get to 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.439 sit in the abundance of accomplishing the thing. I think 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.320 when you look at philanthropy and we look at dollar investment, 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.640 and I said this today, so we were talking to 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.360 some philanthropists. We will fund somebody for one year to 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.560 address the issue that's been happening for thirty years with 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.520 a staff that couldn't even handle the issue on that block. 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.040 And so how are we distributing dollars? How are we 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.240 being in community as philanthropists in a way that support 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.440 people in success and saying, you know what, job well 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:17.760 done funding them multiple years for that anxiety, so that stress, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.520 The idea that someone can innovate while being stressed about 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.840 where the next dollar is coming from is ridiculous. And 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.760 last when not least, what we can name that they're 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.480 the experts and mean it. Those are the things that 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:33.880 as an executive director and even in this role, that 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.439 I've been in for about two years that have given 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.320 me abundance even in the time of scarcity. I know 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.280 what I'm talking about. I do the work well, and 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:44.960 I have a proven track record holding on to those 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.320 things even when I'm in a time where my god, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.720 where's this funding gonna come for next year? Right? I 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.200 raise every dollar I give out. It lets me know 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.520 the room I have to grow, But it never makes 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:04.359 me feel like the room is empty. If that makes. 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.200 What are the ways in which you think that philanthropy 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.960 needs to be disrupted in order to really serve and 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.760 be of service? Because you know, I sit on the 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.320 board of the Misfoundation for Women which I have been 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:19.920 a part of for several years now. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:20.680 Shout out to. 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:27.280 Shout yes, yes, And I will say that Teresa's mindset 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.600 has been about disrupting this idea of, you know, a 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.839 philanthropy which is pretty much built on white people feeling 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.679 very good about what has been stolen and giving back 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.400 what has been stolen from community, right like with the 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.880 name of grant in increments and in the name of grants. 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.040 But then we get to control how you're going to 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.560 use the money that was stolen, right, And so I 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:54.640 feel like in many ways philanthropy has experience and has 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.760 experienced a disruption. But in a moment when we are 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:03.640 seeing that these two political parties, one wants to eviscerate 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:08.480 any social safety, that wants to eviscerate all things that 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:14.120 government should provide to its citizens, philanthropy will have a 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.880 bigger role. Do you think one that this kind of 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:24.360 legacy space can be disruptive and are they prepared do 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:28.280 you think for the role that is going to be needed. 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.880 It's so funny you say this. We were talking about 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.000 this at lunch a little bit one of our colleagues 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.240 where we were talking about the pandemic and we were 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.560 looking at my workbook and it's called Discovering Your Power, 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.360 and they were like, you know, they tapped into their power. 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.280 And I was like, I don't think they tapped into 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.000 their power. I think I think of the Titanic, the 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.360 things that no one could have access to that live 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.360 below board, No one cared about it because the ship 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.520 was sinking. And I feel like philanthropy moved that way 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.280 in the pandemic. We didn't know if we were going 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.199 to what was going to happen, so people were, oh 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:01.760 my god, I get to be radical, I get to 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.440 be excited. I think there was a rush to it. 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.680 I think it was a way for them to feel 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.679 valid and to be a part of things. People enjoy 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.920 oppression who have never had to be oppressed more than 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.240 people talk about. It is a kink. It is a kink, 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.679 and I'm not here yucking anybody's young, come on, but 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.680 it is a kink. And so I say that to 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.520 say we've done it because in the pandemic we did 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.920 disrupt it. The reporting processes changed. You would just get 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:29.600 a phone call, we got one hundred thousand, we got 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.520 a extra this, all those things happened. And I said, 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:34.720 I don't want a lot of people to have to 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.040 be dying for us to figure out how to show up. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.000 And I think what we can be thoughtful of going 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.120 forward is one, let's be reflective about the pandemic, not 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.840 in a let's create a strategy to where we don't 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.680 get back there. But let's not throw away everything. And 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.320 that's the same mentality I talk about my incarceration a lot, 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.520 because that was almost ten years of my life. If 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.320 I threw away everything that happened there, I would be 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:01.800 throwing away some of the pieces that allow me to 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.480 go into a room and ask four million dollars with 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.560 my chestyle. Right, it's the same thing that made me 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.240 go Boston when I didn't really have it in my 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.760 hand and still get it. You understand me, And so 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.560 we can disrupt it because we've done it. People have 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.640 to be excited to not be essential anymore in philanthropy, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.360 and that is as someone who joined the ranks of philanthropy. 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.040 I would be lying if I said a piece of 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.480 the privilege of the cachet wasn't a part of Like, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.120 you know what, I'm tired. I want to be in 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.880 this space and have some of that. But when I 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:35.960 got over here, I realized the more of that I had, 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.320 it meant the further our way I was from my people. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:40.640 So to think of how gagged I am to be 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.240 in philanthropy and be as tired as I was when 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.479 I was running bell support programs every day is interesting. 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.320 But we know how to do it. And so Danielle, 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:53.000 what I'm saying is we can. We have to lock in. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.800 And the last thing is get rid of the language 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.160 that tricks people into thinking that we're doing something we're not. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:03.200 Stop saying trust base we don't trust people. Stop saying right, right, 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.760 that's right now, But it's true. Right. A lot of 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.120 the disappointment of community is predicated on we've given them 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.600 a false sense of how we move, and then we 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.160 don't move in that way, and then they're hurt, and 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.120 then we don't want to be held accountable. And that's 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.760 the last thing. Unless philanthropy has a system for us 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:25.160 to be held accountable, power will never it will never 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.440 be any sort of flat power, power dynamic. As long 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.560 as we're in touchable. As long as we can do 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.240 what we want to do and not have to answer 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.120 to anyone, things will stay the same. And I don't 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:38.840 want to live a life where I can mess up 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.480 and someone can't tell me I messed up. 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:46.640 Yeah, yeah, Another question for you. You know, as time marches 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.680 on to this upcoming election, there are a lot of 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.800 people that I talk to who are losing faith, right, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.480 They're losing faith in possibility, faith in the possibility that 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:03.920 we can because we have made things better. What has 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:10.720 your time both being incarcerated and outside of the system, 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:16.760 How has it grown your faith, challenged your faith? And 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.359 what kind of advice can you provide to others who 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.960 haven't even experienced those types of lows or moments, but 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.040 they find themselves in a place of struggle. 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.360 It is heartbreaking and will often move me to tears 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.159 to know that people have tricked us as black folks 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:41.560 into not realizing that we are literally superhuman in regards 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.359 to We are brilliant. We love each other in ways 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.359 that people wish they could right these love stories that 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.080 we see are taken from We have so much in us, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.119 and then we'll have these moments when it's like, oh, 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.399 I don't know how we will get to the other side. 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:05.280 And in my lived experience, in my faith, in my existence. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:10.199 I'm a forty two year old black trans woman with 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.320 I'm still a year from being able to get a 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.720 part in almost fifteen years post release, with eight felonies 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.720 on her record, that lives in Atlanta in the Perimeter 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.120 in a three bedroom house with two baths, has two 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.639 paid cars cars. There are savings. I can call my 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.160 aunt and she will use the pronouns that are affirming 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.080 to me. I can call my cousin who live in 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.040 the hood, and he's gonna ask me about I saw 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.520 Laverne Cox on TV today. My nephews and nieces call 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.879 me and they know that I'm still here and they 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.200 want me to come to their events. That I walk 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.840 in rooms with black people and they embrace me. I'm 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.520 taking my black ass to the White House tomorrow, and 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:50.680 it's not about who's in the White House. It's about 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.400 the journey from there. I walk down a street named 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:59.200 after me, and so in my story, like that's those 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.440 are nuggets, right. You look at a miss Major. If 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:10.200 you lean into the brilliance and the pageantry of blackness 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.080 in a real way, it is everywhere. It's in the 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.960 bus driver, it's in the person who brings your mail, 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.960 it's in your child. I think a lot of the 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.320 struggle that I see black folks have is that they 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:23.280 really don't love their blackness as much as they say 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.120 they do. Because the love that I've had to work 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:30.880 for in my blackness amplified whatever my trans experience brought 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.719 to me. Being trans is cute, being trans in black. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.600 The girls can't quantify it, right, And I know this 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.159 seems like someone who's listening, like, oh my god, this 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.480 seems us out there. This is really what my rooting 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.960 is about. Every day I look at my people and 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.680 I'm just like well, there's no way we're not gonna 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.040 be okay. And if I'm really honest, those systems have 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.680 never saved us or benefited us. Have they been less 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.199 harmful at times? But I I was really thinking about 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.000 who was gonna help me pay my bills. I would 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:08.520 not be looking for a stimulus. I would be like, hey, Angelica, 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.679 since let me get alone. And it seems common sense. 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.720 But the common sense is telling us that we will 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.840 always be our own liberators. And due to that mindset, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.080 I won't let them capture me with fear going into 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.840 this fall. That's not me saying I'm divesting. It's not 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.679 me saying that I'm not aware. It's saying that if 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:29.600 we're if we're focused on fear, we don't get to 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:33.560 be strategic. And focusing on my blackness always ensures that 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:34.560 I get to be strategic. 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.000 Let me tell you something. I will go to whatever 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.240 church you preach out. I will go. I will I 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:47.119 will walk down whatever path because I am a said 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.320 person that loses faith on a regular basis. I am 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.480 said person who is just like, this whole place is 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:59.159 fucked up, you know, But you reminding us that you 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:03.680 know what these systems that are indeed fucked up. Were 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:11.600 never created for our safety, for our resilience, for our audaciousness. 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.600 Everything about these systems were created to keep us small, 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.439 and to keep our dreams dark, and to keep our 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.440 spirits low. And so I just you know, I want 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.000 to thank you. I want to thank you for the 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.680 work that you do, for the life that you continue 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.480 to live and share with so many people, and just 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:36.080 for the spirit and the passion that you bring to 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:38.959 everything that you do, because it is just such, it 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.080 is such a gorgeous reminder of the magic that we have. 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.480 And I just I greatly appreciate you making the time 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:46.159 for us today. 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.920 Thank you. And I want to say I met you 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.520 the first time. It was twenty nineteen. It was right 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.240 before I was starting my transition. No one knew this, 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.639 and it was a dinner for the tenth in d C. 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:06.919 Oh my god. And so I have loved you since. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.879 And I watch a show and I follow you and 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.040 when they they said, oh this was a thing. I'm 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.639 big on full circle moment. I'm a piscey. Yeah, And 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.879 I was just like, oh, this is this is beautiful 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.720 because I just I love the conversations you bring. But 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.480 I remember being in that very quiet space of knowing 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.160 something bigger was coming from me, but not knowing how 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:31.639 to tell the world. And that was the last you know, 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:34.840 a small house in DC, having a dinner. That was 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:36.720 the last time we saw each other. So I'm excited 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:40.080 to see you tomorrow. Oh my God, for this opportunity. 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:42.399 Oh I love thank you so much for that, for 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:47.280 that reminder that dinner was so special. Yeah, was was 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:52.520 so special. Oh beautiful, wonderful. Well, tell people how they 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.280 can be involved, how they can continue to show up 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:58.760 in the ways in what you do. 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:04.800 Yes, one piece, we're launching this huge cultural capital project 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:08.640 with TS Madison where she's given us her mansion and 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:11.960 we're bringing in ten black trans women who lead organizations 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:15.480 across the country to build this housing project in Atlanta, 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:20.080 the TS Madison Starter House. So please go to Instagram, 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:24.919 to Madison's instagram, to mind to name them in aesm 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.240 inc in Atlanta and you can get information there. Please 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.320