NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview with Sol Sanchez by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Rad Pereira for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Archie Lewellan for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Galle by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Galle by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Irina Groushevaia by NYC Trans Oral History Project

TRANSA x NYC TOHP: Mix of selected tracks and interviews for listening session on 2.18.25 featured songs from TRAИƧA, a concept album celebrating the gifts trans people give to the world, out now via Red Hot My Name | Kara Jackson + Ahya Simone + Dave Longstreth People Are Small / Rapture | a tribute to ANOHNI by L'Rain, featuring the voices of Mojo Disco, Francois, Imara Jones, and Ceyenne Doroshow c/o the NYC Trans Oral History Project I. Midnight Moon Pool (Womb Of The Soul) | Mary Lattimore + Laraaji + Mizu + Jamal Shakeri VII. Within Without (Liberation) | Green-House + Kelela performing a poem by Nsámbu Za Suékama transa.world mix by Tina of Source AV

Interview of Marc Chen for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Lina Bradford for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Gavilán Rayna Russom for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Aristilde Kirby for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Honey Pluton for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Davey Davis for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Eliot Duncan for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Alexandra Burris ad Emmy Pritykin for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Callan Molinari for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Saoirse Sawyer Eason for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Julieta Salgado for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Dee Holtsclaw for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Cristy Road Carrera for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Bernie Wagenblast for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Nathan Levitt for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Alejandra Rodriguez by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of K. Kerimian for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Simo for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Siobhan Meow for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Sean Ebony Coleman is the founder of Destination Tomorrow, a LGBTQ+ center in the Bronx that provides services like job readiness, HIV testing, and emergency housing. In this interview, he describes growing up in Brooklyn with his grandmother and brother. At a young age, he became involved in the ballroom scene, a community which still provides most of his close relationships. Sean also discusses his spiritual identity, the changing landscape of hormone access, erasure of Black trans masculinity, and his start with grassroots organizing for the Bronx trans community in the early 2000s.

Born in rural California, Eli Erlick recounts her experiences as one of the only trans kids in her area, which led her, at age 15, to co-found Trans Student Educational Resources, an organization that works to implement trans-inclusive policy models in school systems across the country. Erlick also discusses her time studying Gender Studies at Pitzer and UC Santa Cruz, as well as formative political encounters with trans literature like Dean Spade’s Normal Life and Eric Stanley and Nat Smith's Captive Genders. Erlick shares her thoughts on cancel culture, disrespectability politics, and trans identity in academia. Having signed several book deals, Erlick is currently working on rewriting the timeline of trans history in adult and young adult formats using recently digitized primary sources.

Interview of Erica Dawn Lyle for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Daphne Banks for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Born in Long Island, Ayelet Hashachar Adelaman recounts growing up in Jerusalem, participating in an anarchist drum line group called Kasamba, and discovering a positive relationship between her anti-Zionism and transness. Since moving back to North America, Adelman has worked as a Hebrew teacher and an herbalist, recently teaching about plants with affinity for sex hormones in the context of Jewish textual lineage. Adelman also discusses formative experiences with trans femme elders in NYC and navigating collaborative relationships with healthcare providers around hormones and medication.

Qais Kamran describes his experiences growing up as a first generation Iranian Jew in Los Angeles, attending Jewish day school and discovering the importance of oral history to his family’s community. After attending UC Davis, Kamran moved to Tel Aviv, where he forged intergenerational relationships that allowed him to get in touch with his own transmaculinity. In Palestine, Kamran became involved in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement as well as the clubbing scene. Since moving back to NYC in 2019, Kamran is looking to open a trans- and worker-owned nightlife venue.

Interview of Yves Bess Golden for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Ita Segev for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Iman Le Caire for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Sawyer DeVuyst for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Ari Brostoff is an author and editor at Jewish Currents magazine. In this interview, they recount reading Jewish historical fiction as a child growing up in California. After attending college on the East Coast, where they spent time engaging with queer theory texts from the 1990s, Ari moved to New York and quickly became embedded in organizing work. They were involved with Beyond the Pale, an anti-Zionist radio program, and, during the pandemic, started working as a tenant organizer. Ari also discusses the shifting landscape of work on the overlap between Judaism and transness, as well as their own experiences with politics and transitioning.

Interview of Mikail Khan for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Gage Spex discusses growing up in Western Massachusetts, where, at a young age, they fell in love with fashion through older movies, like those of Judy Garland. Gage later moved to San Francisco to attend art school, eventually settling in NYC. Gage became heavily involved with the nightlife scene, opening venues like Dreamhouse and Spectrum. Gage also describes coming to terms with the fluidity of her gender, dealing with safety in the queer party scene, and his move away from venue-centered parties.

Interview of Dr. T.J. by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Mx. Enigma for the NYC Trans Oral History Project

Aelita Parizek was born in Kansas, and grew up in Hawai’i. At age 18, they moved to New York and went to college at Parsons, and later Rhode Island School of Designs. Aelita currently runs a “self made” business and shows their art pieces, inspired by Dr. Pimple Popper and tyrpophobia, in NYC. Aelita also works as a cam girl, and creates their own hardware jewelry along with making her large artworks.

Interview of Sandy Loam by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Macy Rodman was born in Juneau Alaska. During her early life she describes visits to the local sex shop where she learned about gay life, including NYC’s glam scene which featured images of modified and expansive versions of femininity including Amanda Lepore. She explored making music with her sister which grew into her own project with her move to NYC. She also helps produce the podcast, Nymphowars which was first imagined as a place to speak about dating as a trans woman which morphed into fully developed radio plays of absurdist comedy. Since living in Brooklyn for the last 11 years, Macy gravitated towards groups invested in working for their communities, admiring projects like Discwoman, Decolonize this Place, and Boiling Point NYC. Since quarantine she’s returned to the sounds of Basement Jaxx, Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers reminding her of a time before the club scene where dance music was listened to at home.

Interview of Lix Z by NYC Trans Oral History Project

Image Object was raised in an inclusive and accepting environment. Object underwent many queer expressions, each expanding his identity politics and teaching him more about who Object is. The nightlife scene in NYC gave Object room to grow and play and push through the boundaries of gender. Object discusses NYC nightlife centers, parties and bars, including Merrie Cherry's, Sugarland, DAGnet, and Starr Bar.

Ric explores the complexity of language in the trans community, and her experiences interviewing trans elders for the NYC Trans Oral History Project. Ric also reflects on drug use and how it is not necessarily a form of escapism, but a way to view things differently.

Tanya Asapansa-Johnson Walker is a co-founder of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG). Here, she shares her history of LGB and trans activism in New York City. Born on Staten Island, Miss Tanya describes her childhood confronting racism, homophobia, and transphobia along the east coast of the United States before joining the military and relocating to Germany. Upon her return, she moved to New York City, attending college on Staten Island, where she notably led a protest against Staten Island borough president, Guy Molinari, for which she was run off of campus. She also recounts the development of a distinct trans identity, surviving in New York City during the AIDS crisis, the community among homeless, queer and trans people of color in New York City in the 1980s and 90s, and her work as a social service provider and activist.

Fainan Lakha is a student at Columbia majoring in Comparative Literature and Society. She grew up in a Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim community in Seattle and became involved in the Oneness University associated with Tony Robbins before coming to New York and discovering philosophical materialism and Marxism. She is heavily active in current social movements and, in this interview, describes her vision of a trans politics that reaches beyond visibility. (summary by Boyda Johnstone.)