Tag Archives: breakout!

“PopSmart NOLA” on WHIV (102.3 FM), Ep. 6: Brooklyn Shaffer, AJay Strong, Wesley Ware, Katy Reckdahl on transgender issues

Posted on by under radio

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For Episode 6 of “PopSmart NOLA” we focused on transgender issues in New Orleans.

Our lineup included:

  • Wesley Ware,co-founder and and co-director of BreakOUT!, which builds the power of LGBTQ youth most impacted by the criminal justice system to affect concrete policy change to fight the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans.
  • Katy Reckdahl, New Orleans-based journalist who profiled BreakOUT! for the New Orleans Advocate.
  • New Orleans stage performer Brooklyn Shaffer, who recently transitioned from male to female and returned to the stage after a nearly two-year hiatus to co-star in “Steel Poinsettias” at Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts.
  • AJay Strong, co-producer of Bella Blue Entertainment, which presents an average of 20 burlesque shows a month around New Orleans, including “The Blue Book Cabaret” at Bourbon Pub and the “Dirty Dime Peepshow” at the AllWays Lounge.

I profiled Shaffer and Strong earlier in the week with my “Trans, Planted” feature.

I also want to remind you that if you like what you’re hearing on this, the radio show version of “PopSmart NOLA” you can “like” us on Facebook. We’re also on Instagram at @popsmartnola, and I’m on Twitter as @dlsnola504.

Please join us next week for another edition of “PopSmart NOLA” on WHIV (102.3 FM) — radio dedicated to human rights and social justice, and the end of all wars. You can also listen online at whivfm.org.

HELPFUL LINKS
Trans, planted: Brooklyn Bhaffer and AJay Strong look back at a life in transition and toward an uncertain future (PopSmart NOLA)
New Orleans organization helps young LGBTQ people navigate legal system, life (New Orleans Advocate)
Galvanized by election, transgender activists rally in New Orleans on Day of Remembrance (New Orleans Advocate)
Hundreds gather to support trans and gender non-conforming youth of color at Congo Square (PopSmart NOLA)
BreakOUT! — Fighting the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans (Facebook page)
Louisiana Trans Advocates — advocacy, education and support
Trans Lifeline — support and crisis counseling to transgender people. Call (877) 565-8860 or visit the website
A history of transgender health care (Scientific American)
The psychology of transgender (American Psychological Association)

PLAYLIST
“Boys and Girls,” Blur
“Born a Girl,” Manic Street Preachers
“Walk on the Wild Side,” Lou Reed
“De Camino a la Vereda,” Ibrahim Ferrer

Hundreds gather to support trans and gender non-conforming youth of color at Congo Square (photos and video)

Posted on by under advocacy

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Backed by the support of the community advocacy group BreakOUT!, a crowd of about 200 people rallied at “Transgender Day of Remembrance/Resilience/Resistance” to show solidarity for trans and gender non-conforming youth of color on Sunday (Nov. 20) at Congo Square inside Louis Armstrong Park. Advocates delivered speeches, provided informational brochures, staged healing demonstrations, handed out inspirational signs, led a small march into the French Quarter as a side project, handed out symbolic roses, and even staged a “mannequin challenge” as part of the event.

(Check out a Facebook Live scene from the event below.)


The symbolism of the roses was multi-faceted, especially in light of the murder of 25 trans people of color in 2016. Working on the theme, “Our Roses, While We Are Alive,” advocates handed out roses to encourage participants to become allies in the fight for “quality education, affirming and accessible healthcare, safe and stable housing, and sustainable employment,” as the event announcement read.

“In New Orleans, Louisiana and all across the country, trans and gender non-conforming youth of color continue to disproportionately represent youth affected by homelessness, unemployment, and the criminal justice system,” organizers said on their Facebook page. “While New Orleans and other parts of the country face an affordability crisis for housing across the city and neighborhoods continue to become gentrified and stripped of their culture, trans and gender non-conforming youth of color continue to struggle to find spaces to call our own.

[Learn more: Read about the event as covered by the New Orleans Advocate]

“We recognize that safety means accessing the spaces we need to survive, free from criminalization, incarceration, transphobia, homophobia, racism, heteropatriarchy, and the many layers of oppression we face in the world,” the statement continued. “In these conditions, it is a political act to take space and be seen. It is a political act to say:
We deserve jobs!
We deserve housing!
We deserve education!
We deserve to self-determine our gender!
We deserve to uplift our “trancestors”!
We deserve space to come together and to heal from centuries of trauma.
We deserve space to create, to laugh, to be!
That is why this year, on the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) youth of color in New Orleans are calling on those aligned with our values all across the country to demand the space that we deserve.”

A sub-group of about 20 advocates and allies broke off from the event to march into the French Quarter and set up at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann streets to demand a safe space.

BreakOUT! builds the power of LGBTQ youth most impacted by the criminal justice system to affect concrete policy change to fight the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans.

[Learn more: Check out this profile of BreakOUT! in the New Orleans Advocate]

Come back later as more videos are added to the story.