OFTV 42 - The Witches of Miami Beach

Trans historian and executive producer of HBO's Legendary, Sydney Baloue, joins us to talk about the many histories of the vogue/ballroom scene, trans men in ballroom, and dance as a form of history and ancestral veneration. https://www.sydneybaloue.com/ https://legendsofvogue.substack.com/ https://www.instagram.com/sydneybaloue/

What do witches, LSD, and aliens have to do with trans rights?? In this week's episode of One From the Vaults, we head to Miami Beach to tell the story of the largest international trans activist network of the 1970s and their larger than life leader, Angela Douglas. Sources: Triple Jeopardy by Angela Douglas (1983) https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/bh030020 https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/bh030019 https://zagria.blogspot.com/2015/07/history-of-tao-part-3-aftermath.html https://zagria.blogspot.com/2007/06/angela-douglas-1943-2007-musician.html#obituary The Transsexual Empire by Janice Raymond (1979) https://www.transadvocate.com/transphobic-radical-hate-didnt-start-with-brennan-the-sandy-stone-olivia-records-controversy_n_4112.htm https://zagria.blogspot.com/2015/07/history-of-tao-part-2-1972-82-tao-in.html https://www.aclufl.org/news/florida-was-once-trans-activist-hub/ Moonshadow and Mirage newsletters by TAO AJ Lewis’s essay in Trap Door https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRFcCfw2I_4

In this week's episode of One From the Vaults, I sit down with historian Jules Gill-Peterson — author of Histories of the Transgender Child and A Short History of Transmisogyny — to talk about the question of whether there is a history of anti-transgender discrimination, antebellum cross-dressing, and what's at stake politically in the friction between transsexual and transgender positions. You can follow Jules' substack, The Long Transition, at https://sadbrowngirl.substack.com/

One from the Vaults is back for a Tenth Anniversary Special! In this episode, we explore the life of tarot master, comic writer, and 1970s trans activist Rachel Pollack! Sources: 78 Degrees of Wisdom (1980) by Rachel Pollack “Pandora’s Bust” (1971) by Rachel Pollack The Body of the Goddess (1997) by Rachel Pollack Beatrix Gates (2018) by Rachel Pollack Conversations with Roz Kaveney (2018-present) Tranny Central (2024, 2026) by Jaye Hudson My Life with Dali by Amanda Lear https://rachelpollack.com/reviews/interviewwilkes.html https://archive.org/details/transsistersjou1995unse_1/page/46/mode/2up https://web.archive.org/web/20050626175809/http://vertigo.vurt.net/20qpolla.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20121207105925/http://www.angelfire.com/nm/spiritualwarrier/index.562.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060208223448/http://www.tarotforlife.com/Newsletter/TFLNewsletter_2.pdf https://www.tcj.com/one-of-the-things-they-definitely-are-is-queer-an-interview-with-rachel-pollack/ https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/pandoras-bust https://theheroines.blogspot.com/2013/12/interview-with-rachel-pollack.html https://civilianreader.com/2014/06/25/an-interview-with-rachel-pollack/ https://natfluence.com/interview/rpollack/ https://theracket.news/p/my-aunt-rachel https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/17/rachel-pollack-obituary https://xtramagazine.com/culture/rachel-pollack-womens-spirituality-257312 https://web.archive.org/web/20230414000409/https://lgbthealth.org.uk/blog/interview-rachel-pollack/ https://www.upstatediary.com/rachel-pollack https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/380-spring-2009/rachel-pollack-willing-change-everything/ https://lilith.org/articles/debut-81/

A special episode LIVE from Camp Trans UK! Listen to the sounds of the wind in the trees and the smoke of a camp fire getting in my face as OFTV tells the story of the original Camp Trans. Works Cited: https://www.camp-trans.org/pages/ct-history.html http://eminism.org/michigan/faq-protest.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Womyn%27s_Music_Festival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Trans#2010_festivals https://www.transadvocate.com/how-terf-violence-inspired-camp-trans_n_14413.htm https://www.transadvocate.com/michigan-womyns-music-festival_n_8943.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20140117075803/http://zinelibrary.info/files/PABA6.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20101129014722/http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node%252F11968 http://transwomenbelonghere.blogspot.com/ http://transwomenbelonghere.blogspot.com/2013/05/envisioning-inclusive-michfest-thoughts.html

In this double-length episode, OFTV speaks to trans historian Abram J. Lewis about TAO (Transsexual Action Organization), about oral history work, and about how magic, witchcraft, and "unreason" intersect with the emergence of Gay Liberation and early trans organizations. AJ Lewis is a post doctoral fellow at Grinnell College in Iowa, and the co-founder of the NYC Trans Oral History Project, a partnership with the New York Public Library system.

This month OFTV presents a special interview with archivist Librada González Fernández of the Cubanecuir archive! Librada is a young trans woman based in NYC and Miami who is pulling together the stories and ephemera of queer and trans Cubans, both on the island and in the diaspora! She joins OFTV to talk Cuban queer history, the ethics of archival work, being a trans person working in history. You can follow the archive @cubanecuir on Instagram and Twitter!

To celebrate five years of One From the Vaults, this year I'll be presenting a series of interviews with artists, filmmakers, writers, and historians working on trans history. First up is the brilliant and beautiful artist Zackary Drucker, co-director of the new HBO docuseries The Lady and the Dale, which tells the wild story of 1970s icon Liz Carmichael!

This month's episode of OFTV follows the life of a gender non-conforming mystic who lead an early insurgency in the Haitian Revolution! Works cited: The Priest and the Prophetesse (2018) by Terry Rey Des hommes et des dieux (2002) Sex and the Empire That is No More (1994) by J. Lorand Matory Mama Lola: a Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (1991) by Karen McCarthy Brown

In this episode of OFTV, we follow Steve Dain - teacher of the year, and later mentor to Lou Sullivan - in his fight for the right to keep teaching after his sex change! Works Cited: http://revolution.berkeley.edu/steve-dain-teacher-transitions/ https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/eastbaytimes/obituary.aspx?n=steve-dain&pid=96301343 https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/k930bx11b https://vimeo.com/ondemand/whatsexami https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news//292479/online_extra:_emeryville_street_to_be_named_for_fired_trans_gym_teacher?fbclid=IwAR1o_L7_3dIykRc5kVijDviKC_ZsPvmInN0bLxQWMDz7kUJImLSmS2EFr-c https://www.ebar.com/news/news//277848 http://transgroupblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/rip-steve-dain-ftm-pioneer.html http://revolution.berkeley.edu/steve-dain-outcome-1978/#menu-main-nav