Shelby Chestnut is the Director of Policy and Programs at the Transgender Law Center (TLC), the countries largest trans led organization. Shelby’s work focuses on supporting the leadership of transgender people of color around the US, to ensure they are alive and thriving. Prior to TLC, Shelby served as the Director of Community Organizing and Public Advocacy at the New York City Anti-Violence Project for 6 years. Shelby holds a BA from Antioch College and an MS in Public Policy from the New School. Shelby has dedicated their career to organizing and mobilizing LGBTQ people, people of color and low income communities to ensure policies are informed by the people directly impacted by economic inequality and violence. https://transgenderlawcenter.org

Music featured by Shea Diamond:

I am Her
American Pie
I Am American
Don’t Shoot

Interview excerpts from the conversation: Shea Diamond: On Being Trans 'My Existence Was A Rebellion'

Shea Diamond is a singer and songwriter who makes soul-rooted music of resistance and liberation. Based in New York City, she was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and spent portions of her upbringing in Memphis, Tennessee and Flint, Michigan. Repressed and marginalized throughout her childhood for not accepting her gender role, she ran away at the age of 14 and entered foster care. Upon her emancipation, she lacked the means to pay for gender reassignment surgery, committed armed robbery, and spent roughly a decade in prison. While incarcerated, she developed her powerful singing style and forthright approach to songwriting. Shea was released from prison in 2009 and relocated to New York. She continued to work on music and became deeply involved in the transgender rights movement. It was Shea's a cappella performance of “I Am Her”, which we heard the version of to open this broadcast, at a Black Trans Lives Matter event that caught the attention of Justin Tranter, a songwriter who has worked with artists such as Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, and Gwen Stefani. With Tranter as her producer, Diamond is focused on lending her voice to those who have none.

This episode first aired May 17, 2021 for Broken Boxes on Radio Coyote, a project initiated by Raven Chacon and CCA Wattis Institute, on the occasion of Chacon's 2020-21 Capp Street Artist-in-Residency. Radio Coyote is currently produced by Atomic Culture and will transition to new programming Summer 2021. www.radiocoyote.org

This episode is now streaming on iTunes & Spotify

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast