Alejandrina M. Medina is an experimental writer whose work theorizes state power, aesthetic production, and sensorial knowledge through 20th and 21st Century Latinx/Latin American music, sound, and performance. She holds a BM in Performance Studies from Lawrence University and is pursuing a PhD in Integrative Studies with an emphasis in Critical Gender Studies at UC San Diego. Her dissertation on LOUDNESS is a love letter to depressed trans Latinas who feel like they’re too much. She sits on the executive board of Proyecto Trans Latinas. She can usually be found yearning queerly, with her cat María Carmen, or singing a bolero at karaoke—ideally all three.

Delan Ellington (they/he) earned a master’s degree in public history from Howard University in 2022. Their research has focused on collecting and preserving Black queer DC history, emphasizing spaces like the ClubHouse and ENIK Alley Coffeehouse. Delan has served on the Rainbow History Project's board of directors. Their work has been featured in documentaries and recognized in the Washington City Paper’s 2021 People Issue. Delan presented at TEDxFoggyBottom 2022 addressing Trans visibility in archives. Delan has served as an organizer with the Black Youth Project 100, Harriet's Wildest Dreams, and No Justice No Pride, championing housing and aid for trans youth.

fabian romero (P’urhépecha) is an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Studies and affiliated faculty in American Indian and Ethnic Studies at the Ohio State University. Fabian’s work explores the manifestations of colonial heteropatriarchy in contemporary mestizo P’urhépecha heritage family structures in Michoacán and the diaspora. You can find their work in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity, Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, and their self-published chapbook Mountains of Another Kind.

GVGK Tang is a public historian, digital humanist, and media scholar. GVGK has served as a researcher for the Smithsonian, National Endowment for the Humanities, John J. Wilcox, Jr. LGBT Archives, and Historical Society of Pennsylvania. GVGK has been published by Oxford University Press, The American Archivist, and UCLA Design Media Arts. GVGK has served on the National Council on Public History’s Inclusion and Long Range Planning Committees, and co-chaired the Society for Queer Asian Studies. GVGK organizes The T4T Project (a zine by/for/about trans artists & storytellers of color) and Kin/Folk/Lore (a community-led oral history project in Philadelphia).

Joshua K. Reason (they/them) is a transdisciplinary, multimodal scholar-artist from the Bay Area. Their research and creative work are rooted in a fervent commitment to connect the aesthetics, longings, and political strivings of Black communities across the Americas. Their work has been published in The Black Scholar, The Journal of American Culture, The Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, and becoming undisciplined: a zine. In addition to finishing their PhD in Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Joshua is producing a documentary about Black : Indigenous LGBTQIAPN+ artists in Northern-Northeastern Brazil.

Nathalie Nia Faulk (she/her) is a self-described Ebony Southern Belle based in New Orleans. Her work blends performance, History, Healing Justice, and Cultural Organizing. Currently, she serves as Co-Director of Southern Organizer Academy, Co-Director of Last Call Oral History Project, and as the Cultural Organizing Programs Manager for Alternate ROOTS. She serves on the Boards of Transcending Women, BreakOUT!, LOUD Queer Youth Theatre, and PFLAG NOLA. She has performed across the country in Alleged Lesbian Activities, Personal Space, and InFringe Fest. Nia believes everyone is inherently valuable and beautiful and collectively, we can manifest everything!

Niambi E. Stanley is a dancer-choreographer and historian who entered Philadelphia’s LGBTunderground ballroom scene as a voguer at the age of 14. Having formally achieved “Icon” status within the ballroom scene, Niambi has won numerous trophies and been given multiple awards for her dedication, excellence, and contributions to the art of vogue. Niambi’s Ballroom House affiliations include: Guerlain, Jourdan, Karan, Ebony, Vittidini, and Prodigy over the course of 32 years. In 2015, Niambi dedicated her time and energy to protecting the culture of ballroom and educating people on ballroom history through her initiative, LearnYourHistory.

Dr. Eva Pensis is a performer-scholar whose writing and practice exhumes genealogies of trans femme performance and sex work across the long twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her current book project tracks the emergence and occasion of transsexual striptease, lipsync and femme queen performance, trans sex workers and "realness" showgirls as trans feminist progenitors of what is now taken for granted as "queer nightlife culture." Recent essays are forthcoming or published in Critical Inquiry, Gay and Lesbian Quarterly, e-Flux, Los Angeles Review of Books, and SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow with the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Trans Studies at University of Pennsylvania.

Rojo Génesis is a visual artist, curator, and researcher otherwise known as “madrota del terror transexual.” Her artistic production explores the visuality and historicity of the transfeminine body, body horror and aesthetic body practices in photography, drawing, sculpture, and video. In 2020 she started the audiovisual collective “Casa de Hadas,” the first of its kind to focus on Latin trans horror made by trans women. In 2023 she started the Museo de Arte Transfemenino, a space to promote and support researching and curating art by trans women, where she conducted research for and curated Plasticidades Encarnadas. She has presented her work and participated as a speaker, researcher, and jury member in film festivals and museums in Latin America.

Christina Misaki Nikitin (they/she) is a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at Harvard University. Their research examines the aesthetic, cultural, and political dimensions of trans*gressive musical practices in Tokyo, Japan, exploring how queer and trans* performers negotiate, subvert, and reappropriate majoritarian discourses of gender, sexuality,race, and national belonging through popular song. Christina was recently awarded the 2024 Charles Seeger Prize by the Society for Ethnomusicology for their paper, “Fūzoku Queens: Trans* Migrant Sex Performers in Tokyo." They are also co-editing, with Alejandrina M. Medina and Paul David Flood, the 2027 special issue of Women and Music on global queer/trans nightlives.

dena harry saleh is a queer and trans Palestinian of the diaspora settling on Turtle Island. They are a parent, PhD student, writer, artist, educator, musician, organizer, and lover of the quest for liberation in this lifetime. Their research centers the decolonial praxis of queer and trans Palestinians, native, displaced, and diasporic. They currently dwell upon Ute, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne territories.

Angel Natan is an artist and travesti, director of Acervo Bajubá and the idealizer of the project Arquivo Transformista. She holds a degree in Visual Arts from the Faculdade Paulista de Artes. She won the Arte na Rua competition at the Nômade music festival in 2022 and was co curator of the exhibition Arquivo Queer Br (São Paulo, 2024). She has worked as an educator in major cultural institutions in São Paulo and as a researcher at the Memorial da Resistência de São Paulo. Since 2020, she has been an artist, educator, and researcher at Acervo Bajubá and a volunteer with the Grupo de Incentivo à Vida (GIV), one of Brazil’s earliest HIV and AIDS non governmental organizations.

Yuri Fraccaroli is a PhD candidate in Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an educator, artist, and researcher at Acervo Bajubá. Their work engages memory and queer and trans/travesti archives in Latin America. Yuri has published book chapters and articles in journals including Gender and Development, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and NACLA. They were selected as an artist in residence at No Lugar (Ecuador) in 2023 and were awarded the ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Innovation Fellowship (2024–25). Their research counted with additional support from: UC Alianza México, UC Humanities Research Institute. Orfalea Center, Blum Center.

Kayla Henry-Griffin considers themselves an audiovisual archivist and time-based media conservator. Their interests are in a myriad of things and concepts that seem to mesh well together- CRTs, memory, farming and fishing games, knitting patterns, music, and more. Their research is extensive- covering memory’s ties to family roots to preservation of lore and mechanics in video games. After countless years of labeling themselves as an off-again-on-again artist, Kayla is confident to say they are an artist (in a way that is unconventional). Kayla is nostalgic, but looking forward to the future where they are sixty and own cows.

Chris J. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Queer Studies at Emerson College. Their research explores how aesthetic and political formations document Asian Americans as both targets of and purveyors of racial animus within the underexplored terrain of Asian American transantagonism, neoconservatisms, and intraethnic harm. Their writing is published or forthcoming in Amerasia Journal, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking, and the Transgender Studies Reader Remix. Beyond their academic roles, they co-founded Queer and Trans Zinefest (QTZ), and, with other arts organizations, have been involved in archiving, distributing, and making zines for over a decade. They have been to Provincetown five times.

Ale Torres is an Ethnic Studies M.A. candidate at San Francisco State University. Their identity as a nonbinary transmasc Diasporican/Chicano, intimately informs their research focus of Latinx/e/a/o negotiations of trans* and gender expansive masculinity using oral history. After completing their M.A.program, they will continue working with the oral history narrators to create a community digital archive— not only to prevent the memories from being lost to time, but also to serveas mirrors and echoes for other trans* masc and gender expansive Latinxs/es/as/os.

Babatunde-Tribe Akande is a queer-nonbinary multidisciplinary artist, human rights artivist, researcher, and experimental documentary filmmaker based in Lagos, Nigeria. Their work explores themes of intersectionality, decolonization, unity, identity, sprituality and human connectivity they are committed to using art as a tool for social change. 

Bailey Quishenberry - my ethos is that there is no choice but to create art, because art is how we convey meaning but also how we live. to live is to change the world around you and to tell a story, and you can do that intentionally or not. art is the process of living. my praxis is practical art that serves a purpose; with roots in folk art, illustration, cultural storytelling, protest posters, mythos, and portraits that hold the subject in a clear and kind light. a praxis that sits in conversations over dinner and in community art projects. my paintings are meant to be on walls and in pockets, pressed between pages of your favorite books, and printed on your stained work shirt or snuck under a fresh loaf of bread i leave on your door step.

fabian romero (P’urhépecha) is an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Studies and affiliated faculty in American Indian and Ethnic Studies at the Ohio State University. fabian’s work explores the manifestations of colonial heteropatriarchy in contemporary mestizo P’urhépecha heritage family structures in Michoacán and the diaspora. You can find their work in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity, Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, and their self-published chapbook Mountains of Another Kind.

Joel Sedano is a queer and Trans* poet-scholar of Mexican, P’urhépecha, and Wixárika descent. They are also a beader, landscape photographer, Auntie-in-Training, and a student in the P’urhépecha language taught by their Elder, Tata Kuákari. They're also a member of el Colectivo K’uínchekua subcommittee, a community-based organization consisting of folx of P'urhépecha origin and descent working towards decolonizing education, language, and culture.

Kajsa Cottier is a twospirit Lakota and swedish multimedia artist, primarily focused on beadwork and other fiber arts. They grew up in a family full of creatives, learning from family members to sew, weave, create yarns, knit, crochet, quilt, and bead from childhood. Kajsa draws inspiration from their childhood in Umatilla, Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Nez Perce territory, as well as from their family members and their cultures. Kajsa’s grandparents instilled a deep love and appreciation for the natural world and all it has to offer us, that heavily informs their work, from their use of color and mixed mediums. 

Låns CHarfauros - I’m a queer generfluid CHamoru artist, storyteller, and healer, creating pathways to practice a more artful living. My journey of self-discovery and reclamation mirrors those of my wayfinding CHamoru ancestors— looking to the stars, listening to the waters, and seeking guidance from trusted community counsel. Creativity has always been a form of play in my life— poetry, dance, painting, drawing, sculpture, drag. My artistry has guided me to opportunities of connection, collaboration, and community. I’ve cultivated an abundant circle of like-minded creatives that have strengthened my understanding of the power of art. It is made to move us, to connect us to something larger than ourselves. My hands, my words, my body, my visions, and my purpose are channels for the ancestors to share these stories.

mx. semee is a queer trans non-binary disabled neurodivergent Akimel O’Otham, Hopi, and Navajo artist and poet, creating collab zines and perzines, collage, comics, illustrations, mixed media, and haiju poetry. They are the creator and editor of ‘decolonizing parenting,’ a zine for queer parents of color. mx. semee is the founder of ‘The People’s Zine Library,’ a library of zines & books by/for BIPOC. They reside at Gila River Indian Community where they are enrolled.

Tor Shimizu is a CHamoru trans poet, creator, and community organizer who grew up in a southern village of Guåhan and is currently living in unceded Coast Salish Territory. They love to be in awe of the world around them and reflect the relationships we have with the world in their work. Through art and mutual aid, they strive to help build a world where we are all free.

Ezekiel Acosta (he/el) is a PhD Candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico. His written work has been featured in Trans Studies Quarterly, LatinxTalk, North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA),Southwest Contemporary, and caa.reviews. His dissertation-in-progress uses archival research and photography methods to better understand the role of policing during Guatemala’s internal conflict specifically within the years of 1960-1990. His writing and research commitments address LGBTI history, counter-visuals, and testimony. He has been in community with Trans-Formación since 2018.

D Dangaran is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where they teach and research Constitutional Law, Civil Rights, and Family Law. D identifies as a Filipino-Black non-binary trans femme / fairy. They were born and raised in Wahiawā, Hawai‘i. Their scholarship applies “abolitionist queer theory,” critiquing the carceral state from a queer/trans-centered frame. Before teaching, they were the Director of Gender Justice at Rights Behind Bars, where they specialized in helping incarcerated trans people access gender-affirming care and safer housing conditions. D serves as co-chair of the National Trans Bar Association.

Vasi Samudra Devi (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist dabbling in poetry, painting and drawing and theater acting. Vasi’s poetry covers a combination of her own trans South Asian identity, and the continuing evils of imperialism and colonialism while trying to remain optimistic about what the future holds for herself and for others in her community. She is a stepmum to three lovely and bizarre kids, and lives with her loving partner and very small, loud and theatrical cocker spaniel. Vasi is a recent graduate from RMIT University and holds a masters’ in fine arts.She mostly can be seen contributing to mutual aid fundraisers through her artworks and/or helping vulnerable people in her network stay alive or receive funding for various causes.

Låns CHarfauros - I’m a queer generfluid CHamoru artist, storyteller, and healer, creating pathways to practice a more artful living. My journey of self-discovery and reclamation mirrors those of my wayfinding CHamoru ancestors— looking to the stars, listening to the waters, and seeking guidance from trusted community counsel. Creativity has always been a form of play in my life— poetry, dance, painting, drawing, sculpture, drag. My artistry has guided me to opportunities of connection, collaboration, and community. I’ve cultivated an abundant circle of like-minded creatives that have strengthened my understanding of the power of art. It is made to move us, to connect us to something larger than ourselves. My hands, my words, my body, my visions, and my purpose are channels for the ancestors to share these stories. You can support my work on Patreon.

Vicky “V” Amezcua-Aguilar is a Two Spirit Indigenous scholar, poet, and community advocate from Ventura County, California. Their work centers Trans and Two Spirit voices within education, culture, and storytelling. As a doctoral student in Educational Leadership for Equity and Justice at California State University Channel Islands, V explores the intersections of Indigenous knowledge, queer identity, memory, and resistance through research, poetry, and reflective writing. Their creative work draws from personal experience, ancestral teachings, and community healing practices to challenge erasure and uplift Native and LGBTQ+ narratives.