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With the trans community in the U.S. at risk, in the headlines, and targeted by new policies at both the federal and state level, dialogue with the wider public is urgently needed. 

Lives at Stake is a series of frank conversations by and for trans people about the issues affecting their communities, hosted by Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Imara Jones in The Greene Space at WNYC. Building off Jones’ storytelling project TransLash, these live video stream gatherings will also highlight the resilience, creativity and artistry that are critical ingredients to trans life, showcasing trans creatives performing their craft.

An Emmy and Peabody Award winner, Imara Jones’ work has appeared in The Guardian, The Nation, BBC News, Mic, The Grio, Salon, and The Root, as well as broadcast on MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, NPR, BBC, and The Takeaway. She is the creator of TransLash, a cross-platform media journalism and personal story project which produces content to end the culture of hostility and save trans lives. Imara previously held economic policy positions in the Clinton White House and was named a 2018 Champion of Pride by The Advocate. She is currently a Soros Equality Fellow.

TransLash tells trans stories to save trans lives during this pivotal moment in history. Beginning in 2018 as a series of video shorts which focus on what it is like to be trans–-especially a trans person of color–-at a time of social backlash, it has evolved into a cross-platform media effort led by founder and creator Imara Jones.

Through the lens of journalism and personal narrative, TransLash creates and curates  content, events, and resources in collaboration with our partners, as well as in community with trans individuals and allies. Through our work we center the humanity of the most marginalized of the marginalized. 

Find out more at www.translash.org. 

Indya Moore is an actor, writer, director, model, social activist and founder of Beetlefruit Media, Inc., a production company focused on storytelling in various mediums. Born and raised in the Bronx, she has appeared in Vogue and OUT, as well as assignments for GQ, Gucci and Christian Dior. Over the last year, Indya has performed alongside Katy Perry and Migos for Saturday Night Live and acted in the feature film Saturday Church distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Her work has graced many international music videos and video installations. She is the lead actor and executive producer of the anthology tv series Magic Hour. Indya currently plays a leading role as “Angel” in Ryan Murphy’s FX tv series POSE.

Meredith Talusan is an award-winning journalist and author. They have written features, essays, and opinion pieces for many publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, VICE, Matter, Backchannel, The Nation, and the American Prospect. She has contributed to several books including the New York Times Bestselling Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay. Her memoir, Fairest, is forthcoming from Viking / Penguin Random House.

Micky Bradford is National Organizer for the Transgender Law Center. They are a Black Trans Femme using cultural organizing to make liberation irresistible. Micky descends from the 1st free Black welders in Southwest Georgia where they spent their childhood summers. As a young person, Micky’s political awakening was grown through Black drag queens, Black Queer men living with HIV, and Black women on the front lines of reproductive justice. In 2015, Micky B co-founded “Southern Fried Queer Pride” (SFQP), a queer art festival turned art education non-profit. Through SFQP, Micky explores the nuanced intersections of queer performance and organized resistance. Micky is a member of Southerners On New Ground, 2018 Atlanta Pride Grand Marshal, and 2019 House of Pentacles Film Fellow.

Micky has organized trans communities across the South as the 1st lead of the TLC@SONG program. In their previous role, Micky co-organized demonstrations against HB2 in NC, held a Trans leadership summit in Nashville, TN, and published “The Grapevine” a community report of pressing issues facing TGNC southerners. Currently, Micky is a “National Organizer” for the Transgender Law Center. In this role, Micky coordinates a coalition addressing solutions to criminalization, lead by Black, Indigenous, and Migrant Trans leaders. Micky is simultaneously building leadership skills, networks, and healing justice for Black Trans Femmes, through the “Black Trans Circles” project, founded by Raquel Willis.

Micky B is a proud bisexual Scorpio living and loving in Atlanta, GA. Fun fact: Micky loves fried plant-based foods after a long day of voguing in resistance to the police state. Micky uses the pronouns they/them.

Ianne Fields Stewart is the Founder and Co-facilitator of the Okra Project. Ianne is a Black queer nonbinary transfeminine New York-based storyteller working at the intersection of theatre and activism. As a performer, Ianne has worked consistently in productions at NYC venues such as: Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, La Mama, and many more. Ianne can also be seen on Buzzfeed LGBT, GLAAD, Inside Edition, the You Had Me at Black podcast, the #Safewordsociety podcast, Podcast of Color, the Is it Transphobic Podcast, and serves as the cohost of the Topics Include Podcast. In the summer of 2017, Ianne was selected out of over 500 applicants to be one of the 15 US Fellows for Humanity in Action’s 2017 John Lewis Fellowship. During this fellowship, Ianne studied and organized with contemporary and historic civil rights leaders in Atlanta, GA exploring the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and its roots in present day social justice movements. Since then, Ianne has developed a theatrical consulting and teaching artist practice which spans from talkback facilitation to teaching artistry to community outreach and organizing. Spaces that have benefited from Ianne’s practice include: The Alliance of Resident Theatres, Lincoln Center Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Heartbeat Opera, Music Theatre Factory, NYC charter schools, and the Rose M. Singer Center on Riker’s Island. Ianne uses the pronouns they/she.

Bev Tillery is the Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), an organization that works to address and end all forms of violence through organizing and education and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy. She is an experienced thought leader, advocate and national organizer with nearly three decades of experience working in social justice movements.   Most recently, she was a Deputy Director of Education and Public Affairs at Lambda Legal, an organization dedicated to achieving full recognition of the rights of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. There, she led national educational and advocacy campaigns and community-based research projects aimed at changing policies as well as hearts and minds. Prior to Lambda Legal, she worked as an organizer, popular educator, strategist and staff leader at organizations such as Amnesty International, Service Employees International Union and ACORN.

Xoai Pham is a Vietnamese trans person who has a complicated relationship with womanhood. She comes from a long legacy of warriors, healers, fishers, and swimmers. Her family arrived in California as refugees after the U.S. destroyed Southeast Asian land and communities.

She is a writer, thinker, and collaborative educator on issues of gender, imperialism, sex work, and intimacy. Before joining the TLC team, she was Digital Campaigner at People’s Action, a national coalition of grassroots organizations. She helped build a digital base of over a million people and craft narratives for issue areas like healthcare and housing justice. She was also part of a national movement called the Political Healers project, which organized among women and femme people of color for radical individual and societal transformation. It is with great pleasure that she now contributes to a movement made by and for trans people.

Above all, she enjoys eating fruits on the beach with her loved ones. Xoai uses the pronouns she/her.