THE TRANSDIARIESTHE TRANSDIARIES

Lindsey Deaton (Creator and Music Director, she/her) is a creator, artistic director, public servant, and fierce transgender LGBTIQ+ youth advocate. She is one of the world's leading experts on the transgender singing voice and is widely recognized as a leader in building the global trans choral movement. She has spoken and written extensively on how to create a safer choral space for trans and gender non-conforming singers. Lindsey is the Founder and Artistic Director of the San Diego Queer Youth Chorus, and founded the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles (TCLA). Under her direction, TCLA became the largest group of trans and non-binary people anywhere in the world who gathered regularly to create music and was known for being the premier transgender chorus on the planet. Her work with the ensemble was featured on NPR, MSNBC, LA Weekly, The Advocate, and The Los Angeles Times. As a conductor, Lindsey has guest conducted for the San Francisco Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, Spokane Symphony,Winston-Salem Symphony, Youngstown Symphony and Chorus, Schenectady Symphony, and numerous orchestra at Aspen Music Festival, among others. She served asContemporary Music Director at Cathedral St. Peter in Chains of Cincinnati, Ohio until her transition in 2013. Lindsey is the current Commissioner for the City of West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission. lindseydeaton.com

Daniel De Jesús (Composer, they/them)has a musical practice of building tribal beats, ambient sonic spaces, and gut-wrenching string arrangements with soaring vocals that take audiences by storm. Their work has been described as Baroque pop and Neo-Goth, filled with dramatic themes based on mysticism, the occult, and Latin American lore. Daniel has nine studio recordings of their music and performs with orchestras and rock bands in the region worldwide. Current projects include collaborations with painter and performance artist David Antonio Cruz, singer-songwriter Courtlyn Carr, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, PigIron Theater, and playwright Andrew Albert García. Daniel is currently Music Education andCommunity Outreach Director for AMLA at Esperanza, a nonprofit that promotes the development, dissemination, and understanding of Latin music and culture among youth in the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley.BFA, University of the Arts. celloeye.com.

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (Librettist; she/her) is a Black, African, Cuban, Indigenous, American Trans performance artist and author. She is the founder of The Inanna D Initiatives, which curates, produces, and cultivates events and initiatives designed to center and celebrate the work ofTrans and Gender Non-Conforming artists of color. Dane is the first Trans woman of color to be nominated for a Helen Hayes Award (2016). As a playwright, Dane won a 2020 Helen Hayes Award for Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem(writer and performer) at Theater Alliance. She also wrote the playsThe Diaz Family Talent Show(Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company commission),The Quest of the Reed Marsh Daughter (Girl TalesPodcast), The Dance of Memories (Theatre Offensive). Dane was also co-editor ofBlack Trans Prayer Book. For Long Wharf Theatre, she is curator and co-producer Black Trans Women at the Center, an annual festival of short plays by and featuring Black Trans women. ladydanefe.com

Grey Grant (Composer, she/they) is a composer, performer, and librettist whose work frequently involves a transdisciplinary, collaborative effort between herself and other artists. Much of her current work revolves around identity, the environment, and place. Recent work includesShort Songs to Sing Aloud, composed for Leandra Ramm aspart of #GLFCAMGIGthruCovid; for the cliff-sides carved by lakes, for the lakes carved long ago, commissioned by Tesla String Quartet; Voice Chang I, commissioned for Detroit Women's Chorus' Finding Your Voice conference in January 2020; and Michigan Trees: A Guide to theTrees of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region(2019), an opera in 11 parts that acts as a meditation on internalized transmisogyny and self-acceptance through the haze of a mythologizing of queerness in the upper peninsula of Michigan. With Karle Ronneburg, Grey is co-founder and a creative producer of Fifth Wall Performing Arts, an artist-led experimental performing arts organization based in Michigan and New York City. As a performer, she has been a vocalist at Cantori New York and Fifth Wall Performing Arts alongside a healthy solo performance art career. Grey received a Bachelor of Music with highest honors from University of Michigan with a minor in Creative Writing (poetry) and has returned to University of Michigan to pursue a MA in composition. greygrant.com

John Jarboe (Director, she/her) is Founder and Artistic Director of BeardedLadies Cabaret. A Philadelphia-based theatre artist, John graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Theatre. In addition to directing, choreographing, producing, and performing with Bearded Ladies, John collaborates outside of the cabaret world as an actor, musician, teaching artist, and consultant. She volunteers for Attic Youth, a local center that creates opportunities for LGBTQ youth in Philadelphia. John has appeared locally with The Walnut Street Theatre (A Christmas Carol, Love Story, Vincent In Brixton, Arsenic & Old Lace), Theatre Exile (Cock), People's Light and Theatre (The Rainmaker), Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre(Hamlet, As You Like It), and The Wilma (Macbeth). Some favorite work includes turns as Julia Child inInside Julia Child (Philly Fringe) and as the title role inThe Green Fairy Cabaret (PhillySchool of Circus, Kimmel Center) which she wrote and performed in as part of the inaugural Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. John has also collaborated with Applied Mechanics Theatre Company with Portmanteau, Vainglorious, Overseers, and Some Other Mettle. She received the 2013 Performing Arts Fellowship from Independence Foundation.

J Mase III (Librettist, he/him) is a Black/Trans/queer poet and educator based in Seattle by way of Philadelphia. As an educator, J has worked with community members in the US, UK, and Canada on the needs of LGBTQIA+ folx and racial justice in spaces such as K-12 schools, universities, faith communities, and restricted care facilities.He is founder of awQward, the first Trans and queer people of color talent agency. J is head writer for the theatrical production Black Bois and author of the booksAnd Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer's Reflections on Grief, Unemployment & Inappropriate Jokes and White Folks Be Trippin': An Ethnography Through Poetry & Prose. His work has been featured on MSNBC, Essence Live, Everyday Feminism, Black Girl Dangerous, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Blavity, The Root, Huffington Post, TEDx, and more. Winner of a Lambda Literary Award forTransgender Non-Fiction and a Creative Capital Award, J is co-director of the forthcoming documentary The Black Trans Prayer Book and is finishing his latest solo workIs Your God aViolent God? Finding a Theology for Survivors. jmaseiii.com

Be Steadwell (Composer; she/her) is a musician, filmmaker, and storyteller from Washington, D.C. In her live performances, she utilizes looping, vocal layering, and beat boxing to composer her songs on stage. Be's original music features earnest lyricism and affirming LGBTQ content. Her goal as a musician is to make other Black girls, queers, introverts, and generally marginalized weirdos feel seen and loved. With a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA in Film from Howard University, Be's love for music expands into filmmaking. Her film Vow of Silence screened in film festivals around the world, including BlackStar, HBO's OUTFEST, The Schomburg Center, Inside Out Toronto, and Fringe Fest UK. Be has shared stages with fellow artist activists Big Freedia, Nona Hendryx, Nikky Finney, and Gina Yashere. In 2017, she sang at DC Women's March on the National Mall behind Maxwell and Janelle Monae in Toshi Reagon's Big Lovely Band. In 2019, Be composed the music for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's production of The Gone. Later that year, she wrote and directed the musical A Letter to My Ex, stories of love that narrates one character's journey through the year following a breakup. In 2020, Be released her newest album, Succulent. besteadwell.com