On Risk and Liberation With Raquel Willis
Collective liberation & personal transformation go hand in hand.
Katie and Yves speak with Raquel Willis about harnessing the power of personal narrative.
Memoirs are often about everyday people who have life stories that people can connect with and learn from. That means that a lot of the time, we get to read stories from people whose names we may never know otherwise or people whose voices are systematically silenced.
In her debut memoir, The Risk It Takes to Bloom, Raquel Willis talks about her upbringing in Georgia, the challenges she had to face as a transgender woman finding her community and voice in the South, and her work as a journalist and organizer dedicated to uplifting trans stories.
In this episode, Katie and Yves speak with Raquel about the beauty of Black trans people telling their stories with agency … and how honest, personal storytelling helps pave a path toward freedom.
GUESTS
Raquel Willis
Photo of Raquel Willis by Texas Isaiah
“I felt the impact of being closeted on my work. I wasn’t able to be the best storyteller that I could be, because I had to hide my queerness and transness — or at least felt I had to — to survive.”
“I like the memoirs where the person writing it can kind of point the finger at themselves, too. Be like, “I ain’t do everything perfect,” you know? ‘Cause we’ve all been complicit in something.”
“Folks in all kinds of media are great at crafting stories that use misinformation and disinformation to sway your opinion about trans people. And when you’re the target of this kind of damaging propaganda, it can be super important to create spaces where you can take control of your own narratives.”
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The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation by Raquel Willis
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock
Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me by Janet Mock
Hiding My Candy by The Lady Chablis
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt
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