9: Black Trans Joy

Shaun sits back down with Nandikayyy to talk about Black trans joy, what it looks and feels like, how it lives next to grief, and what they wish they could've seen when they were younger, framed by a lesson on Audre Lorde. In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun and Nandikayyy get into Black trans joy.

The kind that looks like finally feeling at home in your body, music that comes back to you after loss, and a Black trans person at the grocery store, unbothered. They also talk about the projects and creators keeping them going, from The Okra Project to Angelica Ross, and what they wish someone had told them when they were young.

Shaun also shares a brief lesson on Audre Lorde, the Harlem-born poet, essayist, and self-described "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" who grew up memorizing poems because no one had words for what she felt. Her life and work became a blueprint for survival, intersectionality, and speaking truth even when the world wasn't ready.

Credits: Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Nandikayyy · Audio Engineer : Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design : Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; “Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj” by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources for archival audio on Audre Lord: - "Audre Lorde interviewed by Blanche Cook, 1982," LoveTapesCollective.: – - "Audre Lorde interviewed by Judy Simmons, WBAI New York, 1979," WBAI.: – "Audre Lorde reading at the San Francisco State Poetry Center, 1974.":