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The Nerve! Conversations with Movement Elders


Jun 5, 2024

In this episode we're exploring why the right is so scared of gender through an intergenerational conversation between elder and younger organizers across the South: Miss Major, Suzanne Pharr, Nathalie Nia Faulk, and Lorie Bryant. 

We have seen a rampant increase in organized attacks on trans people across the U.S. over the past two years. At the time of this recording, in March 2024,  over 500 anti-trans bills had already been introduced in legislatures across the country.  We know that these attacks against our people, and narratives about our communities, are not new. They are cyclical. The right is using many of the same old stories and strategies to target us. This episode digs into historical and contemporary strategies of the Right, as well as our ongoing joyful strategies of resistance. 

This episode is hosted by Frances Reid, (she/her) based in Oakland CA. Frances is member of the National Council of Elders and a veteran of 40 years of activist documentary film making. 

Joining Frances in this conversation are:

  • Miss Major, (she/her) is a Black, transgender activist based in Little Rock, AR who has fought for over 50 years for her trans/gender nonconforming community. Major is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a survivor of Dannemora Prison and Bellevue Hospital's "queen tank." She continues her work to uplift transgender women of color, particularly those who have survived incarceration and police brutality.
  • Suzanne Pharr, (she/her), is a southern queer feminist and anti-racist organizer, also based in Little Rock, AR. She founded the  Women’s Project in Arkansas in 1981, was a co-founder of Southerners on New Ground in 1993, and was director of the Highlander Center from 1999 to 2004. Pharr is an organizer and political strategist who has spent her adult life working to build a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-issued movement for social and economic justice in the U.S.
  • Nathalie Nia Faulk, (she/they) born in Lafayette, LA and currently living in New Orleans is a self described Ebony Southern Belle! Her work blends Performance, History, Healing Justice, Cultural Organizing, and leadership development in service of all people, but particularly for Trans and Queer communities. Currently, they serve as a human rights commissioner for the City of New Orleans, co-director of Southern Organizer Academy, co-director of of Last Call Oral History Project, and as the Cultural Organizing Programs Manager for Alternate ROOTS
  • Lorie Bryant, (she/her) hails from Charleston, SC and is now based in Memphis, TN. Lorie is a creative arts enthusiast, natural storyteller, conversationalist, avid outdoor explorer, and indoor gardener. Lorie has worked extensively with Southerners on New Ground on campaigns and strategic projects geared towards dismantling oppressive structures and rallying for Queer liberation across lines of race, class, culture, abilities, age, gender, and sexuality.  Lorie is especially committed to pouring back into Black communities—to ensure that they have adequate resources that will allow them to create and thrive within the communities of their dreams.