Black Trans Stories Matter workshop leaders and Season 5 podcast hosts Kiebpoli Calnek and Erik Harris announce TMI Project’s international Call for Storytellers for Black Trans Stories Matter, a 10-session workshop culminating in a live performance on June 24, 2023. Submissions are due by February 15, 2023. You can find more information at https://www.tmiproject.org/black-trans-stories-matter-call/.

Kiebpoli & Erik, hosts of the upcoming Black Trans Stories Matter Season of The TMI Project Podcast, share their Pride Stories.

Outdated narratives frame “coming out” as a singular, pivotal moment in a queer person’s life where they reveal their sexuality to those around them. Windy tells a different story of coming out in layers and spirals. Among them, the first time Windy talks to their parents about having a girlfriend and the vastly different responses from their mother and father.

Pat and Ralph share parallel stories of coming into their identities in a time before rainbow flags and corporate Pride sponsorship. Pat came out as a lesbian in the 1970s after the Stonewall Rebellion gave her the courage to stage a revolution in her own life. Ralph was born in 1931. He knew he was different from an early age but didn’t know what that meant until a classmate in his early teens told him boys like them were called fairies.

Before coming out as a transgender woman, Bailey tried to present as the ultimate man. She was a bodybuilder, successful in business, and seemingly had it all. Yet hiding her true self took a toll, and depression threatened her life, until transitioning ultimately saved her.

After getting kicked out of his house, Liam moves to NYC and finds his calling: dance. He also finds something else: crystal meth. When both start battling for his full attention, Liam realizes he has to make a choice.

Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller takes us through her early crushes, from girls at camp to her English teacher. Shamed for her sexuality by her parents, high school psychiatrist, and college classmates, Zelda finally finds community at a progressive college where she and her girlfriend are treated with respect for the first time.

Like many kids, Ness struggles to find belonging at school and strives for perfection in an attempt to be liked; but what does it mean to seek perfection as a Black queer child when society’s model of "perfect" is a white man? As an adult, and with the help of their grandma’s advice, Ness finally finds someone strong and powerful staring back at him when he looks into the mirror.

TMI Project Executive Director Eva Tenuto passes the mic to the new hosts of Season 4: TMI Project's co-founder (and Eva’s wife) Julie Novak and TMI Project's Operations and Programs Manager Blake Pfeil. Together, they reflect on the importance of true storytelling for the LGBTQIA+ community to share their authentic truth, record their history, explore identity, and celebrate queerness!

TMI Project Executive Director Eva Tenuto speaks with Celeste Lecesne, co-founder of The Trevor Project (the first 24-hour suicide lifeline for LGBTQIA+ youth) about the necessity of sharing our stories of survival. Then, we hear from storyteller Ray, who was able to interrupt suicidal ideation thanks to a life-saving call to The Trevor Project.