J Mase III and Vita E will bring #BlackTransMagic to the 3rd Asterisk Trans* Conference when they perform during Saturday's closing.
In a world filled with white supremacy
and transphobia at every turn, to be a Black trans person
is an act of defiance and pure magickal manifestation. J
Mase III & Vita E., aka #BlackTransMagick, will
take you on a journey through poetry, movement and drums in this brand new show
inspired by their lives and the world around them. Part performance duo part
thought leaders, when these two are not on stage they make up the
administrative team for awQward, the first trans & queer people of color
talent agency.
J
Mase III is a Black/trans/queer poet based in Seattle by
way of NYC. A blogger for the Huffington Post he is author of “If I Should Die
Under the Knife, Tell My Kidney I was the Fiercest Poet Around” as well as
"And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer's Reflections on Grief, Unemployment
and Inappropriate Jokes About Death." As an educator, J Mase has worked
with thousands of community members in the US, the UK and Canada on the needs
of LGBTQIA youth and adults in spaces such as k-12 schools, universities, faith
communities and restricted care facilities among others. He is the founder of
the international performance tour Cupid Ain’t @#$%!: An Anti-Valentine’s Day
Poetry Movement and of awQward, the first ever trans & queer people of
color specific talent agency. You can find him on Facebook, twitter and awQwardtalent.com.
Originally from Cleveland, OH, Vita E has obtained her bachelor's
degree in Percussion Performance from Baldwin Wallace University, and has been
playing percussion for 12 years, as well as teaching percussion at multiple age
groups, from Pre-K to University level.
She is the founder of TWOC
Poetry, a brand/YouTube channel she created to increase proper media
representation and knowledge for marginalized groups, focusing primarily on
experiences as a trans woman of color. Her series, "Tea (T)ime,"
touches on subjects from racism to respectability politics, and everything
between and outside.
Vita E's talents have taken her
across the country in a very short span of time, performing at Campus Pride in
North Carolina, competing as a finalist in "Capturing Fire Queer Poetry
Slam" in DC, and doing work with Black Lives Matter in the Midwest. She
has recently formed a duo with J Mase III, known as #BlackTransMagick. When she
is not performing, she spends a great deal of her time as the Social
Media/Communications Coordinator for awQward Talent Agency, the first agency of
its kind to specifically uplift the work of trans and queer artists of color.
