Tessa in Tennessee
Tessa at the Highlander Center in TN, November 2017.
Tessa grew up in Cookeville, Tennessee, a town built on Cherokee and Shawnee land. At the time of this November 2017 interview, Tessa was 22 years old and studying chemical engineering at Tennessee Tech. In this interview, she talks about coming out to her parents, her work with Cumberland Gender Advocacy to support other trans folks in rural middle TN, the struggle to find trans-affirming healthcare and jobs in the rural South, and her experiences coming up through the Boy Scouts.
And please donate to support Melisse Watson, "a Black Indigenous queer non-binary artist from Tkaronto, Dish with One Spoon wampum territory. They are raising money to buy land in Georgia where their birth father’s family has lived for generations for the purposes of building community with Black and Indigenous farmers and earth workers, working towards land sovereignty, protecting and restoring the land, and reclaiming it from the state." You can donate here: Reunion: Family & Black Land Stewardship.
Host/Producer/Lead Editor: Rae Garringer. Assistant Editor/Composer-Performer of Acoustic and Electric Guitar Music: Tommie Anderson. Editorial Advisory Dream Team: Hermelinda Cortés, Sharon P. Holland, and Lewis Raven Wallace. Theme Song Composer/Banjo: Sam Gleaves. Theme Song Pedal Steel: Rebecca Branson Jones. Most importantly, thanks to Tessa for sharing her story so generously with us all.