Feminists Around the World: Andrea Jenkins

Today we celebrate the work of Andrea Jenkins, the first Black openly trans woman elected in public office in the US.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and Woking stuff when
Never told You production by her radio.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And we are excited to start off a Pride Month
by celebrating the works and the accomplishments of the first black,
openly trans woman to be elected into public office in
the United States, Andrea Jenkins. And that is our activists
around the world. If you didn't know what this segment
was also happy Pride, Yes, Happy Pride. So Jenkins made

(00:43):
history in twenty seventeen with her decision to run for
city Council in Minneapolis's eighth ward. She is very familiar
in the political realm. She started her career in two
thousand and one. Jenkins worked on the campaign for Robert
Lilligren and went on to become one of his staffers.
And later she was hired as an aid for council
member Elizabeth Goodden. And it was during this time that

(01:05):
she was awarded the twenty eleven Bush Fellowship, which helped
her establish the Trans Issues Work Group. So she continued
in her work establishing other groups and organizations. So this
is from Women'sistory dot org quote. Jenkins won the twenty
eleven Bush Fellowship dedicated to transgender Issues, helped establish the
Transgender Issues Workgroup and organized the City Council Summit on

(01:28):
Transgender Equality and the Problems facing the transgender community in Minnesota.
Both In twenty fourteen, after twelve years as a council aid,
Jenkins began curating the Transgender Oral History Project at the
University of Minnesota's John Nicholas Trader Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
and Transgender Studies. A primary focus of our curation is

(01:48):
to grow the collection of trans narratives by recording oral histories.
And we know we've talked about the importance of recording
oral histories and how often we don't enough of that
because we've lost so much in the erasure. So that
work is so amazing. And after getting's decision in not
running for reelection as well as the new twenty sixteen

(02:11):
presidential administration, you know, you know, Jingins decided to run
for the city council seat again. From that women's Systreet
dot org article, Jingins won her twenty seventeen election to
represent Ward eight with seventy three percent of the vote.
She was one of a few transgender candidates who won
their elections during that cycle. Her colleagues in the city
council then elected her vice president of the council and

(02:36):
we're still there. But that's okay. So in a twenty
nineteen interview with Essence dot Com, she talks about her
decision to run, and she says, quote, I got to
step into the fray. I can't leave this to the craziest,
Jingens says of her reaction to the election of TV
personality Donald Trump with a country at risk, the openly
trans progressive says, she put her well founded fears to
the side and listened to the swelling coors of community

(02:58):
members who chanted run Andrea run. The rare opportunity to
take over position that had no incumbent made the role
even more engaging. And having served for years at the
local level, Jenkins understood the significance of city politics. Cities
had already been at the forefront of making change in America.
Jenkin unfirms cities are leading on climate change, cities are

(03:18):
leading on a fifteen dollars minimum wage. Cities are really
tackling bell reform and all of these issues that our
federal government is sort of just cooking down. And I
knew I needed to get engaged and in her a
re election in twenty twenty two, she was made president
of the council and she has used her time to
create change within her community. So in her time in office,

(03:39):
she has had to face many culturally and politically changing
events and tragedies, including the murder of George Floyd, who
was a resident of her district. She has had many
may controversial moments within this tumultuous times and has had
to face the severity and complications of that tragedy. There
was an incident apparently where she was blocked while she

(04:00):
was driving by activists trying to get her to see
the devoid of views, including reform for police brutality, maybe
even the funding of police. So there was a lot
of stuff going on. But here's another quote from the
Women'shistory dot org. In the wake of Floyd's murder, Jenkins
insisted racism was a public health crisis and played a

(04:22):
central role in re examining the funding and structure of
Minneapolis's police department. In twenty twenty two, Jingins won reelection
to the Minneapolis City Council with eighty six percent of
the vote. Her colleagues then unanimously made her President of
the council. Another historic first for the openly transgender person.
With her new mandate, Jingins wants to bridge gaps in
her community, fight for the accountability within the city's police department,

(04:44):
and expand access to affordable housing, healthcare, and living wages.
She hopes her public service quote serves as an inspiration
for other trands and gender non conforming people. Again, there's
a lot of hiccups when it comes to the politics
that happened during that time, and it just felt like
there was no movement forward in politics in itself. But

(05:06):
I know again, she definitely had to face a lot
of controversies and issues within those realms, so with her
works in politics. She, like many of our other activists,
has many titles under her belt, including being a writer
and a poet. In an article written in into more
dot com, they quote her saying this about poetry and politics,

(05:28):
I really hope that my role in public life provides
some inspiration for others to see trans and gender nonconforming
people in a more positive light. She explains. As a
creative Jenkins is determined to do so by bringing art
and have it soaked into policy changes. Every poem is
a love poem, she can says, and I think we
have to inject more love and poetry into our public discourse.

(05:49):
And in her campaign she spoke often about how love
is a part of her platform, and in twenty fifteen,
she released her poetry book The Tea Is Not Silent,
which is still available does here's the summary from Amazon quote.
The title The Tea Is Not Silent was derived from
a quote by Janet mak She and now we're both
at a convening hosted by the Arcus Foundation, where she

(06:11):
is on the board. We were doing our introduction. There
were transgender activists from all across the country in the room,
and she said, the tea is no longer going to
be silent, and I immediately thought, that's going to be
the title of my next book. Visibility in the trades
community is increasing dramatically. Ultimately, this book is an effort
to create an understanding and awareness of marginalized community. A

(06:32):
community that is invisible to most and vilified by some.
A community that is traumatized by the constant threat of violence,
as well as unemployment, housing, instability, and discrimination in multiple
areas of social and economic life. A community that is
also creative, beautiful, and resilient and yeah, so she's actually
not going to be coming in for reelection this year

(06:53):
from what I understand, so hopefully we'll see more amazing
poetry from her I'm sure is coming soon. If you
want to check out her words, there are more of
her stuff on video where she's reading off her own works,
which is gorgeous and you should take a listen. Like
I said, I'm sure we'll be hearing more from her

(07:13):
as well as we need to constantly be able to
uplift these change makers as we know the administrations try
to erase them.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yes, and you also know we always love poetry, so
that's exciting. Well, listeners. If you have any recommendations for
us or any other thoughts you'd like to share, you
can email us at Hello at stuff Wenever Told You
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We have a tea public story. We have a book
you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as

(07:46):
always to our super producer Christina or executiroducer May and
archetract for Joey. Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
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