Shakina’s Drama League Award Winning play is available on Audible now, produced in partnership with Audible Theatre and The Williamstown Theater Festival.
Some people say feminism is about women being treated equally to men. Actually, that’s really just a great side effect of feminism. What feminism is really about is dismantling the systems of power that create and maintain gender inequality in the first place...
Theatre-maker and activist, Shakina Nayfack, takes her solo show on tour in one of the most dangerous places to be trans. Her goal: education and acceptance through art.
Originally published on Playbill.com as part of their 2016 Pride Coverage under the title "Diary of a Trans Actress on the Road...in North Carolina"
Not many people get a second shot at virginity. It’s a particular blessing of the post-op transgender experience that I didn’t expect would weigh so heavily upon me.
In my last BrokeAssStuart blog I wrote about the lack of mediatized representations of transgender people as complex, loving, sexual, and emotional beings. I also wrote that all the guys I had met online were interested in sex but not interested in taking me on an actual date. In what follows, I’m happy to prove myself wrong on both counts.
It’s been a while since I’ve shared anything about my process. A couple months ago I hit a wall...
I am a little boat
floating farther and farther away
from shore...
Someday in the not-too-distant future I’m going to write an update about how fun it is to live pain-free and how enjoyable my new vagina has become. This is not that day...
I remember sitting on the couch in the Suporn clinic two weeks after my surgery. There were four of us taking the post-op care class...
One year ago I was on stage at Joe's Pub premiering ONE WOMAN SHOW and celebrating the launch of KickStartHer. Musical Theatre Factory was nothing more than an idea I had shared with a couple people. On my birthday I vowed that 2014 would be my last year with a male body, and also that I was done producing work on my own...
It's funny how changing one part of yourself ultimately changes everything. 8 weeks ago I woke up into a new body. It was a passage I prepared for, in as much as one can prepare, and I thought I understood what I was getting myself into...
A rogue drop of rain
landed on my cheek
below my eye
next to my nose
and tricked my face...
I've been back in NYC for a week. Yesterday I sat behind my desk at Musical Theatre Factory for the first time since September 4th. Walking down 40th st I just kept repeating in my mind "I'm not ready for this, I'm not ready for this, I'm not ready for this..."
Looking back it seems as though
I've spent an inordinate amount of time
Feeling weepy in airports...
I can't believe that only 6 weeks ago I was on stage at Musical Theatre Factory singing "Him Today, Gone Tomorrow..."
I’m writing from my room at the Chon Inter Hotel in Chonburi, where I’ve been staying for the past two weeks, and plan to stay for one more...
Dear Friend,
I've only seen you twice
But I've believed since forever
That we were meant to be together...
I know it's been a minute since I've posted any substantial update about how I'm doing with recovery (aside from the soccer team incident, which I'll add a new perspective to below). The truth of the matter is that I had a sort of backward step in my process that forced me to focus extra intently on my wellness (or lack thereof).
So I just said, "alright, homophobes in the elevator everyone else out front!"
I mean, come on, how often...