Crosscut by Margo Vansynghel / January 15, 2020
Edidi and Mase are not the only team with Pacific Northwest roots receiving the prestigious designation this year. Vashon Island-based artists and activists Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones of The Natural History Museum also received a $100,000 grant. Along with collaborators from across the country, they plan to put natural history “on trial” in an interactive exhibit, The Supreme Court of Red Natural History, at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
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“As two Black trans people, to say, ‘We want to create this thing that is about the healing needs and spiritual needs of Black trans people’ meant that it also wasn’t sexy to funders,” Mase says. At first, they feared the same would be true for their documentary, which will feature some of the book’s contributors. Given that so many of them are musicians, writers, poets, dancers, Mase and Edidi hope to incorporate the contributors’ art practices and the way these intersect with spiritual practices into the documentary.
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