8 Ben
Red Galactic Skywalker
Skywalker red
Fly to the Moon
Tonight full in Libra
Tonight full in Love
Step aside Stars -
Skies – open wide
Amber Globe glistening
Shimmering bright
Enough to brightest Silver
Turn by Midnight
Subtle Moonglow –
Silent strong Force
What Miracle keeps
This Sky Ship on Course?
©Kleomichele Leeds
Kortney Ryan Ziegler
Kortney Ryan Ziegler (born December 15, 1980) is an American filmmaker, visual artist, blogger, writer and scholar based in Oakland, California. His artistic and academic work focuses on queer/trans issues, body image, racialized sexualities, gender, performance, and black queer theory.
Biography
Ziegler was born in Compton, California. Raised in a family of single black women, his mother struggled with mental illness and drug abuse. His father was absent. Ziegler lived with three alcoholic uncles who inflicted physical and emotional abuse on the women in his family.
According to Ziegler, growing up in Compton he was surrounded by ads and music that made him feel like an ugly girl. In 2001, he enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was the first in his family to attend a post-secondary institution. He went on to pursue his Masters at San Francisco State University and later his Ph.D. at Northwestern University. During this time, he slowly began his transition, though when he began his doctoral program he identified as female. In his third year, he began to identify as genderqueer and started taking hormones. In 2011 he began to defend his dissertation on queer, black and Latino filmmakers. He was the first person to receive a Ph.D. in African-American studies from Northwestern University.
He currently resides in Oakland, California.
Career
Blogging
blac (k) ademic
From 2003 to 2006, Ziegler maintained a popular black queer feminist blog, blac(k) ademic. The blog tackled topics such as gender and sexuality from a young black queer academic perspective, eventually becoming one of the top blogs in the feminist blogosphere.
Ziegler endured much controversy due to his radical stance that positioned the experiences of women of color as the locus of his feminist analysis. Ziegler shut down the blog due to the many negative comments he was receiving. Blac(k) ademic went on to receive the award for Best Topical Blog in the first annual Black Weblog Awards in 2006. It relaunched in November 2012 and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and a Transguy Community Award.
Film
STILL BLACK: a Portrait of Black Transmen
Premiering in 2008, STILL BLACK: a Portrait of Black Transmen was conceived during the years Ziegler was a doctoral student in the department of African-American studies at Northwestern University. The film explores the theme of female to male transgender transition in the African American community. Ziegler and his producer, Awilda Rodriguez Lora, provided the initial financial investment to get the project off the ground. They employed a grassroots fundraising method, using social networking to secure funds to complete the project. Upon release to the queer film festival circuit, the film became one of the most sought after and talked about films representing the trans-man-of-color experience, showing to sold-out crowds in cities such as Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, and Tel-Aviv. The film received an Isaac Julien Experimental Award from Queer Black Cinema International Music Festival and an Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary in the ReelOut Queer Film + Video Festival.
Technology
In 2013, Ziegler launched Trans*H4ck, an organizational hub for trans people collaborating on technical projects. It first began as a two hack-a-thon which was aimed to address specific issues in the transgender community. During the hack-a-thon developers, programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, and community members came together to brainstorm new ideas and create technological advances digital tools to better the trans community. This was used as a digital activist movement to help spread the word of an underrepresented community and raise money through crowdfunding. Over the two-day hack-a-thon partners got to know each other, and heard about the social injustices facing transgender and non-gender-conforming people.
Along with Tiffany Mikell, he also founded BSMdotCo, an educational technology start up company. Together they created Aerial Spaces. This is a video based forum which allows educators to reach a wider audience of learners.
In 2017, Ziegler and Mikell cofounded Appolition.us in order to help incarcerated Black people return to their families by allowing users to round up purchases to the nearest dollar and donate the funds to bail funding efforts. The app was supported through crowdfunding after a tweet from Ziegler got attention during July 2017.
Community Outreach
In 2011 he became the co-owner of the Halmoni Vintag, which a vintage boutique that promotes healthy body positivity and self-love for women. which holds monthly clothing swaps for women called A Naked Lady Soiree. In 2013 Ziegler also founded Who We Know, a group that focuses on creating products and developing different initiatives, that help to economically empower the transgender color community.
Honors and awards
2006 Best Topical Blog, Black Weblog Awards - "blac (k) ademic"
2009 Best Documentary, Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival - STILL BLACK: a portrait of black transmen
Trans 100 Honoree
2013 GLAAD Media Award Nomination for Outstanding Blog
2013 Empowerment Award, Black Transmen, Inc.
2013 Outstanding Transgender Service, The Esteem Awards
2013 Top 40 under 40 LGBT Activist, The Advocate
2013 Authentic Life Award, Transgender Law Center
2017 Diablo magazine's 40 Under 40 award winner*
BEN
Kin 73: Red Galactic Skywalker
I harmonize in order to explore
Modeling wakefulness
I seal the output of space
With the galactic tone of integrity
I am guided by the power of navigation.
Only a few brave souls dare go into the unknown; they become the super shamans and mediums of the masses.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2018-2019.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Svadhistana Chakra (Kali Plasma)
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