Shakina Nayfack

Trans Woman Touring North Carolina in Protest of Anti-LGBT Law
When Shakina Nayfack heard about all the artists and performers boycotting North Carolina because of the new hateful anti-LGBT law HB2, she said, “nah, fuck that”. Ok, I don’t know if that’s exactly what she said, but it was along those lines. Instead of boycotting the state, Shakina felt it

Engineers Empower an Artist
The FabLab was alive with energy, dozens of engineers working with impenetrable focus on all sorts of machines I’d never seen before, shop bots, laser cutters, 3D printers; computer screens flashed with renderings of Raul’s arms while a big ass fan whirled above.

Eat, Game, & Sing in San Francisco This Spring!
It’s Springtime in San Francisco, which means it’s time to put your phone on silent for a while and step out into our fair city to sing, eat, and play with the wonderful people and programming on offer. Whether in the flesh or on a live stream, the journalists and

Giving a Painter New Arms
A story of how an artist lost the use of his arms, and how a new design may give him back the power to eat, drink, and paint again. Meet Raul Pizarro, an artist you should know

How To Not Get Raped at the Gym (and other lessons I’m learning as a Transwoman)
The gym is a complicated place for most transgender people. Thankfully, the one I belong to has been awesome throughout my transition. I started working out there a few months before going on hormones, wanting to get a jump on the muscle atrophy and weight gain estrogen so lovingly provides.

My First Real Date as a Transwoman
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

My Dating Life as a Transwoman
Last year was a hectic one, recovering from gender confirmation surgery (while writing a show about it), running a theatre company, getting on the scene as a trans actress… So much of my energy was spent working on and talking about becoming a woman in the world that I spent