Interview with Mina Caputo

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Mina Caputo, an American singer, the lead singer, and a founding member of the New York heavy metal band Life of Agony. Hello Mina!

Mina: Hi Hun!!! Greetings! Blessings!

Monika: I have just listened to your first solo album as a woman titled “As Much Truth As One Can Bear” (2013) and I like it a lot. I love both lyrics and music. In the first song “Identity” you sing “… I’m sure that I’m not a woman…” It is rather a surprising line from the woman you have always been …

Mina: Well the correct lyrics to one of the verses are: I am not a man/I am not a woman/all I could taste is my burning heart/I’m sure I’m not a man/I’m sure I’m not a woman/all I could wear is a willing smile... It’s true, I identify completely with the feminine, but…

To me, the spirit has no gender. I truly identify with spirit, or consciousness, which is all energies, all knowing, and all not knowing. So to place myself inside of a boxed word(s) or language doesn't really sit well with me.

Interview with Andrea James

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Andrea James, a very prolific American artist, writer, film producer, director, businesswoman, and LGBT rights activist. Hello Andrea!

Andrea: Hi Monika—thanks for interviewing me!

Monika: Having so many talents, which profession do you enjoy most?
Andrea: I enjoy writing educational information because that fulfills my interest in teaching. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a large swath of people can’t be reached through the written word, so I also work in film and television.

Monika: In 2003, together with your business partner and entertainer Calpernia Addams, you co-founded Deep Stealth Productions to provide services to the transgender community. How successful is the company?

Andrea: I feel that our success is best measured by the nice letters and hugs we get from people who have been helped or moved by our work. We were never out to become rich selling specialty videos, and it’s not a big money-maker anyway. We often supplement the income from our work for the trans community through other kinds of production. Calpernia and I do not need a lot to live the lives we want, and that has freed us up to work on projects that are important to us.