Interview with Imanni da Silva

Imanni da Silva is one of Angola’s most compelling and multifaceted cultural voices, a model, painter, and beauty queen whose presence radiates elegance, strength, and artistic vision. Splitting her life between London and Luanda, she has built a career that reflects both her cosmopolitan spirit and her deep connection to her roots. Her journey through the fashion world has been anything but conventional: once considered “too androgynous” for the industry, she later emerged as a celebrated figure, eventually being recognized as the first transgender model currently working in Africa. Her success is not only a personal triumph but also a symbol of shifting attitudes within fashion and society at large.

 

Beyond the runway, Imanni is an accomplished contemporary artist whose exhibitions in Angola and England have earned enthusiastic praise. She brings the same sensitivity and boldness to her canvases that she brings to her public life, using art as another way to express her identity, her heritage, and her vision of beauty. She has also stepped into media work, from radio presenting to television appearances, always embracing new challenges with the determination that defines her. Imanni’s story is one of resilience, self-belief, and a refusal to be limited by others’ expectations. She is a spokesperson for human rights, a cultural ambassador for Angola, and an inspiration to many who see in her a reminder that authenticity and courage can open doors once thought closed. Today, she joins me to reflect on her path, her passions, and the dreams that continue to guide her forward.

Interview with Yasmin Lee

Yasmin Lee is a woman whose life seems woven from threads of survival, artistry, and quiet revolution. Her story begins not on a stage or a film set, but in the dense Cambodian jungle, where she entered the world as her family fled a brutal work camp, born into rain, danger, and the fierce determination of a mother who refused to let go. From that first breath, Yasmin’s life has been shaped by resilience, by the instinct to move forward even when the world feels impossibly heavy. Years later, she would transform that resilience into art. Before Hollywood ever called her name, she was a make‑up artist crafting beauty for others, a drag showgirl lighting up coastal stages, and a young woman navigating her transition at a time when transgender visibility was nearly nonexistent. She stepped into adulthood without role models, without a roadmap, and often without the safety nets so many take for granted.

 

Yet she carved out a place for herself, with talent, with courage, and with a spirit that refused to dim. Her journey through the adult film industry, and later into mainstream cinema with roles in The Hangover Part II and Red Ice, reflects not only her versatility but also her willingness to step into spaces where transgender women had rarely been seen, let alone celebrated. Yasmin’s presence on screen has opened doors, sparked conversations, and challenged the boundaries of representation. She has lived boldly in worlds that were not built for her, and in doing so, she has helped reshape them. But beyond the spotlight, Yasmin carries a profound emotional landscape, marked by family loss, personal reinvention, and the ongoing work of healing. She speaks openly about love, identity, and the weight of expectations, offering a voice that is both vulnerable and strong. Her advocacy, her artistry, and her lived experience make her not only a performer but a storyteller of rare honesty.

Interview with Victory “Vi” Lê

Victory “Vi” Lê is a woman of quiet strength and luminous presence, living and creating in the ever-restless heart of San Francisco. A transgender singer, performer, and student, Vi first stepped into the public eye as one of the women featured in Cecilio Asuncion’s documentary What’s the T?, a project that captured not only stories of transition, but the courage it takes to exist openly in a world that so often demands conformity. Since then, her life has continued to unfold as a careful balance between artistry, purpose, and self-discovery. By day, Vi is completing her degree in psychology and working with the Department of Public Health, guided by a long-held dream of becoming a doctor, a healer in both mind and body. By night, she takes the stage at AsiaSF, the legendary San Francisco cabaret where transgender women are not only servers and hosts, but stars. There, Vi lends her voice to bluesy and jazz-infused songs, singing with a warmth shaped by lived experience, heartbreak, resilience, and hope.

 

As the venue’s only live singer, she does more than perform; she weaves emotion into melody, and community into family, standing alongside women she proudly calls her sisters. Vi’s beauty, like her artistry, is not ornamental but deeply rooted. It grows from self-ownership, from years of searching, questioning, and learning to love herself without apology. She speaks of transition not as a single moment or destination, but as a personal, evolving journey, one that belongs to each individual alone. Her words reject rigid narratives and embrace choice, patience, and compassion, reminding us that there is no universal path to becoming oneself. At her core, Vi believes in visibility, not as spectacle, but as truth. She envisions a world where transgender women are seen simply as human beings navigating love, family, ambition, and belonging, much like anyone else. Grounded yet dream-filled, reflective yet playful, she embodies the idea that standing out is not an act of defiance, but an act of survival and grace. This interview is an invitation into Vi’s world, a space where song meets science, softness meets strength, and identity is not explained, but lived.

Interview with Giselle

Giselle is a young and inspiring trans woman from Minnesota who courageously shares her journey of transition on YouTube. Giselle balances a full-time career as a Web Business Specialist in Minneapolis with a vibrant personal life that includes friends, family, fashion, photography, travel, and even the occasional relaxing glass of wine. Open-minded, easy-going, and curious about the world, she decided to document her transition online to support and guide others navigating the often complex and emotional path of gender transition. Having been on hormone replacement therapy for over a year and preparing for gender reassignment surgery, Giselle speaks candidly about the physical, mental, and social challenges she has faced, as well as the moments of triumph and self-discovery that have shaped her journey.

 

Giselle is deeply passionate about authenticity, visibility, and representation, emphasizing how important it is for trans people to tell their own stories. Her perspective spans a wide range of topics, from fashion and beauty to love, politics, and self-acceptance, offering both inspiration and practical wisdom for transgender women and the wider community. In today’s conversation, Giselle shares her experiences, her hopes for the future, and her thoughts on what it truly means to live boldly and authentically as a trans woman, reminding us all of the importance of courage, empathy, and staying true to oneself.

Interview with Ingrid Ung

Ingrid Ung is a Finnish visual artist whose life and work move fluidly across borders, disciplines, and identities. Born in Malmö in 1973 and raised between cultures, with a Finnish mother and a Slovenian father, Ingrid has built an artistic practice that is as multifaceted as her personal journey. Trained at Fria Konstskolan and later at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, she has worked with painting, drawing, video, sound, installation, and performance, gaining particular recognition for her video and performance art while never abandoning her roots as a painter. Her life has been shaped by constant movement and curiosity, having lived and worked in cities such as Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Estonia, and even India. Ingrid approaches these geographical and emotional shifts not as obstacles, but as adventures that have continuously expanded her artistic vocabulary. This openness to experience is also reflected in her willingness to move between traditional and contemporary forms, allowing drawing and painting to coexist naturally with video and performance.

 

Her background as a painter remains visible even in her moving-image works, lending them a strong visual sensitivity. At the same time, she values the intimacy and romance of manual, craft-based practices, especially as she returns more intensively to drawing and painting. For Ingrid, artistic freedom lies precisely in refusing to limit herself to a single medium or definition. Based between Helsinki, Turku, Berlin, and Leipzig, Ingrid’s career reflects a life shaped by movement, curiosity, and openness to change. Her work often explores themes of identity and gender, drawing directly from lived experience, including her transition, which began in the early 2000s and became part of a powerful body of artistic reflection. Beyond labels and categories, Ingrid’s art is driven by a desire to inspire, to give hope, and to remain deeply authentic, a quality that resonates not only in her visual language but also in her thoughtful, warm, and reflective approach to life itself.

Interview with Ellah A. Thaun

Some lives unfold like a carefully written score, others like a feedback-soaked improvisation played at night, alone, with the windows open to the world. Ellah A. Thaun belongs unmistakably to the second kind. Born in France and shaped by sound, image, intuition, and survival, she moves through music the way some people move through dreams, intensely, vulnerably, without compromise. From the first shock of John Lennon’s voice in childhood to the restless urgency of teenage distortion, from noise and shoegaze collectives to intimate lo-fi folk confessions recorded on the edge of sleep, her art has always been less about genre and more about truth. Guitar strings, drum machines, sketches, photographs, and whispered melodies all become extensions of the same searching gesture, an attempt to translate lived experience into something that can be felt rather than explained.

 

As a transgender woman, Ellah speaks of transition not as a label but as an awakening, a filter through which the world suddenly becomes sharper, more dangerous, more beautiful. Her work carries the weight of that awakening, love as an absolute necessity, anger as fuel, tenderness as resistance, and creativity as a way to stay alive in a society that too often refuses to listen. Whether performing solo in quiet rooms or shaping expansive soundscapes with Valeskja Valcav, she stands at the intersection of music and art, fragility and defiance, romance and rage. This interview is an invitation to step into that intersection, and to listen closely, not only to what Ellah A. Thaun creates, but to what she has lived, endured, and transformed into song.