Our Why
What it is...?
Our Purpose
The Underground Rainbow Experiment is a system of care that creates Black Trans Liberation, Black Liberation, and Collective Liberation by creating accessible opportunities for people to live in their fullest potential.
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We seek to build this system by creating spaces, programming, and experiences that connect people-power, political power, cultural power, and economic power for Black Trans People. We believe that a system that can support Black Trans People can support our collective liberation.
Liberation won't happen all at once but in phases. It starts now, with us. More specifically, it begins with an internal and (sometimes) external RESET. Some of us never get the chance to stop, regroup, think, or heal. This isn’t sustainable.
Liberation is a series of experiments that change our hearts, minds, bodies, and systems.
It's a series of systemic prototypes. And we'll know we've made it when we find a system that can hold EVERYONE. And we find that system by getting aligned.
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How do we do that? Cue the Underground Rainbow.
How the Underground Rainbow works:
We are creating a community network for Black Trans folx that connects new and existing Black Queer community structures with resources from Allies.
These resources can come from organizations, businesses, funders, and individuals to funnel resources into building Black Trans power.
What Does Black Trans Power Look Like:
Black Trans Power is a unique blend of the following:​
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People power: The ability to work together to create new possibilities for ourselves and each other.
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Political power: The ability to influence policy.
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Cultural power: The ability to influence and BENEFIT from our cultural contributions.
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Economic power: The ability to build wealth and distribute it equitably amongst our community.
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If we live in a world where Black Trans People have Power we will live in a world where EVERYONE can have Power.
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Wasup
Here's What We Believe (Check the Politic)
Why do we center Black Trans people?
Black Trans Liberation is Black Liberation, and Black Liberation is Liberation for ALL people. If we can get free, everyone can get free.
How’d we get there?
Here’s our political math…look we’re showing our work…because WE did the reading ( that is both tea and shade):
When we assess pathways to Liberation from a Black Queer Feminist lens, we see that for Black Women and Gender Expansive folx to be free we need:
We need Abolition, a world without mass incarceration.
We need a Solidarity Economy and an Anti-Capitalist framework, a world where profits aren’t placed over human lives and the planet.
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We need Decolonization and a world that is free of imperialism.
We must live in a world that loves Black People.
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And to hold Trans folx especially, we collectively need an increased ethos and practice of disability justice. Currently, Transness is identified as a disorder by the medical-industrial complex. As Mariela (mad liberationist, IG:@mercifullymad) stated, “Transphobia and sanism are built upon each other, with the idea that being trans is crazy and to be crazy is to be deserving of having your autonomy removed by the state.” Systems created by the state demand the forfeiture of Trans autonomy. For Trans people to be free we cannot live in a world that punishes people for being disabled.
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We are ALL responsible for creating these new ways of being in ourselves and the world.
We must actively dismantle systems of patriarchy, gender discrimination, and gender-based violence.
Our Work
We create projects that allow us to embody the values of a designated chakra.
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The Root division will build projects that connect to our sense of home and stability.
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Project: Root Project is an effort to create a system of intentional housing, community spaces, and coordinated resources for Black Trans people. These houses, spaces, and resources will actively support us in protecting and freeing our minds, bodies, and spirits through collective care. Our ancestors have taught us that to have a community is always to have a home, a root. And no root can survive individually; each requires a deep and complex care system. The Root Project exists to help people create these systems of care for themselves by meeting their basic needs (food, housing, community) while providing opportunities for learning and expansion.
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The Sacral division builds programming based in the value of creativity: The Matrix.
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Project: The Matrix is an open-mic series that amplifies the voices of Trans and Queer artists while building a collective awareness of intersecting oppression using the concept of the Matrix of Domination. The Matrix of Domination is a sociological paradigm that explains issues of oppression that deal with race, class, and gender, which, though recognized as different social classifications, are all interconnected. This event will create space for Trans and Queer voices while building new ways of being in community that center the interconnectedness of our struggles.
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The Solar Division builds projects that support us in embodying our worth. These projects build community and political power.
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Project: We are working alongside the Donnell Justice Fighters to collect 2,500 signatures for their Justice For Donnell Rochester Campaign which seeks to reopen Donnell Rochester’s case. Donnell was murdered by the Baltimore Police Department in 2022. Donnell was a proud and outspoken member of the Queer community and a light who should still be here.
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The Heart Division will hold projects that support us in embodying connection.
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Project Scope: We will do this through community care projects that seek to deepen our healing and support systems.
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The Throat Division will support us in embodying the value of truthtelling.
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Project Scope: We will do this through our communications projects (zines, podcasts, blogs, vlogs etc.)
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Our Third Eye Division will support us in embodying the value of co-creation.
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Project Scope: We will do this through our pathfinding projects that encourage self-reflection, self-discovery, and reinvention.
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The Crown Division will support us in embodying the value of knowledge..
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Project Scope: Liberationist education programming that centers the learner's experiences so our personal experiences can embed into our collective politic.
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Through our strategy, we hope to develop a coordinated and interconnected set of projects that create collective and individual alignment for the sake of Black Trans Liberation, Black Liberation, and Collective Liberation.
