Andrea Jenkins, the first Black openly transgender councilwoman to be elected to public office in the United States, walked into Slocum Hall in a loose-fitting beanie, a Victory Fund T-shirt and bright orange Adidas. The entire outfit was from Fluid, a now-closed New York City-based fashion store that sells gender-fluid clothing.

“I intentionally wore this tonight because I’m me,” Jenkins said. “Some days, I show up in a blazer and, you know, sensible shoes, but you have to be authentic and comfortable in yourself in order to be able to show up for justice.”

On Feb. 5, Jenkins was the 2020 Black History Month Commemorative Lecture Speaker at Syracuse University. Throughout the night, Jenkins shared several poems and personal essays that detailed her life experiences.

She was welcomed on stage by Cedric Bolton, coordinator of student engagement at the Office of Multicultural Affairs. “I have known Andrea since 2001,” Bolton said. “You never know who you are meeting, and I am just thankful for being at the right place at the right time when my wife told me to go to a writers’ workshop that was a day long. This is how we met.”

The Division of Enrollment and the Student Experience in SU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs will continue to host a series of events throughout Black History Month in collaboration with campus departments and student organizations.

Jenkins has a lot of experience in the LGBTQ community as a writer, performance artist, poet and activist. She made history when the city of Minneapolis elected her as the first Black openly transgender woman official in the U.S. Jenkins has sought to pave the way for the transgender community ever since.

“Politics is about improving people’s lives,” Jenkins said. “And that is why I ran. That is why I serve.”

Jenkins then stated that the reason why she keeps standing up every day to fight for justice is because of Harriet Tubman.

“Harriet woke up every day in incomprehensible circumstances,” she said. “She couldn’t be free until everybody she loved was free. We cannot be free until we all are free.”

In light of the event being held one night after “Mr. Number 45’s” State of the Union Address, Jenkins proceeded to speak about the current state of the country. She avoided using President Donald Trump’s name throughout her speech. What began as a talk void of hope later erupted into a positive message for those in attendance.

“We have to stay hopeful because we are the resistance,” she said.

Jenkins transitioned into a portion about her life. She talked of her brother’s tragic drug dependency that resulted in his death. She spoke of trying to find herself through football and fraternity life in college, to no avail. Finally, she said that she came out to her parents as bisexual, but she added that not even this was her “full truth.” At 30, she began to proudly present herself as female.

Jenkins read essays from the book titled “Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride” at the 2020 Black History Month Commemorative Lecture. Rey Villegas | Contributing Photographer

“This eternal struggle to be one’s true self is very powerful,” Jenkins said.

Minneapolis was the first city to in the country to pass protections for transgender people. After seeing other council members that were either gay or transgender, Jenkins joined the political sphere herself. Jenkins said that she ran for councilwoman unopposed, besides “racism, sexism and transphobism,” Jenkins said.

“It’s great to have that point of view and to be able to see a trans woman of color and see yourself as a transgender person being represented in politics,” said Alex Middleton, a student assistant in the LGBT Resource Center, after the event.

Jenkins persisted to increase the visibility of the LGBTQ community in the city of Minneapolis when she organized a City Council summit on transgender equity.

One year later, she became curator of the Transgender Oral History Project (TOHP) at the University of Minnesota’s Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.

For the entirety of her talk, Jenkins commanded the stage. At one point she stopped to remove her glasses. Jenkins explained to the audience that she had been experiencing extreme pain in walking and everyday activity.

Jenkins was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic illness with no cure, in 2018. “It was a relief to finally put a name to what I had,” she said.

Jenkins continued to share her thoughts on politics in the U.S.

“I try not to use those five letters in connected form: T-R-U-M-P. But this whole system is really built against everything that we stand for and who we are as human beings, and that is really painful and challenging to wake up in the morning,” she said. The audience of about 50 people cheered.

Rather than answer questions, Jenkins put a question to the crowd: “Should I answer questions or can I read another essay?” She closed out the night with a reading of her personal essay, which was published in the book “Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride” this past year. Afterwards, Jenkins held a book signing and spoke with attendees.

“It really has been a joy to be able to maintain my artistic life while, you know, being deeply engaged in political life,” Jenkins said. “So, when you take those worlds and you mold them together it makes, it a little bit easier.”

Published on February 6, 2020 at 1:03 am