Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:18 You're listening to sound mind where queer voices across Minnesota explore mental health through art. I'm Jane Ram, Sarah Miller, artistic director of one voice mixed chorus. Minnesota is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight allies chorus. And this is our first podcast. So why is a queer choir launching a podcast in a normal year? Each fall. One voice takes our music to greater Minnesota as a way to connect with queer folks and their families in places where LGBTQ people may experience more isolation compared to the twin cities. The people we meet in the stories that we hear on those tours are profound. Parents who drive three hours to hear a one voice concert, because they're still ostracized years after their son died of AIDS, a trans woman who struggles daily to connect with her rural neighbors. But this fall, we were in the midst of a global pandemic and acquired to her was completely out of the question. So we developed sound mind as a way to share stories of queer folks in greater Minnesota, and to explore how their art supports their mental health. We've started with six sound, mind episodes, featuring stories from big fork to Northfield, to Otter tail County. A few of our storytellers grew up in the city and moved to rural Minnesota and others have lived in their communities, all their lives. Here's a little teaser for our first episode. Meet McKayla, Raymond, a transgender woman from outside, big fork, Minnesota, a town four hours North of Minneapolis population, 446.
Speaker 1 00:02:00 We, uh, we were in a saloon. I know that's hard to believe. Visualize, visualize a brand new saloon. That's a rock in place in grand Rapids, Minnesota. What have you? You can't be in a more rock and place than that Canyon. We walked in and there were two seats left in the whole place they had just put in this beautiful, great, big horseshoe shaped bar and all these nice booze and stuff. And it's wide open. Everybody is a part of everybody's conversation in there and they've got 64 taps on the wall and they've got two seats. We walk in, sit down McKayla and Valerie, two young women, late thirties sitting next to us, chatting, chatting pretty soon. You know, a little bit of chatter from our side goes them and they comment a little bit and they're hitting it pretty hard. These two and the one, one girl says, you know, I get to go out about every three months cause uh, my husband works hard and he's a firefighter.
Speaker 1 00:03:16 I don't do this often, but I'd do it. I said, Oh, good, good for you. And uh, she says, uh, so, uh, McKayla, what, uh, what is it with you? What do you, uh, what are you? And I said, Oh, um, well, uh, trans gender, female. I said, I'm a female. And uh, yeah, explain that a little bit. You know, and as I start explaining it to her and best I could, and um, she said, I got a real problem. And I said, what's your problem? She said, well, I'm not supposed to like you. And I said, what, what do you mean? You're not supposed to like me. She says, well, my family says, I'm not supposed to, like you, my church says, I'm not supposed to like you. And I said, what do you like me? She said, yeah, that's the problem I got. And then she went and threw up in the parking lot.
Speaker 0 00:04:33 So jump on the one voice bus across Minnesota and join us for sound mind where queer voices across Minnesota explore mental health through art.
