Collected Item: “Deonté Welton Oral History, 2023/04/15”
Title
Deonté Welton
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
Deonté Welton
Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.
kheintzman@gmail.com
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#abortion, #ancestors, #artist, #Black, #body, #Chicago, #creative, #homelessness, #hospitality, #housing, #Illinois, #love, #luxury, #masking, #occult, #queer, #race, #racism, #rest, #selflove, #shelter, #spirituality, #stimulus, #trans, #trauma
What is the format of your recording?
Video
In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.
USA, Illinois, Chicago-land
What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*
female, she/her
What is the age of the interviewee?
25 to 34
How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*
black
Describe the oral history.
Some of the things we discussed include:
- Housing insecurity while working a 9-5 pre-pandemic.
- Believing in oneself, self-love, and leaving the corporate world behind.
- Experiences in the Chicago shelter system: mandatory church sermons and addiction counseling, homophobia/transphobia.
- Once stably housed, opening up own home to other transgender women; wanting trans women to experience radical hospitality.
- Prioritizing rest and reconnecting to the body; cultivating a sense of self; resilience and patience.
- Finding gifts in isolation.
- Intuition and prophecies.
- Hearing about the pandemic in Asia, anticipating it being horrible and feeling personally secure.
- An absence of medical advocacy in Western medicine, especially for Black queer people.
- Applying for and living off of stimulus checks, taking on low income work in the arts.
- The legacies of child abuse and trauma; emotional trauma and physical symptoms.
- Concerns about women’s rights; the intersections of the infringement on the rights of cis women and the infringement on the rights of trans women; the relationship between restricted access to abortion and anti-trans legislation. [edit from Deonté Welton: "Annotating the intersections of the infringement of rights for all trans-misogyny-exempt people (not only cisgender women) and the infringement of the rights of trans women best reflects me."]
- Isolating as a homebody.
- Having a mild case of COVID late in the pandemic.
- The future for creatives and nurturing creativity.
- Turning to ancestors for support and receiving that support.
- Resistance spaces imitating the problematic structures they ostensibly resist.
- The pandemic as less important than the contemporaneous shift in consciousness.
- Academia and intellectualism being unaccommodating of creative people.
Other cultural references: BLM
See also:
https://www.patreon.com/femnetwork
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-juju-secure-livingwork-space
https://www.patreon.com/riverfurnace
https://www.youtube.com/@midsummerchurch
- Housing insecurity while working a 9-5 pre-pandemic.
- Believing in oneself, self-love, and leaving the corporate world behind.
- Experiences in the Chicago shelter system: mandatory church sermons and addiction counseling, homophobia/transphobia.
- Once stably housed, opening up own home to other transgender women; wanting trans women to experience radical hospitality.
- Prioritizing rest and reconnecting to the body; cultivating a sense of self; resilience and patience.
- Finding gifts in isolation.
- Intuition and prophecies.
- Hearing about the pandemic in Asia, anticipating it being horrible and feeling personally secure.
- An absence of medical advocacy in Western medicine, especially for Black queer people.
- Applying for and living off of stimulus checks, taking on low income work in the arts.
- The legacies of child abuse and trauma; emotional trauma and physical symptoms.
- Concerns about women’s rights; the intersections of the infringement on the rights of cis women and the infringement on the rights of trans women; the relationship between restricted access to abortion and anti-trans legislation. [edit from Deonté Welton: "Annotating the intersections of the infringement of rights for all trans-misogyny-exempt people (not only cisgender women) and the infringement of the rights of trans women best reflects me."]
- Isolating as a homebody.
- Having a mild case of COVID late in the pandemic.
- The future for creatives and nurturing creativity.
- Turning to ancestors for support and receiving that support.
- Resistance spaces imitating the problematic structures they ostensibly resist.
- The pandemic as less important than the contemporaneous shift in consciousness.
- Academia and intellectualism being unaccommodating of creative people.
Other cultural references: BLM
See also:
https://www.patreon.com/femnetwork
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-juju-secure-livingwork-space
https://www.patreon.com/riverfurnace
https://www.youtube.com/@midsummerchurch
On what date did you record this oral history?
2023-04-15T09:38