Book signing & reception to follow

Please join us on Thursday, September 19 for an evening of conversation about To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Adults. Project creators Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre will be joined by Mary Statzer, Curator of Prints and Photographs, and D’Santi Nava, one of the subjects featured in the exhibition, who will share his story and discuss his experience being part of To Survive on This Shore.

To Survive on This Shore is the product of over five years of research and photography by Dugan and Fabbre, who traveled across the United States to document the life stories of older transgender adults. The exhibition and book are a response to the absence of nuanced representation of older transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in US culture. The subjects who participated in the project have a wide range of lived experiences across the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, and geographic location. Their narratives span the past ninety years and provide an important historical record of transgender history in the United States, as well as a complex reflection on the struggles and joys of growing older as transgender or gender nonconforming people.

Jess T. Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and community. For the past decade, Jess has photographed people within queer and transgender communities, focusing on the complexities of identity, gender, and sexuality. Jess earned a BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies from Harvard University, and an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. Jess regularly exhibits internationally and has work in several museum collections.

Vanessa Fabbre, PhD, LCSW, is an Assistant Professor at the Brown School of Social Work and Affiliate Faculty in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Vanessa’s research explores the conditions under which LGBTQ people age well, and what this means in the context of structural forces such as heteronormativity, heterosexism, and transphobia. Her research has been published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Social Work, The Gerontologist, the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, and the Journal of Urban Health.

D'Santi Nava is a native of Santa Fe, NM. A musician since the age of 7. Retired from the Santa Fe DA’s office as a Victim Advocate. A member of Kalpulli Teocalli Ollin (Community Sacred House of Energy) a traditional Mexhika Indigenous healing community. D’Santi Nava carries 2-Spirit medicine as a ceremonialist, fire guardian, sound healer, Certified Medicinal Aromatherapist and Curandero/Santero. He was presented with the New Mexico Music Award in 2017 for his original nuevo flamenco music. In 2019 he was nominated in 3 categories. D’Santi tours across the state, nation and into Canada plus volunteering for several community events into the Navajo Nation. He believes playing music brings healing to the soul! At the age of 50, he commenced his path as a transgender man. After a NDE, he committed his life as a prayer with music. With each note he heals.