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Friday, March 29, 2024
Writer Francisco Velazquez sat down and interviewed Laverne Cox after she spoke at a Distinguished Lecture Series event.

Writer Francisco Velazquez sat down and interviewed Laverne Cox after she spoke at a Distinguished Lecture Series event.

Laverne Cox exudes inspiring love and pride for herself during WUD lecture and follow-up interview

The afternoon rush began with eager fans waiting outside of Shannon Hall an hour and a half before the event. The line ended stretching onto Lakeshore path in a matter of minutes. While our WUD Distinguished Lecture Series Director Mohan Mandali, Kennedie King, Nora Herzog and myself waited on Laverne Cox’s arrival, we pondered on the idea that she would arrive in a stretched out limousine. To our surprise, a black car turns the corner, windows tinted, and at that moment we knew this campus would not be the same.

Cox rushes out of the car, manages to still whisper a quick “Hi” and goes inside. As we escort her to the room, we feel nothing less than the glamour of a woman who doesn’t ask for much. Maybe some veggies and water, but Cox is one of the most genuine people I have encountered in such a position of power.

Cox is noticeably a woman about her business. She puts her things down quickly, and asks for a mic check. I may not know her entire life, but the small intricate details that I did pay attention to show me her dedication to her craft. While approaching the podium, Cox removes her flats and puts on her heels, just for mic check. She knows what direction she wants to go and how she wants to be viewed. And Cox isn’t just about the camera, stating, “I want the house lights up, but not too bright; I like to set a mood to connect with the audience.”

Cox returns to her green room to get ready. While DLS is managing the overload of students, faculty and staff that have arrived and basically camped outside, we question how this campus will receive a woman of color in power. Hopeful in the bodies that have filled Shannon Hall, the crowd files in and a spirit of love fills the room. I haven’t been able to process the tenacity of care that I find in the eyes of the audience members, almost as if Cox has brought back something many of us in the LGBTQ community have begun to lose hope in, progress.

It is now 7:30 p.m., and the hall is packed to the brink. I have the honor and sheer nervousness of introducing the WUD DLS and our faculty introducer Gabe Gonzalez. As Gonzalez draws in the crowd and introduces Cox, the room is filled with applause. Maybe a universal language in the physical, the applause continue as Cox makes her entrance.

After being close enough to Cox to feel her aura, her presence made an unforgettable impression. Her body language and the power of her knowledge demand to be heard. And as a woman globally changing the face of trans representation, Cox is doing just that.

Cox’s lecture isn’t a typical run-of-the-mill class lecture. It’s more like a talk between the people of color and oppression in the room. Cox discusses her childhood, the bullying, the at-one-point denial of her womanhood and the turnaround of learning to embrace and love herself. A lot of Cox’s success has come from pain. She attempted suicide at one point in her life because she felt that her existence wasn’t worthy, particular from her grandmother. Nicknamed “Madea” (“Mother Dear”), Cox’s grandmother dies while Cox is in sixth grade. Still trying to find herself without destroying herself has been a long fought battle all through her high school and college years. As once a gender-nonconforming college student in New York City, Cox follows her dreams of acting and working in the Big Apple and in the process finds the woman she felt she was always meant to be. It did not come easy. She mentions having to deal with six-plus years of failure in her physical transformation. Constant rejection from acting gigs, but nothing was going to stop the end goal.

There is knowledge in power and Laverne Cox has both. Cox alludes to many works of women that range from Sojourner Truth, Brené Brown, Judith Butler, and Bell Hooks. In the words of Butler, “one is not born a woman, one becomes one.” The idea of existence preceding essence is the mentality that has kept Cox driven. She looks into the crowd, “we must create gender self-determination.” She continues on to the topic of children and their mental stability. “We cannot simply say that we support and love our children, but force them to face the trauma of self-identity on their own. It isn’t healthy. It also isn’t justifiable to exclude trans identifying people out of the Census.” Cox continues on to state, “we are not going anywhere so we need to be counted,” and proceeds to do the best hair flip of 2016. 

Shame is a reoccurring theme throughout Cox’s infamous life experiences. Her apparent connection with Brené Brown’s work is shown with the constant mentality that “shame is the intense belief that one is unlovable, that I am wrong.” Cox has some heartbreaking moments in her life story that touch on her mother’s reaction to her bullying, “what are you doing to make them treat you this way?” She also mentions her mother’s denial and her almost attempt to inject a third-grade Cox with testosterone to make her appear more boy like. The statement that gave me chills after she told this part of her story, “she did not inject with me the testosterone, but the damage had been done.” She states that she prayed every night, “don’t let me turn into a man.” Cox knows this wasn’t the end for her. Like a cycle of lost and found, Cox found herself in the love she knew existed in her body as a woman, regardless of what biological factors were instilled in everyone’s mind at the time.

As she brings the night to a close, the words reiterated throughout the night, “empathy is the antidote to shame,” ring throughout the venue.

But, for me the night isn’t over, just yet. After whisking her back to her green room, I have the honor of interviewing her for 15 minutes. As an aspiring journalist, I had the honor to interview a black trans woman who refused to give up on her dreams, and is now changing the world.

I begin by talking about #TheRealUW and its impact it had on my friends and myself personally on this campus. She is shocked at the range of hate that has been demonstrated on this campus repeatedly. I use this subject to transition into her activism, her career and her craft.

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Fran: “Do you think your life would ever turn out like this?”

Cox: “Yes. I always dreamed and hoped that I would be acting. A lot of what has happened is because of what I worked towards everyday, my craft. Everything that I have experienced has had a lasting impact on my life. Loving different things. Every life experience contributes to you as artist.”

As a poet, I ask her, “Do you think you’ll ever get back into writing or maybe into visual art?”

Cox: “No. The thing is I grew up with my brother who painted and drew very realistically from an early age and that’s his lane, I’m a dancer, and now he’s performing ironically, but no, no visual art whatsoever.”

Fran: “How do you think your childhood has influenced you now?”

Cox: “I think there’s a lot in foundation that I got from my childhood in the church, I learned a lot of discipline, it required such discipline. I watched these opera singers and it required such discipline, they practiced eight to 10 hours a day and I knew that if I wanted to be an artist it would require discipline and some luck. My mother valued education and it was important to me to not just be a dancer, not just be a performer, but to make all A’s, not just make all A’s but also value knowledge and critical thinking. I am still a person who is learning, who studies and prepares.”

Fran: “Was it difficult growing up in a traditionally constructed household?”

Cox: “For the most part there was no patriarch trying to dictate stuff, which I think was really good for me. My mom was working so hard, I was a good student, I didn’t get into trouble so I had a little bit of freedom. I was a good kid because I had goals and aspirations.”

Fran: “How do you think New York influenced you?”

Cox: “I feel that I really grew up in New York. It was very overwhelming but I got a scholarship to study ballet and went for a summer for about two months, but I was overwhelmed by the city.”

Fran: “Is it as great as people make it out to be?”

Cox: “It’s great but it’s changed over the years. I think New Yorkers are very nice, but also very quick to the point. We’re all very aggressive and working very hard. New York isn’t for everybody. I still wonder if New York is right for me. It’s a concrete jungle.”

Fran: “Did you ever feel like you weren’t going to make it?”

Cox: “Yes. I felt that I was meant to do what I’m doing now, but it took a really long time to have a breakthrough moment, which was ‘Orange is the New Black.’ Actually, a few months before I booked the job at ‘Orange’ I was thinking of going back to grad school. I had the RG materials and was looking at gender women studies, and maybe some journalism. But I got the ‘Orange’ audition and I got the job and it changed my life. I almost gave up a few times, but I love acting so much and that’s why I say stay in the love. Stay in the love is something my actor friends I used to tell each other to remind ourselves that although the business is kicking our asses, that we did this for the love and that we have to stay in it for the love.”

Fran: “Do you still love it, after all of this, all the fame?”

Cox: “I do, but it’s hard. I think the fame part adds another level of pressure. I don’t care how many years of acting you’ve been in, nothing prepares you for the fame. There’s pressures I didn’t fully anticipate. Even starring in ‘the Rocky Horror Show,’ there’s a different kind of pressure, because there’s a lot of people depending on you.”

Fran: “In relation to the ‘Rocky Horror’ role, did you personally or emotionally feel some type of attachment that could draw you back into that emotional space before being a transgender woman, playing this role?”

Cox: “I’ve always thought of ‘Rocky Horror’ as a film that’s about gender freedom. Everyone is playing the gender. I think the biggest issue is the use of the term ‘transvestite,’ and we have to understand that in 2016 ‘transvestite’ is not a term that any trans people I know use to identify themselves as. It’s an antiquated term that was used in the 70s for people that hadn’t completed their transition. I think that's the issue that people are having with the use of the word, because there’s nothing really in the original movie beyond male pronouns that refer to Frank-N-Furter as being not a gender fluid creature. I say creature because Frank-N-Furter is from another planet. Hopefully people will watch and then, we can talk.”

Fran: “Before landing the role on ‘Orange is the New Black,’ did you face a lot of rejection?”

Cox: “I think all actors do. Before ‘OITNB’ I did several independent films, and I’d also did some television before that. I had worked, I just didn’t have a breakthrough moment. I remember asking a casting director, would he ever submit a trans actor for a role that didn't call for a trans actor and he said no, because they could tell and his professionalism would be compromised somehow by submitting a trans person for a non trans role. I think that’s starting to change. Since ‘OITNB’ I’ve played a few roles that are not written as trans and that was pretty cool. All actors experience rejection no matter what your gender identity is, but my career changed as an actor once I stopped looking at being trans as something that was holding me back and looked at it as something that made me special and unique. Once I started embracing my trans as fully, that’s when my career changed.”

Fran: “Are you happy?”

Cox: “Yeah, I actually am. I would love to drop a few pounds, but yeah I’m really happy. I really am. I really can’t complain. My life is really good. I have amazing people in my life. I have love in my life. I’m doing what I love. I’m a black girl from Mobile, Alabama, [who’s changing the world] and the world is changing me. I’m really happy. I actually really am. I’m tired a lot because I work hard, but I’m really happy.”


I sat across from this woman for 15 minutes and found the new hope I was looking for. Laverne Cox is a brilliant black trans woman who has given love into the world and has received the same. She is deserving of all her success and has been one of the most influential women today. I do not question that she will continue breaking down barriers and reminding us why the erasure of black trans women will no longer continue to exist. The year of change has begun and Laverne Cox is a spiritual entity of a woman in all her beauty. Look out for the new season of ‘OITNB’ on Netflix and we will continue to follow a queen in the making.

If you get a chance to read this, I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for existing. You have changed millions of lives, including my own. Laverne Cox is woman past the wonders of this world; she is a beam of light that will not cease to shine anytime soon. A woman of many roles, but the most important she has ever starred in, is being herself. Thank you.

Francisco Velazquez was also involved in the coordination of this lecture event and spoke briefly before the speaker was introduced. 

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