No Justice No Pride

December 11, 2019

No Justice No Pride is the activist movement everyone has been waiting for. What began as queer housing for at-risk trans women of color, has slowly cultivated into so much more.

The group No Justice, No Pride is a revolutionary collective of predominantly trans activists from DC—the team itself has been fighting for pride straight to the source in Washington since 2017. Through all the discrimination and hate, these women remain strong and resilient, unapologetically thriving in their own right.

In light of a recent new documentary film highlighting the trials and tribulations these inidviduals often experience, office spoke with Emmelia Talarico, a lead organizer with NJNP, who identifies as a trans woman of color herself, to learn more about what real LGBTQ activism really looks like.

Interview by Brandon Jean
Photos courtesy of Eaton Workshop

Watch the video and check out the full video below.

For those who don’t know, who and what is No Justice No Pride?

We're a collective of mostly trans activists from DC, mostly protesting the inequality in the modern-day LGBT movement. Most notably around the disenfranchisement from black and brown communities. Our first big action was the capital pride protest in 2017. We blockaded capitol pride three times over there insistence on including money hungry corporations and the police, weapon manufacturers and sponsors.

How and when did the No Justice No Pride collective start?

Well, a bunch of us have been involved in different social movements over the past couple of years here in DC. Some of us were involved in Disrupt20 which are the protests around Trump's inauguration. We saw that there was a lot of energy that year and we wanted to do something around LGBT stuff and around pride month. We didn't know what that was but then we saw that we were involved in a bunch of protests around the chief of the MPD. We were involved in a bunch of protests around his confirmation hearing. A lot of people who are trans and queer came and testified. We saw that the council took the voices of those who were more established, white, cis gay and lesbian organizations more seriously. So we wanted to start having a more active presence with more radical politics, and politics that are based within the trans community. So we started going after different franchisements like pride for example and we've later expanded out.

Within the film you talk about housing for trans women. Has housing always been an issue for NJNP?

Housing has definitely always been an issue. It’s a big issue within the trans community. We had started doing support around housing in 2018. A lot of our trans friends who previously had their situations somewhat figured out because they had access to Backpage or Craigslist. They had access to be able to make money if they needed too. For a lot of folks that came to an abrupt end in March 2018. So we ended up stepping up to make sure folks have housing by housing them directly. We got forced out of our first house and ended up just going all in and just getting a bigger house and continuing it, which later evolved into the NJNP collective, which is what a lot of the film is about. The film was kinda wrapped up towards the end of the summer when we were about to lose the last place, but since then we’ve expanded and got two new places and we’re working on the third.

With that being said, do you ever plan to spread and grow the organization beyond DC and possibly set up several safe spaces?

Well, we’re trying to toolkit it. I feel like people who are from different areas are gonna know what is best, and the best way that we can support that is to share our own experiences with them and help get them set up. We are planning on making a tool kit so people can recreate it in different cities.

That's amazing, what exactly would the tool kit consist of and how can one retrieve it?

It will mostly be how to get around different things, what are some of the different laws around renting, how to crowdfund rent for people, and stuff like that. We’re not really sure how we would release it just yet but it's something we’ve been working on for a minute.

It’s obvious that people are biased in their ways and opinions, but have you noticed any changes in how people view the trans community in your area from when the police first started harassing you?

Since we moved, I will say it’s been a lot more peaceful, but I think the other thing is instead of having a lot of people in one house we have it split up so it's been relatively a lot quieter at both places. I think going towards getting multiple places was a good idea.

On an average night how many women usually stay with you at the NJNP homes?

On an average night, I would say it is around 17 women as of this past month, but we had upwards to 40 people. There are folks that also stay with us that will usually stay in a different shelter because the shelter might have a curfew or some sort of restriction where they can't stay out at night.

We can't be out there fighting all the time. We also need to curate community spaces where people can enjoy themselves and also pick up different skills that they might have always wanted to do but never had a person who can show them.

Can you tell us about your process when coming up with events?

Yes and no. So the dyke march had asked us if we wanted to participate. We also have a steering committee and then we also kinda just have more of a loosely-affiliated spokes council of people who stay in the houses who often organize stuff with us more directly. Within NJNP, we have a couple of folks who are really active such as myself and Tiara who you saw in the film, who’s planning the ball. There’s also Kim, Bianca, Jessica, and Tracy. I don't know if you saw any of the banner drops we did but Tracy was the other climber. So we mostly operate around consensus and whoever is committed to doing the work at the time.

In your film, you also mention that you try to host events that aren’t always rallies or protests, what other events do y’all put together in order to bring the community together?

We do the ball—Tiara kinda just goes all-in on balls when she has the time and capacity to plan them. We try to make sure there is always an event around pride. If we’re doing an action around pride or around that time of the year we always try to make sure that there is also a kind of space that is demilitarized, that has no police, that's conflict-free so people can just chill. I also think Tiara is trying to plan another ball for sometime in the spring.

We know Tiara is really into dance, have y’all ever thought about hosting dance workshops through NJNP for queer and trans youth?

We did an action camp last year where Tiara had six different dance class sessions. We do kinda see that as really valuable. We can't be out there fighting all the time, we also need to curate community spaces where people can enjoy themselves and also pick up different skills that they might have always wanted to do but never had a person that can show them.

Do you think we’ll ever get to a point where we stop referencing trans women as trans and just as women?

I think in a lot of ways we do. I do personally. A lot of times I do say trans women because I'm trying to make a political statement towards the experiences of trans women. I see a lot of people, that when they do say women, they are automatically thinking of trans women. I don't know if we’re necessarily at that time where that is just assumed. I'm in the activist community so I kinda live in a bit of a bubble, so when people are in my circle they are definitely referring to trans women.

Who has inspired you to get into the activism work you currently do know?

So many, I have been incredibly inspired by the work of the black panther party. I’m incredibly inspired by being able to create this movement where you can have the resilience over the things that are harming your community and that the same time you can be doing mutual aid and supporting community members and use that as a mechanism to help build capacity to help make a movement even bigger. I think that's truly inspiring. They're huge idols of mine. Fred Hampton, Huey Newton. Of course, I'm also big fans of Sylvia and Marsha P. Johnson, these are also people that have really inspired me a lot.

How has having to experience life on the streets changed your overall perspective of activism through NJNP?

I dropped out of high school so when I first got involved in activism I didn't know what half these different terms meant and that took a long time to just understand. I feel like in a lot of ways it kind of makes me feel more rooted in my politics and my principals. It definitely helps me see a lot of different intersections and class issues.

What are your current goals and aspirations for NJNP?

Well, right now we're still trying to get a third house because we have a lot of folks in one place that we’re trying to get to another place, and then also some of the people who were at the older house haven’t really had a place to go in a minute. Longer-term I really want to try to figure out how to get some sort of property and have that be longer-term because renting is just throwing away a lot of money. Other than the housing stuff we’re still doing a lot of work around decriminalization now. We’ve been apart of this coalition to decriminalize sex work for the past two and a half years. We’re also hopefully going to be working with the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with decrim now that might be the next thing we work around. We definitely will still be trying to call out some of the bigger mainstream establishments within the LGBT movement who are still supporting the enemies that are trying to kill us. I think we’re also gonna start taking a different direction going after some of these rescue groups that have been mobilizing against Decrim now.

What’s life like for you outside of No Justice No Pride?

I end up doing a lot of support work, I'm also a sex worker, I like to ride bikes. I also DJ and make music. I find myself working a lot.

How can people help the trans community?

Give trans individuals money.

What scares you the most?

Landlords. Nothing will make me completely freeze up and not be able to do anything for hours.

Culture

The Club Is Coming to the Stage

We enter and make our way to what is approximately front left of the DJ booth, where we’re accustomed to dancing at clubs in New York. “So is this a techno club or a dance performance?” yells an uncertain participant in my boyfriend’s ear. He laughs, bouncing along to Ben UFO, and yells back, “It’s both!” The club has long been a hot topic in European contemporary dance but it is only now making its way into New York performance venues, largely through transatlantic tours. R.O.S.E. follows recent examples like Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1 (May 2024), (LA)HORDE’s Room with a View at NYU Skirball (October 2023), and Gisèle Vienne’s Crowd at BAM (October 2022).

Do these performances compromise the club’s spirit — a space idealized for its anonymity, dark lighting, and thundering music? The notion of the club as a utopian escape is admittedly just that — an ideal — because of how its intense conditions can create barriers to entry. Still, the club remains sacred for many, a place to forge connections and embrace an alternative state of being. Looking at how performances transfer this spirit to new settings reveals what aspects of the club are essential and those that aren’t.

Sharon Eyal, R.O.S.E. 2024. Photography by Stephanie Berger, courtesy of Park Avenue Armory.

Eyal’s dancers make their entrance. The lighting shifts from roving blue to yellow spotlights as Ben UFO’s tracks transition to more melodic beats. Clad in deconstructed lace Dior lingerie with dark red tears painted on their faces, the dancers move cautiously in a tightly maintained pack, slicing paths through the horde with hoof-like steps and jerky leg extensions. After around ten minutes of this controlled choreography, the dancers vanish as the lighting shifts back to blue and Ben UFO picks up his dubby beats. The club, as we knew it, resumes. This cycle of tightly executed movements and free-flowing club-goers repeats several times, each time emboldening the dancers to plunge further into the crowd.

Clubbing in a building once built for the U.S. Army National Guard on Manhattan’s Upper East Side turns out to be surprisingly successful — at least for the audience. What starts as an awkward, scattered group searching for their non existent seats gradually gels into an engaged, bouncing crowd that erupts in cheers each time the dancers enter and exit. Performance patrons who might never step foot in a club find themselves swept up in its potential for communion, moving in unison with fellow ticket holders. But it isn’t until the very end of R.O.S.E. that the dancers finally break free from Eyal’s choreography and join the fired-up audience in a brief moment of improvisatory movement with the music. By keeping her dancers at arm’s length, Eyal seems more interested in the club as a backdrop for her signature movement style than wholly as a space with meaningful stories to be told.

Michele Rizzo, HIGHER xtn. 2024. Photography by Cameron Kelly courtesy of MoMA PS1.

Back in May, I attended Wire Festival, a multiday electronic music event at Knockdown Center that had no shortage of organically united dancefloors. It attracted a crowd of seasoned ravers who were eager to celebrate the start of spring as they danced alongside DJs who played well into the daylight. I left Wire in an afternoon daze to see Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1. My sleepless euphoria only deepened as the performance unfolded, starting with a lone dancer who looked plucked out of the festival.

The dancer, dressed in sneakers, baggy jeans, and a tight tank top, shuffled slowly into the gallery, perfectly in sync with the looping bars of an understated electronic melody. Soon, other dancers, clad in the same staple rave uniform, joined him — each having traveled from Europe for the U.S. museum debut of HIGHER xtn., which premiered at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam in 2018 and quickly became a fixture at kunsthalles and festivals across the continent. As the score’s tempo climbed, the choreography locked into a 16-count sequence, which the dancers executed with precise synchrony. They remained intensely focused, never making eye contact with each other, as they sought release in the endless repetition of synthesized beats. Once the dancers reached their limit, they stopped the sequence and exited the gallery, one by one.

HIGHER xtn. used the focused daylight of the gallery to highlight the meditative release found in the repetitive movements that dominate dark dancefloors. The performance’s restraint brought more consistency and intentionality than Eyal’s all-encompassing club construction in R.O.S.E. Yet both performances offer enticing entry points into club culture for those who may not frequent raves. Rizzo’s ecstatic, hypnotic repetitions reveal how the club can mirror other meditative practices, while Eyal’s interpolation of performance and clubbing helped hesitant audience members blossom by the end. Still, both works overlook one of the most underappreciated aspects of clubbing — its potential for individual expression. HIGHER xtn.’s pristine uniformity especially risks promoting the outdated techno trope that there’s a “right” way to dance to electronic music.

Maybe this shortcoming is, in fact, a benefit. For habitual ravers jaded by one too many sunrise sets, it’s a reminder to return to the club with more intention. If you pause and peer through the darkness, you’ll see hundreds of people moving to the same beat, each with their own subtle variations. This collective choreography is a ready-made spectacle that doesn’t need validation in a theater or museum. And when the music shifts slightly, you can watch the ripple effect sweep through the crowd while feeling the new beat in your body. Maybe this small bit of magic is best left on the dance floor.

Culture

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Culture

Porsche SCOPES Brings Art, Music, and Design to Toronto

The festival was a full immersion into Toronto’s dynamic creative energy. Day one set the tone with DJ collective Living Room, followed by an experimental performance by Claire Rousay that captivated the crowd. Jewelry designer Steff Eleoff unveiled her Porsche Taycan 4S art car installation—a bold fusion of automotive and wearable art inspired by her Sedona ring—while OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and DVSN wrapped up the night with powerful, genre-defying performances.

We witnessed SCOPES Toronto bridging underground and mainstream with day two’s lineup. DJ Korea Town Acid’s set paved the way for Angelphroot and Dameer’s debut of BASSMATI, a track blending South Asian influences with bass-driven sounds. Chippy Nonstop’s return to Toronto and Richie Hawtin’s extended set were milestones of the evening, proving that the city’s underground scene has a global resonance.

The final day featured standout performances from local pianist Harrison, Indigenous artist Tia Wood, and hip-hop visionary Sean Leon, who elevated his set with a live choir. Moonshine Collective’s film and musical performance explored themes of African utopia, showcasing art’s power to bridge culture and technology. Rising Toronto star SadBoi, who paused her tour to perform at SCOPES, further underscored the festival’s commitment to nurturing local talent.

Throughout the weekend, we experienced installations from artists like Mitsu Mitsu and culinary creations from Bar Mordecai, capturing the multifaceted creativity Porsche SCOPES brought to Toronto. This milestone 10th edition, open to all, allowed Toronto’s vibrant arts scene to thrive, underscoring SCOPES’ mission to celebrate local talent while connecting it to a global audience.

office had the chance to connect with rising star SadBoi ahead of the event. In our conversation, she shared insights into her creative journey and reflected on what performing and growing up in Toronto means to her and her work.

How are you, and where are you at right now? You told me you were traveling.

Um, I’m good, I’m feeling really good right now. I’m traveling back to Salt Lake City. I had a show yesterday in Seattle. I’m on tour right now with Coco and Claire.

How is touring life treating you? Do you like it?

I love being on the road. To be honest, I feel like I don’t know—like I’ve had good experiences and bad ones—but this time it’s really fun, especially with the people I’m surrounded by. It’s also the longest tour I’ve been on; I have about four more weeks to go. I’m trying not to think about how many days I have left.

Do you feel homesick?

Yes, because when I start thinking about how many days are left, I start to miss my dogs. I’ve just been trying to stay in the moment—I don’t even know what day of the week it is, to be honest with you.

Oh, sweet! What are your dogs’ names?

Jillian and Winston. I know, they’re crazy names.

You’ll be performing at SCOPES in Toronto, which is where you grew up. Do you feel like the crowd is different when you perform in Toronto compared to other cities?

Yes, I mean, Toronto just feels different because it’s home. Every time I come back to perform, something in my career has changed. The last time I performed in Toronto, people just wanted to have a good time, and I’m excited to perform back home again to see everyone’s reactions. I know it’s going to be different from the last time. It’s exciting to see your own growth. Toronto is a tough crowd, though. If we’re with you, we’re really with you.

So, they’re super picky? You have to gain their respect, or what is it?

I think Toronto people are in their own world, but when something really connects with them, they’ll lose themselves in the moment. But it takes something to bring them out of that. Toronto crowds are tough because even if they like you, they won’t show it outright until they’re really vibing with you.

It’s like a vibe check, right?

Exactly. They’ll enjoy your performance, but it’s hard to explain. When people visit Toronto, they often say, “Oh, you guys are so nice,” and I’m like, “I don’t think we’re that nice, we’re just polite.” Like, you can walk down the street, and no one will say anything, but it’s just our mannerisms.

You mentioned Toronto can have a moody energy, especially at night, and that the underground night scene there really inspires you. Can you talk more about what makes Toronto's nightlife so influential for you?

Absolutely, Toronto has this unique energy that comes alive at night. Similar to New York, there are the popular clubs everyone knows, but you need to find your niche—the people who know where the real parties are. I remember going to raves in high school yards, sneaking in because I wasn’t old enough. Events like Baby, Jerk!, and Yes Yes Y’all were pivotal, exposing me to DJs blending dancehall with EDM—something I hadn’t seen before. Toronto nightlife is moody and intense, but when everyone’s out, it’s like the whole city is alive.