2-BSide

6B —Thursday, February 15, 2018
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Alex & Effee expand narratives 
of LGBTQ+ in blog, love and life

To be trans and visible has 
always been radical. Despite 
the leaps and bounds made by 
activists like Laverne Cox and 
Janet Mock (their work being 
proclaimed in 2014 as “The 
Transgender Tipping Point” by 
Time), transgender individuals 
continue to be the victims of 
violence 
disproportionately. 
And while more and more 
transgender stories are being 
brought to television and film, 
stock characters and ideas, such 
as the “tragic trans figure” or 
the 
“successful 
transition,” 
dominate the public’s idea of 
trans life.
It 
makes 
sense, 
then, 
that the next step for trans 
representation 
in 
media 
is 
finding a voice for the stories 
that defy tragedy or explore 
life beyond, or even without, 
transition. Artists Alex Jenny 
and Effee Nelly are a pair of 
queer and trans people of color 
who seek an outlet for these 
stories. Jenny and Nelly are 
poets and photographers, who 
recently opened a blog that 
chronicles their experiences in 
life and love.
Jenny and Nelly met at the 
University in 2012 and graduated 
in 2014. The pair married later 
that year. While they were not 
as much the activists they are 
now, Jenny was a member of 
The Coalition for Queer People 
of Color and volunteered at the 
Sexual Assault Prevention and 
Awareness Center. Last Friday, 
SAPAC invited Jenny and Nelly 
to speak on the intersection of 
queer and trans identities and 
healthy relationships.
“They invited me back a few 
years ago to do the keynote 

for 
their 
student 
activist 
conference, and once we started 
the blog, they invited both of us 
back,” Jenny said.
Their blog was born out of 
their need to feel connected 
to the creative aspects of their 
lives as the pair was busy 
maintaining and building their 
professional lives. By day, Jenny 
is a therapist and social worker 
and Nelly works as a consultant. 
But out of the 
office, they are 
poets and artists. 
The blog, simply 
titled 
“Alex 
& 
Effee,” 
consists 
of 
writing, 
photography and 
a journal where 
they share life 
updates 
and 
playlists. 
The 
pair’s 
writing 
deals with the 
complete 
trans 
experience, 
ranging 
from 
healing, current 
and past trauma, 
romance 
and 
family.
Despite meeting in 2012, 
the pair didn’t bring their 
relationship to social media 
until Feb. 2017. Part of the 
delay 
stemmed 
from 
their 
growing disconnect from the 
creative part of their lives as 
the pair worked on building and 
maintaining their professional 
lives. Other reasons are far 
more personal.
“We didn’t identify as trans 
when we were here at school, 
but through the safety of our 
relationship, 
we 
developed 
together and discovered parts 
of ourselves we thought were 
unlovable,” Jenny said.
Through their process of 
growth and healing, Jenny 

and Nelly bring a different sort 
of queer and trans narrative 
to the fore. Instead of telling 
a 
traditional 
coming-out 
narrative, 
like 
Amazon’s 
“Transparent,” or a tragedy 
like “Prayers for Bobby” or 
“Brokeback Mountain,” Jenny 
and Nelly use their blog to 
share what Jenny calls: “the 
multiplicity 
of 
possibilities 
and existence. There are so 
many 
different 
storylines 
for 
queer and trans 
people, not this 
one 
imagined 
narrative.”
However, 
opening up for 
the entire world 
was not an easy 
process. 
The 
pair 
worked 
on 
striking 
a 
delicate balance 
between 
raw 
and 
confident, 
a struggle that 
continues to play 
out 
for 
many 
queer and trans 
individuals. 
Nelly said that “as trans people, 
we’re often reminiscing,” which 
alludes to the push-and-pull 
between internal pressures to 
be true to oneself and external 
pressures to follow the status 
quo. So, if a person comes out 
later in life, they question 
whether their efforts to protect 
themselves when they were 
younger 
inhibited 
potential 
growth. This question resonates 
throughout many of Jenny and 
Nelly’s poems.
While it has been a struggle 
inviting so many people into 
their creative process, Jenny 
and Nelly find managing the 
blog to be incredibly fulfilling. 
As time has passed, Nelly said, 

“(they’re) being a lot more 
intentional now” and explained 
how the couple is trying to 
give readers and followers a 
full picture of her and Jenny’s 
love. She mentions how some of 
the photography on their blog 
helped a father find someone to 
do senior pictures for his trans 
daughter, which was incredibly 
fulfilling. “These are gifts to my 
younger self that she just didn’t 
have,” she said.
Aside from new creative 
pathways, Jenny and Nelly 
find the blog to be a different 
and exciting new outlet for 
activism. For Nelly, starting 
conversations 
through 
an 
online platform — and being 
visible in that way — is very 
different.
“I was in direct action. I was 
part of the group advocating for 
a new Trotter,” Nelly said.
Jenny agreed and stated that 
the blog allows them to explore 
elements of their identity that 
other forms of activism cannot: 
“I don’t think we would have 
been able to do this a few years 
ago. Our most radical work is to 
love ourselves.”
Romance 
or 
not, 
Jenny 
and Nelly’s blog reflects the 
crescendoing calls for a new 
sense of social rights and a 
complete picture of the life of 
marginalized individuals.
“As glamorous as we portray 
ourselves, we are part of that 
middle,” Nelly said.
As you read through Jenny 
and Nelly’s blog, you start to 
understand the inner workings 
of their lives. They like pop 
music. They reminisce about 
the past. They love to see their 
family and travel. From their 
journal, you would think that 
life is simple and easy now — 
but the road to being visible has 
been everything but.

Courtesy of Alex & Effee

Alexis Rankin / Daily

It’s no secret that historically 
mainstream 
hip-hop 
culture 
has been saturated by straight 
men making misogynistic and 
homophobic remarks in their 
music and in the media. Hip 
hop was dubbed a male and 
masculine genre that had no 
room for women or those with 
a queer identity. However, time 
changes things, as does talent.
Queer hip hop got its start as 
an underground movement in the 
early ’90s. Labeled “homo hop,” 
the movement wasn’t aiming to 
create a subgenre of music but to 
serve as a community building 
tool 
for 
LGBTQ+ 
rappers. 
Primarily 
based in Calif., 
the 
movement 
included 
the 
likes 
of 
rap 
group 
Deep 
Dickollective 
and 
rappers 
Caushun 
and 
Cazwell. Yet, the 
idea of a queer-
identifying 
famous 
rapper 
still 
seemed 
strange. 
An 
unspoken 
rule 
still permeated 
hip 
hop, 
that 
even if you were 
queer, you didn’t 
talk about it.
While 
not 
necessarily 
a 
rapper, 
Frank 
Ocean is still a 
part of hip hop’s 
culture. He was 
a 
member 
of 
the 
California-
based rap collective Odd Future 
and is friends with legendary 
hip-hop artists like André 3000, 
Jay-Z and Kanye West. On July 
4, 2012, Ocean posted an open 
letter on his Tumblr account 
in which he stated that the first 
person he ever fell in love with 
was a man. His next album, 
released a week after his Tumblr 
post, 
would 
be 
filled 
with 
beautiful lyrics referencing his 
first love. Channel Orange went 
on to sell 131,000 copies in its 
first week, debuting at number 
two on the Billboard Top 200. A 
queer identifying man became a 
reserved superstar.
Ocean’s 
success 
set 
a 
precedent. 
Queer 
hip-hop 
artists who may have felt they 
couldn’t express their sexual 
identities through their music 
now had a shining example to 
look up to. Tyler, the Creator, 
the Odd Future frontman with 
an eccentric personality and a 
brand defined by his comical 
approach to music and social 
media, took a different approach 
to 
his 
most 
recent 
album, 
Flower Boy. Seen as a “coming 
out” album by critics and fans 
alike, the candid Flower Boy is 

splattered with direct references 
to Tyler’s sexuality. In the track 
“I Ain’t Got Time,” Tyler raps — 
almost under his breath — “Next 
line, I’ll have em’ like woah / I’ve 
been kissing white boys since 
2004.”
While Tyler, The Creator is a 
part of the culture Frank Ocean 
helped popularize, artists like 
Kevin Abstract are a result of 
it. His 2016 album American 
Boyfriend: A Suburban Love 
Story paints a vivid picture of 
two men completely taken with 
one another. Abstract doesn’t 
try to hide his identity with 
suggestive 
or 
impressionistic 
lyrics. He is direct and open 
about his feelings for the man 
he loves. On the second verse of 
the album’s title track Abstract 
sings, “My parents 
wanna kill them 
/ Let them kill 
me.” 
An 
aura 
of 
indifference 
towards 
others’ 
opinions 
of 
his 
sexual 
identity 
permeates 
throughout 
American 
Boyfriend.
Hip 
hop’s 
attitude towards 
queerness 
is 
evolving 
rapidly. 
The 
culture 
is 
beginning 
to 
lose 
the 
toxic 
masculinity 
that plagued the 
early years of the 
genre’s 
history. 
Atlanta-based 
rapper 
Young 
Thug wore a dress 
for the cover of 
his 2016 mixtape 
Jeffrey, and when 
asked about his decision to do 
so, he stated: “When it comes 
to swag, there is no gender 
involved.” Jay-Z raps about his 
mother coming out in “Smile” — 
“Cried tears of joy when you fell 
in love / Don’t matter to me if it’s a 
him or her.” Old- and new-school 
rappers alike are beginning to 
embrace the cultural shift of 
popular rap.
Despite 
the 
strides 
that 
have been made, it would be 
misleading to say that hip hop 
has become a safe space for the 
LGBTQ+ community. A few bad 
apples still stain the improving 
reputation of hip hop’s culture. 
The members of rap group 
Migos have recently made the 
news multiple times for making 
homophobic 
remarks. 
From 
Offset’s 
blatantly 
ignorant 
lyric “I don’t vibe with queers” 
to 
the 
members 
expressing 
public 
disappointment 
at 
discovering their fellow rapper 
iLoveMakonnen came out as 
gay. Yet the ignorance of a few 
shouldn’t minimize the clear 
shift currently taking place in 
hip hop. The young genre has 
come a long way from its socially 
problematic beginnings.

The homophobia 
of hip hop & the 
rise of queer rap

MUISIC NOTEBOOK

JOSEPH FRALEY
Daily Blog Editor

JACK BRANDON
Daily Film Editor

ARTISTS
PROFILE

IN

Jenny and Nelly 
use their blog 
to share what 
Jenny calls: “the 
multiplicity of 
possibilities and 
existence”

Hip hop’s 
attitude towards 
queerness is 
evolving rapidly. 
The culture is 
beginning to 
lose the toxic 
masculinity 
that plagued the 
early years of the 
genre’s history