Dem Bois Podcast

Autonomy and Authorship: Transitioning Into Visibility and Self-Definition with Noah Arhm Choi

Shawn Aaron Season 4 Episode 124

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0:00 | 1:10:45

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Many of us spend most of our lives hiding. Because society tells us that we are different and should be ashamed, we hide our bodies, our sexuality, ourselves. And that is why visibility is so important, because it equals possibility. And in this episode of Dem Bois Podcast, my guest and I consider how true that really is. Today’s guest is Noah Arhm Choi and together we discuss the significance of media literacy in combating anti-trans propaganda, the impact of societal narratives on personal identity, and the intersection of gender identity with societal structures like capitalism.


We talk:

11:11 - Coming out and using articles to bridge understanding

24:04 - Media literacy and anti-trans propaganda

33:09 - Autonomy and authorship: moving from invisibility to visibility

45:16 - Gender-affirming care and why joy feels threatening to systems

51:21 - Colonialism, binaries, and managing anxiety

63:31 - Noah’s Poem: My Passport Doesn’t Protect Me Anymore


Episode References:

The Trevor Project

Gender Spectrum

Lambda Legal

Erin in the Morning

Politico

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

Cut to Bloom


Read more about Noah in their bio below:

Noah Arhm Choi is the author of Cut to Bloom, winner of the 2019 Jack McCarthy Book Prize. A Lambda Literary Poet-In-Residence and Valentines Editor for Honey Literary, they received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence, and their work has appeared in Adroit, Split this Rock, Poetry Daily, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Noah was shortlisted for the Poetry International Prize and received the Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize, alongside fellowships from Kundiman, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Adirondack Center for Writing.


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