Trans Activist, Artist and Author Hope Giselle Wins Essence Festival Award for Best Documentary

What an exciting time to be celebrated for speaking your truth!

Trans activist and creative multi-hyphenate Hope Giselle recently won the award for Best Documentary at Essence Festival for her film Not Your Average Girl.

The film explores the joyful realities of Black Trans womanhood and the journey of becoming.

“Long before there were documentaries about us, there were Black trans women saving photographs, telling stories in beauty salons and living rooms, keeping letters, creating chosen families, and making sure somebody remembered that we were here,” she said, naming Marsha P. Johnson and Ajita Wilson among the women who built that archive simply by refusing to disappear. “Not Your Average Girl is my contribution to that lineage. It says that I was here. That we were here. That our lives were bigger than the laws passed against us, bigger than the headlines written about us, and bigger than the tragedies people so often use to define us.

Hope Giselle is a powerful voice within the LGBTQ+ community and it’s beautiful to see her continuing to amplify Trans women’s stories.

If you haven’t already seen the film, make sure to keep an ear out for when it’s streaming or screening in a city near you.