Spirit Transcends The Body:

The body, a vessel, a car that our spirit moves in the physical realm. The Body, where our intentions become kept promises and kisses are candle wax that seals the envelop. The Body, the hair that connects us to our common Mother. The Body, the mouth that is the cave in which the melody of our magmatic souls becomes a song in the world. The Spirit, our essence, a smoky string of divinity - a gift from Creator. The Mind, the emergence of Magick of the Soul meeting the Body. The Universe, The Great Mystery to which our Spirits are Trees sustaining the forest that is one giant network.

Transgenderism has long been a sacred anomaly that has been found in all cultures and societies since the beginning of time. Revered in many cultures and even sometimes met with fear - it is the mysticism of Transness that captures the attention of others. Gavilán Rayna Russom is an Interdisciplinary Artist, scholar and healer. Many recognize her for being one of the many talented members of the band LCD Soundsystem but Rayna is also a dynamic solo artist with so much to say. Her solo projects include Child, Paper Eyes, Pain Slut, Knight Skyy, Black Meteoric Star, Gavin Russom and her name Gavilan Rayna Russom. Rayna is the founder and owner of the record label Voluminous Arts in New York. Her first band was Epifit at 12/13. She was in a hardcore band named Square one, a psychedelic band called Soma, a noise band called Corybantes with Brian Chipendale, Sweet Thunder with Kelly Kuvo of Scissor Girls and Casey Spooner from Fischerspooner. She worked with Delia Gonzalez on a few projects - some which were named Dream Machine and Fight Evil With Evil. The projects with Delia also included their own names when making releases for DFA Records. Rayna was a part of a band in Berlin when they did a score for ‘ Lucifer Rising ‘ with Hugo Capablanca and Eric D. Clark. She was in a band named Crystal Ark with Viva Ruiz, as well as one named Sisterhood of The Good Death with Natt Matt. In connecting with a few friends who are both Trans and with more recognizable names - it became evident that there is a struggle and stigma with coming out as Trans while being a part of the public eye. Visibility is important to gathering support for Trans People but there are days where you want nothing more than to go underneath the radar for a bit. If you removed the physicality of it all, Rayna is a Musical Genius and a Healer that has woven in her Good Medicine into everything that she does. Who Rayna is as an Artist and a Healer, can never be taken from her. Music is a universal language, one that is not confined to a box or a body. Rayna and many other Trans people are relatable in the very sense that they just make good music. She is much more than just an artist and influencer. Gavilán Rayna Russom is a Heroine to a number of Trans people who are far too experimental to fit into Mainstream Trans Culture or even Mainstream LGBTQ2S Culture. “ It is healing work. Whether that is making music, art, writing, giving readings, running the label or teaching about Witchcraft. What is at the core of it all is healing work. “

The Electronic Music Movement had many Trans and Queer pioneers at the beginning of the movement. Queer and Trans people often found refuge in the Rave Scene and in the Underground. However, a few years into the new millennium, Trans and Queer people began to be erased from these scenes. It was like the impact of our Queer and Trans Ancestors was too inconvenient to remember and more convenient to forget. The Transphobia became so rampant in the El Paso Rave Scene, that after 15 years - I just stopped going to raves altogether in 2015. I was never widely accepted in Mainstream El Paso LGBTQ Culture and so I just started to stay home. In 2020, Rayna and her label Voluminous Arts put together a nightlife conference named the Halloquium. Experimental Electronic Musicians, Historians, Party Promoters, DJs, Journalists and Party Goers came together to discuss better meeting the needs of Trans and Queer people in Night Life. We can not deny that many safe spaces for the LGBTQ2S have long been in the Underground or spaces during the night time. We came out of the shadows to celebrate life. The Vogue movement in itself had Ballrooms Queer/Trans African Americans - that opened around 2am, even 4am. It was about finding a time where it felt safer to join the others. During the first Halloquium, it became very established - this general feeling of safety and inclusion that all of us had stripped from us. We want to feel that way again. When you are a Trans musician or DJ, becoming a DJ or musician is treated as if it has become a cliche once Trans people are doing it too. Even being Trans is treated like a trend. Completely neglecting that most Native American tribes had multiple genders since the beginning of time. That us Two Spirits are older than your Flag and the Country. The Gender Binary is forced on us through colonization. Being Trans is far from being a trend, Trans people are just becoming more comfortable with being more openly Trans. There is so much talent from Trans people that gets overlooked just because of one’s bias against Trans people. During a panel for Billboard, Rayna said “ I want to be seen as an Artist, I want to be taken seriously, I want to be listened to and I want to touch people. Also, I’m aware that as a Trans person - assimilation is a very limited game. Just being accepted into the system, is not going to help me and other Trans people in the long term. That system was created by Cis people for Cis people. “ The Halloquium was bringing hurting queer/trans people from the underground to not only find community but to start a chain of positive resolution. “ I say this not from a place of ego but as of service. I have learned from experience that the place I seem to be the most of service is in the space of vision “ said Rayna. It is her dedication, service, intentions and care that prove Rayna to be a true healer and woman with integrity. “ When I started to release music under the artist name Gavilán Rayna Russom - it was the first music I released with an embodied acceptance of my own Trans identity. That created this opportunity to reconnect with myself at a younger age. It helped me understand that back then, that little girl was really struggling with stuff she didn’t have the tools to deal with “ said Rayna.

In conversation, I had asked Rayna “ what is your mission? “ She responded “ Honestly, to undo the wrongs of my Ancestors. “ Through the Halloquium, both Rayna and the diverse Halloquium committee made it a point to have diverse panels in which all participants were from different cultures and ethnicities. It was equal in fair representation, it acknowledged the intersectionality of being queer/trans while embracing being a person who is immersed in your cultural identity. It also highlighted the diversity of Rave Culture and Nightlife. The conversations after the first year even began to include the subject of the Ethics of Nightlife in relationship to Sacred Land hosted by Aveda Adara (Dine). There was a Land Acknowledgment and warm words shared by Trudie Jackson (Dine). I was also very honored to discuss how Night Life can better meet the needs of Indigenous People as a Nednhi Apache Woman. We discussed music festivals misusing Sacred Tipis as VIP lounges, when that is a place for worship and ceremony for some Native Tribes. I also had a chance to encourage the need for party goers to pick up their trash at festivals, so as not to harm the environment. Indigenous People are often invited only to meet demographics but rarely ever to be a part of the resolution making or even to speak about our own needs. “ My ancestry shaped me. The dead of the land of which I have lived has shaped me. I’ve been privileged to have amazing teachers, especially spiritual teachers. The experience of knowing that there are ways of being that exceed what the world says is possible. The inner experience of knowing that and finding pathways to actualize some of those tings, despite people saying that they don’t exist “ said Rayna. “ That inner experience of Transness, knowing, at least for me - that there is nothing in my culture that said gender is a fluid thing. There was nothing that I was given culturally that validated what I knew about myself but I knew it. The connection of Transness and spirituality forms a big part about how I think about things. “ said Russom. Rayna created the Voluminous Arts label to say the things she needed to say authentically but to also help create the access that both her and the Trans Community that are experimental artists need. The Voluminous Arts label lineup includes founder Gavilán Rayna Russom, Yvonne LeBien, Anka Raczynska, Rat Porridge and Marcy Angeles. Voluminous Arts Label brings in Queer/Trans DJs to perform on the Voluminous Arts Twitch Channel. It is impossible to describe the amount of access that Rayna is selflessly creating for the Trans Community. On the Voluminous Arts label, we are all artists that can not be defined by one genre and have individually been putting our magick out there. It has allowed some of us to have community for the first time but to also have the tremendous hard work we do be recognized. We all want to be taken seriously and we all have something to say.

My first few interactions with Rayna were very, different we’ll say. How do you just have a conversation with someone who you look up to? The first few conversations with Rayna, we both seemed to get quite emotional. As healers, I feel that we have seen into each other and recognized that both of us had a hard walk. I even had so many dreams in which Rayna occupied a space in my mind. I couldn’t understand for the first year but she appeared in my Tarot Deck as the Queen of Wands. What I learned over time was to interpret what I was seeing metaphysically and translating that into physical knowledge. Gavilán Rayna Russom is a master of her art and her craft. She is a nurturer and a warrior. She is a healer and a woman of her word. Currently, the Voluminous Arts Label has an Art Residency in Brooklyn. “ It is a gallery space in Brooklyn called Kaje Projects that just opened last year. One of the things they do is hold research residencies where they invite a collective or entity of some sort to use their space as a way of investigating something they’re interested in. They invited Voluminous Arts for September 2022 to February 2023. “ In opening this residency, Rayna wrote the essay Werpos “ WERPOS is a site within the ancestral and living homeland of the Canarsee people. It is currently occupied by a contested settler colonial entity called Gowanus, Brooklyn “ said Rayna at the beginning of her essay. Rayna delves deeper into the relationship of colonization and industrialization. She investigates how Native People have historically been stripped from the Sacred Land we are a part of. Bodies are temporary but Spirits are forever. Moments pass but legacies are forever. More than just a Heroine - now a Sister and label mate, it is an honor to know and witness the work of Gavilán Rayna Russom.

by Marcy Angeles: Artist, Writer, Musician, Journalist & Public Speaker