11 May 2021
Elevated conversation with Amos Mac
Amos Mac & I have a long history. I'm delighted to find out nooks and crannies of his life that I didn't know as I researched for this episode of Orphic Frequency. Grab a cold brew and relax as we cover Amos Mac's creative journey including breathing a new life into the life story of Billy Tipton, hauntings in old Victorian houses in San Francisco & what it can mean to put to much stock into psychic readings & as always we end with a message of HOPE.
As an out transgender writer, Amos Mac’s (https://www.amosmac.com/)work explores identity, community & “second coming of age” narratives though a queer lens. He’s worked across unscripted, documentary, and dramatic series including Amazon’s Transparent, AMC's The Son, and VICELAND’s Gaycation. He is currently a television writer (Story Editor) for the forthcoming series Gossip Girl on HBO Max.
Amos Mac co-wrote No Ordinary Man, (https://www.cbc.ca/music/how-the-documentary-no-ordinary-man-reframes-the-story-of-trans-jazz-musician-billy-tipton-1.5728220) a documentary about jazz musician Billy Tipton. Presented at Cannes Docs 2020 & premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2020.
Before working in TV Amos Mac was best known as founding editor of Original Plumbing; the first print magazine in America dedicated to trans male culture. From 2009-2019, OP was an informational and humorous slice of trans guy reality that prided itself on an artful yet cheeky documentation of community. The official book, Original Plumbing: The Best of Ten Years of Trans Male Culture (https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/original-plumbing?rq=original%20plumbing), was released in 2019 by the Feminist Press.
As a photographer, Amos Mac's visual art has been exhibited in galleries internationally, featured in dozens of publications including The New York Times, Interview, and Vogue Italia, and lives on in multiple museum collections. He shot the groundbreaking Fall '15 campaign (http://www.out.com/fashion/2015/8/17/exclusive-behind-scenes-cast-other-stories-transgender-campaign) for Swedish fashion brand & Other Stories, featuring an all trans cast and crew. The iconic collaborative series he created with artist Zackary Drucker formed the content of his 2011 art publication Translady Fanzine, with an alternative selection of images exhibited as Distance is Where the Heart is, Home is Where you Hang Your Heart, at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.
If you, like me are disgusted at the recent uptick in political attacks on the Transgender community, please learn how you can help at the
National Center for Transgender Equality (transequality.org) (https://transequality.org/)
