Ivan E. Coyote's Blog

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We all need a safe place to pee | Ivan Coyote | TEDxVancouver

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by Anne Rouyer, Supervising Librarian, Mulberry Street Library, June 16, 2015

With the coming out of Caitlyn Jenner, the lauding of actress Laverne Cox, shows on ABC Family and Amazon as well as many, many other things, transgender people are in the middle of a truly historic moment. They are moving from the fringes of society to front and center—ready or not. You have to be very brave and courageous to show the world your true self. However, all these positive news stories doesn’t mean that some people aren’t still confused or angered by what it means to be transgender or what it means for their own gender identities. They need to find true understanding through authentic stories and personal experiences. Twenty years ago, when I was in college, a girl I’d grown up with transitioned to male. I was puzzled at first, mainly by the mechanics of it and how it would all work, but I realized that it actually made complete sense. She’d always seemed more male than female to me anyway and now her outside was just finally going to match who she was inside. I couldn’t begin to imagine walking around and feeling like I was in the wrong body and so in the end it was very easy for me to accept her as a him.

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Although its title suggests that it’s targeted at a very specific demographic, Tomboy Survival Guide is not just for women who keep their hair short, a pocketknife in their boot-cut jeans, and a set of socket wrenches close to hand. It’s for everyone—including those of us born sadly deficient in X chromosomes.



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by Alexander Varty on April 22nd, 2015 at 10:04 AM

Although its title suggests that it’s targeted at a very specific demographic, Tomboy Survival Guide is not just for women who keep their hair short, a pocketknife in their boot-cut jeans, and a set of socket wrenches close to hand. It’s for everyone—including those of us born sadly deficient in X chromosomes.

“I have no desire to create some kind of a box that people can feel alienated by,” explains storyteller and saxophonist Ivan Coyote, who’s teamed up with drummer Sally Zori, bassist Pebbles Willekes, and trumpet player Alison Gorman to forge this innovative fusion of words and music. “My intention is to celebrate people who push the gender norms a little bit."

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Ivan Coyote has been pushing boundaries for years; blurring the lines of gender, the written word, storytelling, and music. As one of Canada’s only transgender household names, Coyote’s body of work has long provided a space for discussion surrounding all things queer and gender-related. This time out, Coyote is collaborating with fellow music makers Alison Gorman, Pebbles Willekes and Sally Zori to bring Tomboy Survival Guide to the PuSh Festival stage.

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The 2015 Over the Rainbow Project book list, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), has been decided at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. The committee’s mission is to create a bibliography of books that exhibit commendable literary quality and significant authentic GLBT content and are recommended for adults over age 18.

Gender Failure was one of the top ten overall favourites. Click here to read more.

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Listen to a podcast of Shelagh Roger's interview with Rae Spoon and Ivan E. Coyote, recorded January 12, 2015 on CBC Radio One's show "The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers". The site also contains an extended version of their interview at page bottom.

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Broad-shouldered, sporting a lazy smile and exuding rugged Yukon-born confidence, Ivan Coyote wouldn’t look out of place in a rural late-night bar or a truckers’ stop.

But this coyote raconteur is more at home on stage as a traveling storyteller who has set foot in more states, territories and nations than you can shake a stick at. Their audience is less than traditional. Ivan, who uses gender-neutral pronouns and identifies as transgender, writes and speaks as a distinctly modern member of the queer community.

Read more: OZY - Smarter, Fresher, Different

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In the week of September 16th, 2014, Gender Failure was listed in the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia's BC Bestsellers List. The list shows the top 12 adult best sellers in BC and is compiled using sales data from over 80 independent bookstores in BC. The current week's list can be viewed here.

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"When Rae Spoon and Ivan E. Coyote first conceived of Gender Failure in 2012, it was as a 45-minute live multimedia performance of stories and songs about being trans and living outside the gender binary. “A real room-clearer of a show,” writes Coyote, quoting Spoon in their new collaborative book, also called Gender Failure, published in May by Arsenal Pulp Press.

For the past two years Spoon and Coyote have toured the show to receptive crowds throughout North America and the U.K. “It’s turned out to be a room-changer,” Spoon says over the phone from Montreal, just ahead of bringing the project to Canada’s East Coast. “We’ve changed the audiences who have come out to it, and the warm reception made us realize it was resonating.”

The positive feedback inspired the duo to extend the performance by another 45 minutes and tackle a book adaptation. Gender Failure gave Coyote and Spoon more space to delve into their individual journeys from confused female-assigned youth to productive, creative adults who refer to themselves using the gender-neutral “they” pronoun."

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dapperQ June 24, 2014: "In July 2013, dapperQ published our first ever list of 100 Most Stylish dapperQs. This was by far one of our most popular posts, but was by no means exhaustive. Since the original post was not comprehensive enough to capture all of the amazing dapper that exists in our community, our team decided to compile another list of 100 most stylish dapperQs."

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