S2 #2: The Evolution of Staceyann Chin

In season 2 episode 2 of PBS Digital Studios’ First Person, host Donald Shorter talks with poet and activist Staceyann Chin about growing up in Jamaica, finding her voice as an activist and raising a child as a single lesbian.

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About Staceyann Chin: Staceyann Chin is a spoken-word poet, performing artist and LGBT rights political activist. As a woman of both African and Chinese descent and a Jamaican immigrant residing in New York she has made various contributions to society just by using her strong voice, never apologizing for speaking her mind. The Brooklyn resident announced in 2011 that she was pregnant with her first child, the result of in vitro fertilization. She eventually wrote about her experiences as a single pregnant lesbian for The Huffington Post. She also contributes to “She Said What?”—an online show on AfterEllen—and to Centric TV’s “My Two Cents.”

Chin has earned much recognition for her poetry and performance, which she calls “activist driven.” She won the 1998 Lambda Poetry Slam and the 1999 Chicago People of Color Poetry Slam.

In 2009 she published her autobiographical novel, “The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir,” in which she recounts being raised by a single mother and coming out in a country where she had few, if any, role models. “I am mostly proud of the path I have taken,” she writes. “I am learning one never puts a turbulent childhood completely to rest.”

Produced by PBS Digital Studios and WNET
Mic and its channels, Slay and The Movement, are official media partners of season 2 of First Person.
Host: Donald C. Shorter
Executive Producers: Daniel B. Greenberg & Joe Harrell 
Producer, Director, Supervising Editor: Erin McIntyre
Production Management: Sophia Clark
Editor: Max Orenstein 
Camera: Chie Miyajima, Sophia Clark
Graphics: Kyle Sweet
Field Producer: Chie Miyajima, Gerry Johnson

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