DIVA spoke to the founder of The Trans Stage
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGE SUPPLIED
How can you describe Mzz Kimberley? There are so many words you could use – actor, activist, trailblazer, and so on – but when she sits down for a chat with us, it’s immediately clear that she exists in a space beyond us. She is all of those words, but she is also so much more.
As a performer, Kim has been in films, like Killer Tongue, and loads of theatre productions, such as Sean Linnen’s I Threw It at the Old Vic or Tabby Lamb’s Transpose at the Barbican. As an activist and leader in the LGBTQIA community, she has hosted both Brighton Gay Pride and Brighton Trans Pride, and been an ambassador for ParaPride and AIDS Memorial UK. Her contribution to LGBTQIA culture and history has been phenomenal.
Needless to say, as she sits in her Pimlico home, Kim has come a long way, both in life and geographically, from her childhood in Michigan. How did she get here? “Manifestation,” laughs Kim. “I was five and looking at a magazine called Ebony. There was a picture of Andy Warhol and Grace Jones – I looked at them and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, there are people like me in this world’. So I started envisioning myself in Europe from a very early age.”
Growing up, there were three things Kim wanted in life: To live in Europe, to live as a woman and to be a performer. “It’s been a hard struggle,” she says. “Because everything I dream of, I was always told, ‘No’.” But she kept believing and made it happen. Now, not only has she been in many theatre productions in Europe, but she also runs The Trans Stage, a trans-led company boosting trans and non-binary performers.
“I’m trying to show the world that we actually can come together,” says Kim. Everybody is welcome to The Trans Stage, whether they be trans, non-binary or cis-gendered. “I have companies who come down, some of their executives, and they get to know trans people properly.” Kim tries to get people to actually have a conversation with one another, because when we do, we can understand each other better. It’s clear that this is something people want as well. “My stage has gotten busier and busier.”
“I want to make my communities proud,” Kim says earnestly. This is her primary motivation, the driving force behind all that she does. It’s not easy, as worthwhile things rarely are, not least because everything has to go right for Kim and her team to be treated as equal to other groups. “For a marginalised community, whether they are trans, black or anything else, you need to be seen as the best before anyone takes you seriously.”
To make sure the trans community, particularly trans people of colour, are taken seriously, Kim says the community itself needs to band together. The current political climate of transphobia makes this more needed than ever. “We have this saying in America: If you won’t let us in your country club, we will build our own. This is the attitude we need here in our trans community.”
What else does the trans community need? “We need allies,” says Kim. “There’s a lot of lip service around, but we need strong allies.”
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