ARTISTS TO KNOW: JORDAN CHANETSA
JORDAN CHANETSA
Jordan Chanetsa is a performance artist, writer, and activist for LGBTQIA+ rights from Harare, Zimbabwe and is currently completing an artist residency in Cologne, Germany. Jordan worked heavily in the organizational space advocating for sexual and reproductive health rights while also co-founding the Harare Queer Collective, a cultural activist hub to create safer spaces and wellness events for the LGBTQIA+community. As a trans woman and creative from Zimbabwe, Jordan aims to break barriers and use her voice and platform to inspire and empower the overlooked and underserved queer community back home and abroad.
SHEER: Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you're from.
JORDAN CHANETSA: My name is Jordan Chanetsa. I am 25 years old and I am currently based in Cologne, Germany. I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe but I was raised and spent most of my life in Harare, Zimbabwe. I also attended school in Johannesburg, South Africa at the National School of the Arts. I come from a very mixed family in terms of ethnicity. Both my parents had mixed parents from multiple ethnic backgrounds, so you could say I am the product of colonialism and globalization. I am a multi-disciplinary artist and activist mainly focusing on women’s rights as well as the rights of LGBTQIA+ persons. I am a woman of transsexual experience.
SHEER: How would you say your childhood and cultural upbringing impacted your path to becoming a creative?
JC: Growing up was not the greatest time for me as I was visibly different in the environment that I was in. Because I was assigned male at birth, there were certain expectations of me to be like other people who were AMAB (Assigned Male At Birth). I was always extremely feminine and could not really do anything about it regardless of how hard I tried to acclimate. It was always the elephant in the room wherever I found myself. I was always being asked if I was a girl or a boy or being called the F-slur for as long as I can remember. I come from a very religious background with both my parents having been ministers at a megachurch in Zimbabwe. The church we went to was very centered around music, praise, and worship, so I was exposed to the creative industry at a very young age. Aside from that, my dad was a club DJ turned radio DJ long before I can remember anything else so there was always good music playing as the soundtrack of my very tumultuous childhood.
Speaking of my childhood, that was what kind of lead me to being a creative. I have shared in past interviews how being visibly different and gender ambiguous made me a target for discrimination as nobody was interested in being associated with someone who was always being laughed at or questioned about their sexuality or gender identity. Boys wouldn’t want to hang out with me because they would accuse me of being gay and wanting to do “gay things’’ with them. The girls didn’t want to hang out with me because they didn’t see me as one of them. It got to a point where I found myself only really having friends at school but outside of that I would spend a lot of my time in my own company. I naturally found myself being drawn to creative expression in different forms. From drawing to singing and acting, art was a haven for me where I could escape the pain of failing to acclimate to what was considered normal or acceptable. In many ways, having that as a haven or an outlet truly saved my life in more ways than I can articulate.
SHEER: You've been heavily involved in organizing for sexual and reproductive health rights in Zimbabwe. When did you begin organizing in your community and how has that experience been for you?
JC: I began organizing for sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in 2017. I was severely unemployed at the time as nobody was willing to hire me because of how I looked versus what my legal documents presented. I had become very active online speaking about discrimination and how it affected people in the LGBTQIA+ community who were not able to pass as cis-heterosexual. I had garnered a lot of support on Facebook and was becoming a bit more connected online. As a result of my efforts online, I was asked by a friend if I would be interested in getting into SRHR work where I could help to connect these services to LGBTQIA+ persons and I would be paid a fee for my efforts. I obviously jumped at the opportunity and embarked on this new journey where I didn’t have to shrink myself in order to do work and earn money to support myself.
While doing this work I began to build a huge network of people online and offline who were part of the LGBQIA+ community. It was a bittersweet experience for me because the people who were hiring people from the LGBTQIA+ community were doing little to protect those people from violence and discrimination, inside and outside of the working environment. I ended up leaving the SRHR job because of the working conditions and how they treated LGBTQIA+ employees versus how they painted it out to be on paper. I began to realize that they were only doing this work because the funding was big in SRHR that was inclusive of LGBTQIA+ persons. It opened my eyes up to how our experiences are tokenized for social capital while they continue to perpetuate these problematic working conditions and policies. My efforts did not end there as I still had my online platforms, which I continued to use to help spread awareness as well as helping to link people to services. That experience coupled with my online presence opened a lot of doors for me. I ended up doing a lot of media work where I was able to continue being active about LGBTQIA+ rights as well as our SRHR needs.
“I naturally found myself being drawn to creative expression in different forms. From drawing to singing and acting, art was a haven for me where I could escape the pain of failing to acclimate to what was considered normal or acceptable. In many ways, having that as a haven or an outlet truly saved my life in more ways than I can articulate.”
SHEER: How does your creativity serve as a vehicle for your activism?
JC: Creativity was always an outlet for me from when I was younger. This continued to translate into the creative work I did as I grew older. My creativity is always influenced by what is happening in my life and discrimination and othering are parts of my everyday experience. This is something that is true for most people in the LGBTQIA+ community, therefore it was always easy for me to want to touch on those topics because it was something that resonated with me and the people I cared about.
SHEER: Tell us a little bit more about the Harare Queer Collective and how it came to be?
JC: Harare Queer collective aims to cultivate safer spaces for LBTQIA+ persons to have fun, meet one another, get inspired, share their art/creativity, learn, celebrate and be celebrated. In order to create spaces like this we are committed to providing a friendly, safe, and welcoming environment for all, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, physical appearance, body size, trans status, professional experience and education (or lack thereof), technical choices, lack of technological knowledge, ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion (or lack thereof), and other personal conditions. This collective was brought about as a result of there being a lack of safer spaces for people in the Zimbabwean LGBTQIA+ community.
A lot of spaces created for the LGBTQIA+ community are mainly focused on SRHR as that is where the funding is at. Most people are only interested in collecting data from our community and using us as tokens to further their agendas. We identified the need for more wellness centered initiatives as there were very few. The Harare Queer Collective was the first of its kind that solely focused on creating safer spaces and bringing the community together. We are also big on providing a platform for LGBTQIA+ persons to offers their skills within our spaces and almost always have LGBTQIA+ performers participating at our events.
This collective came to be as an idea from a small group of LGBTQIA+ Zimbabweans who were interested in seeing more for the community and who wanted to help put in motion some necessary systems that would help to broaden the landscape for LGBTQIA+ persons living in Zimbabwe. It was established in 2019 and has been operating ever since. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to crowd fund USD$15,000 through a GoFundMe to help with COVID-19 relief within the LGBTQIA+ community. We have recently begun to expand by wanting to create working opportunities and providing work experience for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and have just started working with our first paid intern.
SHEER: When you say "my activism doesn't end at my own oppression," what do you mean by this?
JC: This to me means that although I have been able to work my way into better living conditions and may be able to provide myself with certain comforts that help me to avoid dangerous situations and environments, I am still interested in seeing so much more for my community and those who do not have the privileges that I have. It will always be a goal of mine to continue to elevate the living conditions for LGBTQIA+ persons and to advocate for our rights. As a result of my work with the LGBTQIA+ community, I have also become extremely passionate about women´s rights and just human rights in general. I am a strong believer that I was put on this earth to shake things up wherever I go and to always stand up for people who do not seamlessly fit into any sort of binary or who are unable to. I cannot say that I am a representative for any community as I am only one person, but I do venture to say that my empathy for other people’s experiences pushes me to use whatever platform I have to speak on issues that are being erased.
“Most people are only interested in collecting data from our community and using us as tokens to further their agendas. We identified the need for more wellness centered initiatives as there were very few. THE HARARE QUEER Collective was the first of its kind that solely focused on creating safer spaces and bringing the community together. We are also big on providing platform for LGBTQIA+ persons to offers their skills within our spaces and almost always have LGBTQIA+ performers participating at our events. ”
Photos by: Salman Abdo
SHEER: You recently moved to Germany for an artist residency. How are you adjusting to the move culturally and what do you hope to take away from this experience creatively?
JC: Moving to Germany for this artist residency has been a lot for me. It has opened my eyes to how much privilege and opportunity exists in the global north. But also, to how systems have been put in place to keep poor people poor and to help rich people get richer at the expense of those poor people. It has somewhat been a difficult experience for me so far as I do feel like I have been shortchanged on a lot of life experiences. I see the people who are my age with similar identities who have access to so much and how it is taken for granted because it’s just a given. I feel as though I am playing catch up on life and having to learn simple things on the spot.
At the same time, I am someone who is used to being uncomfortable and I love to see myself react to new experiences. It is teaching me a lot about myself, and I am truly grateful to be able to live this experience. It’s teaching me that I have so much more to learn about my creative interests but also that the world is my oyster if I just work smarter and harder. I hope to be able to use my experiences here to continue to expand the work we are doing with Harare Queer Collective. But also, to help grow myself as an artist as I did not have access to a lot of opportunities in Zimbabwe because I am openly trans and there is major discrimination in the creative industry in Zimbabwe towards openly LGBTQIA+ artists.
“I am a strong believer that I was put on this earth to shake things up wherever I go and to always stand up for people who do not seamlessly fit into any sort of binary or who are unable to. I cannot say that I am a representative for any community as I am only one person, but I do venture to say that my empathy for other people´s experiences pushes me to use whatever platform I have to speak on issues that are being erased.”
SHEER: What part of your creative process brings you the most joy? Which forms of creative expression are you most excited about at the moment?
JC: The conceptualizing and creating stage bring me the most joy. I love to see what my brain can do when I just put in effort to listen to my spirit and allow it to do what it does best. I love feeling in touch with my inner world and being able to translate that into this plane of existence. Now, I am currently most excited about music and writing. I have always been in love with music but never seemed to be able to find my way to participate in creating it in a way that felt fulfilling.
I have always been a writer and always wrote poetry. I used to do a lot of spoken word when I had the chance to. I have recently found a love for creating hip hop music. I have always loved hip hop because of my dad being a DJ and all that. I feel that I used to write poetry and remain soft because I didn’t have my voice and had to essentially hide in the words. Now that I have my voice it feels as though my art is insistent on manifesting in the form of performance art and what is more poetically performative than hip hop.
SHEER: What advice would you give to anyone who is struggling to embrace who they are and express their authentic self?
JC: I want to say that this life is very short. We cannot spend our time playing a character in anyone else’s script but our own. I completely understand the pressure of having to do things to get by and to survive but in the same breath I want us to honor our inner child who is dying to be happy, even just in small ways. It starts with small things. Nobody accepts themselves fully overnight but if you give yourself a little bit each day then eventually a little turns into a lot. I would love for us to build a culture of not being afraid of putting ourselves in more uncomfortable situations to see who we are in different spaces.
SHEER: What do you envision for the future of your creative work and impact?
JC: I am truly intent on being successful for my community in Zimbabwe. If there’s one thing I know, is that in this life I was born to shine like the diamond that I am. I am intent on working to open the world to the Zimbabwean LGBTQIA+ community and all that we have to offer. I will be a star one day soon and I am excited to keep growing into that. I want to show that the Zimbabwean trans girls can make it mainstream and be household names. I know this can be very daunting to read or daunting for me to say but I am only interested in narratives that include the belief that we can have whatever we want if we just put our minds to it. Why can´t I have everything I desire? Is it because maybe someone thinks I don’t deserve it? Does that person feel they deserve it more or are they just afraid to want more for themselves the way that I do? We all deserve so much more.
FOLLOW & SUPPORT JORDAN CHANETSA BELOW
〰️
FOLLOW & SUPPORT JORDAN CHANETSA BELOW 〰️
Photography by Nabila Wirakusumah
NYALLAH is known for blending elements of neo-soul, R&B, hip-hop, and West African rhythms while exploring themes of self-expansion, transformation, and love. With their latest project, R+B, recorded in phases spanning a near-death bike accident and an eye-opening trip to Costa Rica, R+B navigates relationships, desirability, and self-awareness from a black queer perspective. Through enchanting vocals and vulnerable lyrics, NYALLAH reminds us that desirability is not love and our liberation lies in de-centering ourselves and prioritizing collective care.