Joe Ippolito

Joe’s art for social change practice combines his love for media with his passion for transgender and gender variant (TG/GV) people, experiences and causes.  His practice includes videos, audio podcasts, websites and blogs. He uses these mediums to tell many of the stories about TG/GV communities that are often unheard. Joe provides the vehicle for folks who are most impacted by TG/GV misconceptions to document their own experiences. He focuses on capturing in their own words peoples’ personal stories. While the experiences of TG/GV people are a bit more mainstream today, the lack of knowledge and understanding regarding the TG/GV community still exists; the goal of his work is to explore ways to help foster understanding, eradicate barriers and connect diverse communities.  Joe believes that community members like him have a responsibility not only to challenge misconceptions about TG/GV people, but also to and change them.

Joe will look at the issue of aging in the transgender and gender non-conforming community and document this on film. The goal of the film is to raise awareness regarding the multiple issues faced by aging transgender people and the resources and education that are available. Additionally, he hopes to shed an important, yet overlooked light, on the issues associated with the intersectionality of transphobia and ageism. Joe will be working with his co-director Kandis Hutcherson.