She's also set to appear in the upcoming Muay Thai action film Haymaker. And in October, Ruiz released her third Jessica 6 album, The Eliot Sessions , which features eights songs dripping in her signature smoldering nu-disco sound.
Ruiz has carved out a very unique space for herself, and promises there's a lot more to come. Nomi Ruiz: I started making hip hop and people started talking about my gender. And as I felt more secure and more respected as an artist, I wanted my work to mean something after that.
I started traveling. I see how all these kids look up to me. Everyone is not so advanced as the U. With the work that I do with Daniela Vega, [for example] we removed gender from the restrooms at the nightclub Blondie in Santiago. We just started this dialogue. Even the government officials and cardinals of the Catholic Church started to come for us, and I felt the power of just resisting. I feel like men need the most help.
We need to get to the root of the problem. The root for me is this toxic masculinity that exists in the world. He had done the "Prisoner of Love" remix, and I loved it. I took his poem—it was like a puzzle—and I put it all together and wrote a top line to it. We really connected over making that track. Everyone reacts really well to it. I would love for you to be the first artist we really focus on pushing out. I love diving into her world. She's kind of an informant for the Mayans, which is cool.
And they save her in the end from another cartel. I survived! She survives! NR: When I got into acting, there were all these opportunities that came my way, but they were all for these characters that had trans narratives that were written by mostly cis men, and it was just so on the surface.
This was way more complex and had so much nuance to it, even in the first few scenes. GLAAD: There's such a hunger for that, to see that too, the deeper levels, again, of connection with yourself and with other people. And it gets to the heart of one of the issues that I think a lot of people who are trans face, which is not feeling that we can be loved or seeing that that love actually exists in stories.
So as we begin to see more complex, nuanced, and more deeply explored trans characters, particularly in media, where do you hope more films go? And you've used the word progressive a few times.
I would love for you to talk us through what progressive storytelling means to you. NR: It's also about the other people and characters in our lives. We get to see Nick's character, a cisgender man who's dealing with being involved in this toxic masculine world. People have their ideals about what masculinity should be and who men should love and how they should act. I think that was also an element of this film that we wanted to push, that we wanted definitely to have a progressive trans narrative, but also have men see themselves honestly reflected to them, too.
I think that's the next phase of this trend - acceptance. I think it's time to speak about the nuances of it all. There are so many stories to be told. There are so many perspectives. So many other people want to and need to feel seen. So thank you for that.
I think that's really important. What are you personally looking forward to in the future of your creating an artistry? NR: I'm looking forward to getting into film more and bringing my music into it as well. I really love the way those two things sort of coincide and how I can expand on a narrative through a song, writing a song. Sometimes I'm working on developing a series based on my life story that incorporates music.
And it's sort of like Eminem's Eight Mile, but it's my version of that, making it from the hood in Brooklyn and making it to all these prestigious stages around the world and doing it as a trans woman, as a Puerto Rican trans woman. GLAAD: Before letting you go, is there anything else you'd like to share, any calls to action for the future. I know you've talked a lot about the crisis that we're experiencing with many people's identities and deconstructing toxic masculinity is so much of it.
Are there any words of inspiration or support you want to share with people who will be reading and learning about you? I was born and raised by a single mother in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that was just as inspiring as it was dangerous.
We were poor to say the least—if the lights were on, we were having a good month. My mother and brother encouraged me to pursue it as a career, and my mother did what she could to help me without any knowledge of the music industry whatsoever.
I was 10 when I really began pushing her to assist me in finding my way into the industry and she began cold calling studios listed in the yellow pages, which somehow led to me finding my first manager, an engineer at the famed Apollo Theatre. I still remember walking into that empty theater. It was the first time I set foot on a stage. I stared out into the empty seats of the auditorium wondering what it would feel like if they were full.
I rubbed the famous Apollo tree stump and made a wish that someday they would be. As my manager and I began discussing our goals, I informed him I did not want to record covers and was hoping he could find songwriters who would provide me with original content.
They were shocked at how someone so young knew so much about romance. I told them I was merely fantasizing about having a broken heart but, in reality, the feeling was all too real.
I was surrounded by it. As much as I loved expressing myself through songwriting, it forced me to face my inner thoughts. I began struggling more with my gender identity, which I had grappled with since I was two, but had suppressed and hoped was a passing phase. I became reclusive and pulled away from the world, as well as my manager and my music. It was difficult to fight past all the doubt swirling around inside me.
I knew music was my life and I worried about how transitioning would affect my career. I eventually began spending time at the Hetrick Martin Institute where I connected with other queer youth and began doing outreach.
It was there where I met other women of trans experience who, for the first time, showed me the possibility of what my life could be. They encouraged me both as a woman and an artist and it was then when I realized how seeing ourselves in others is imperative to self discovery. It reminds us that we are not alone and in fact part of a collective consciousness that is worthy of acceptance and being loved in the light, not hidden in the shadows.
I eventually got to a place where my body and soul were aligned and I was ready to take on whatever obstacles the world and the industry had in store for me.
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