lexie
Bean
What's up?!
i'm passionate about creating honest + complex trans narratives through writing, performance, & film.
from curating my lambda literary finalist anthology for trans inclusion in the #metoo movement, to Developing a tv series inspired by my homeland, to building "the ship we built" (2020) from a text message into a novel with dial at penguin random house - i create pieces that transition and grow alongside me. & currently create in fellowship with the jerome hill artist fellowship.
my work specifically with transgender survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse has received accolades from the founders of the trevor project, the new york times, RAINN, the ali forney center, ONe love, sounds of saving, male survivor, and MORE. i've been honored with membership in rainn's national leadership council to speak publicly on the many forms of justice survivors deserve.
My storytelling career began in 2012, when I curated and self-published my first anthology full of letters that people wrote to their body parts. I have been interviewed by and written for a large number of publications, including Teen Vogue, Ms. Magazine, The New York Times, Bitch Magazine, Them, Bust Magazine, Huffington Post, Logo's New Now Next, Kirkus Reviews, Autostraddle, Thrillist, The Detroit News, Lambda Literary, The Feminist Wire, Toi Magazine and more. My writing has also been transformed into four experimental films. Full and Trans Boy Remember, both of which have played at festivals across Europe. An animated version of The Ship We Built, premiering at the Locomoción Festival de Animación in Mexico City, is now being adapted for a feature length film. My most recent, A Scavenger Hunt For People Loneliest In Their Own Homes, was commissioned by Price Hill Will and had its international premier this fall at the Indie Short Awards Cannes, where it also received the award for Best Experimental Short, and had its public premiere in Teen Vogue. I am currently in pre-production for my first feature-length documentary - What Will I Become? Co-directed by Logan Rozos, the film weaves together the stories of three trans boys who died by suicide and the those who are surviving the suppression and isolation that comes with binary masculinity, while offering resources and imagination for a way forward.
My essays, poems, books, and short films have also been presented at well over a hundred venues, including the famous Bluestockings and The Strand in NYC, the Detroit Institute of the Arts, MitSprache: The German Council of Victims and Survivors' Expert Committee of the Independent Commissioner for Child Sexual Abuse Issues, as well as barns, blackbox theaters, cafeterias, universities through two self-organized international tours of creative writing workshops and performances inspired by my writing and experiences. With this, I have been in partnership with countless transition homes, rehab centers, and non-profits, such as Black & Pink, RAINN, Home in Budapest, and Slutwalk Johannesburg and have received additional support from the Sundress Writing Residency and Retreat for Survival and Healing in Knoxville, the Gibney Dance Institute for Community Action Training in New York, the Jane Hoppen Residency at Paragraph New York, and the Bookshop Santa Cruz Residency at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods.
For acting! I currently study The Barrow Group approach! My work has ranged from indie short films, to roller skatin' as your music video muse, to a national ad that was also featured in Times Square. I often land roles of people and creatures who are lost, one who shows up and changes things, or one with a big secret. Most recently, I play Maddy - a non-binary teenager navigating family structure and isolation - in the Columbus feature They/Them/Us premiered at the historic Chinese Theater in Hollywood with Dances with Films Festival. I also made my TV debut with Modern Love! Both projects premiered in fall of 2021. For more recent projects and updates, read the lil red box on this page!
IN THE MEANTIME, HERE ARE MORE FUN FACTS:
1.) I love thinking of fake band names, particularly with two loved ones both named David.
2.) I cried the last time I watched 13 Going On 30.
3.) I got toilet paper stuck to my roller skate at the fourth grade Halloween Party, and three years later I won the gold metal in my division at the USA Roller Sports National Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I'm very good at the game "Two Truths and a Lie." Lucky for you, I just gave you three truths.
HERE'S ANOTHER TRUTH: I THINK YOU COULD BE FUN AND MEANINGFUL TO COLLABORATE WITH. PLEASE SAY HI TO ME.
EVENTS
-Coming Soon: Johns Hopkins University (kinda a part 2! of last year's Sexual Assault Resource Unit Event) and the New School
-Most recently: staff trainings and creative workshops with Rutgers University and a reading with Beloit College
-Ongoing independent workshops! For survivors, check out Beyond Self Care and Storytelling For Survivorsand for people who care for survivors in their own lives, Beyond the Heroic Survivor. All winter holiday season programming is free as it's an extra hard time of the year usually for survivors.
RECENT HONORS
-Semi-Finalist in Tulip Tree Review's DISTRUPTORS Contest for narrative non-fiction essay, "It's Not a Word. It's a Story."
-Awarded with a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship - "supporting Minnesota or NYC-based artists, early in their careers, who generate and create bold, innovative and risk-taking new work that explores and/or challenges conventional artistic forms" - along with entry into the MAP Fund’s Scaffolding for Practicing Artists Program.
-Co-directed documentary, What Will I Become?, selected for representation in the Sundance Producers Intensive
RECENTLY PUBLISHED, PREMIERED, & SCREENED
-A comprehensive interview with Script Magazine, "Trans/Nonbinary Survivor Lexie Bean Let's Life Experience Serve as the Basis for their Book and Movie Projects."
-An interview withRAINN, also elevating independent workshop series, "Author and Performer, Lexie Bean, On Self-Care and Beyond."
-Essay "During the Holidays, Higher Education Needs to Address Childhood Sexual Abuse" published in TransLash
-An podcast interview, "WTH is.... Surviving the Holidays," on What The Hell Is Water?
-Essay "How Arm Modeling Carried Me Through An Abusive Relationship" published in Autostraddle A+
PROJECT ANNOUCEMENTS
-I have new acting and performance representation with A3's NY Emerging Artist Branch. So grateful to be in collaboration with you!
-2022/2023 are 10 year anniversaries of the start of my publishing and facilitation career! I am in early-stages planning for a multi-medium live reading event!!
-I have submitted my next books for auction, one picture book and the other for adults.
-I have found a director for The Ship We Built screenplay! A very lovely T4T moment.
-I also recently submitted chapters for an upcoming anthology, Surviving Transphobia, with Jessica Kingsley Publishers. More information on the project and publishing date coming soon!
-My first feature length documentary, What Will I Become?, co-directed by Logan Rozos, is now in post-production. And we have found a third Executive Producer, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, to join our other EPs - Kylar Broadus of Trans People of Color Coalition and Carl Siciliano of the Ali Forney Center.
-I recently recontinued my Patreon, where you can support me and my work directly!