Performing music is an opportunity for artists to express themselves and their personalities, as they balance their own identities with the personas they want to present to an audience.
For transgender and nonbinary musicians, performance can also be a chance to explore their identities and express their gender as well as their creativity.
For some artists, creative expression and gender expression are interconnected. Christee Imogen Henry, a sophomore sculpture student at the University of Georgia who makes music under the name Imogen Slaughter, said the relationship between her music and her identity as a transgender woman are reciprocal.
âIf you asked me, âOh, Christee, are you more of an artist than you are trans or are you more trans than you are an artist?â I would probably be like âI donât know, I think Iâm about both equally,ââ Henry said.