Introducing: Afterlives: The Layleen Polanco Story

The life and legacy of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco is at the heart of Afterlives, a podcast about trans lives we’ve lost and the ways their stories have reshaped our world. Known to light up a room, Layleen was an Afro-Latina trans woman in New York City who was sentenced to the city’s notorious jail complex on Rikers Island. She died there in 2019, at the young age of 27.

 

Hosted by Raquel Willis and inspired by her award-winning work on Out magazine’s Trans Obituaries Project, this 7-episode series celebrates Layleen’s vibrant life through memories from her family of origin and the community she discovered in New York’s famed ballroom scene. The series unpacks the systems that failed Layleen leading up to her death at Rikers through in-depth interviews with activists fighting against the criminalization of sex work, solitary confinement, and the epidemic of anti-trans violence.

 

Afterlives is the story of Layleen’s life, and the fight that continues in her name today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
After Lives is a new podcast about Leileen Polanco. She
was a transgender Afro Latina, and she died behind bars
in New York City's most notorious gail complex, Rikers Island.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The recent death of a twenty seven year old woman
on Rikers Island is raising questions about the way officials
there whole people in solitary confinements.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Go along.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I found out about Layleen's death hours after it happened
in twenty nineteen, and spoke at a rally in her
honor just days later. We are in a boar, don't
get it twisted. As a black trans woman living in
New York, I knew right away that our stories were connected.
Black and brown trans people have been in the war

(00:49):
since we were born. In the years since, I've learned
to cherish her memory. Leili loved today, and she loved
to sing her vibrant life. She was just happy to
be alive.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Layleen was sort of a reflection for what it looked
like for me to grow into a confident, secure woman.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Her untimely death stepping foot on Riker's Island has been
widely acknowledged a potential death sentence in a state where
we have outlawed the death penalty.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
We would try to bring up this case, and then
another person would die, and then another person, and then another.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Person, and the rallies for change that she inspired. Riks
Leyleen's death ignited calls in solitary confinement to decriminalize consensual
sex work and to stop the epidemic of anti trans violence.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Leilan Blanco became a rallying cry for the movement.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Was her transness actually a cause of her death? We
found out that the answer was yes, it absolutely was.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
I'm your housset rock hal Willis. Over seven episodes. We'll
hear from Lealen's family of origin, the community she discovered
in New York, and activist fighting for change in her name.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Didn't story radicalized me?

Speaker 1 (02:14):
There will never be any explanation. Have never happened. Listen
to Afterlives starting November fifteenth on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.