Introducing: Afterlives: The Layleen Polanco Story

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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 reising questions about the way officials
there whole people in solitary confinements.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Go along. 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 war,
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

(00:49):
the war since we were born. In the years since,
I've learned to cherish her memory.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Leili loved today, and she loved to sing.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Her vibrant life. She was just happy to be alive.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Layleen was sort of a reflection for what it looked
like for me to grow into a confident, secure woman.

Speaker 5 (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 4 (01:15):
We would try to bring up this case, and then
another person would die, and then another person, and then
another person.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
And the rallies for change that she inspired.

Speaker 6 (01:26):
Ris Leyleen's death ignited calls in solitary confinement to decriminalize
consensual sex work and to stop the epidemic of anti
trans violence.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
Leilan Blanco became a rallying cry for the movement.

Speaker 3 (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 3 (02:12):
Didn't story radicalized me?

Speaker 1 (02:14):
There would 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.