we create ourselves. we create our belonging. we create our freedom.
The Underground Rainbow Experiment is an ecosystem of communities for and by Black Trans and GNC creators committed to creating ourselves, our belonging, and our freedom.
The URE, a child of the legacies of the Underground Railroad and Chitlin' Circuit, is an emerging chapter organization currently with chapters in the Bay Area and Los Angeles that uses creative practices and connection to cultivate new directions and possibilities for BTGNC people in the U.S. and around the world.
Our Purpose
Rooted in the understanding that we all can define and (re)shape ourselves, The Underground Rainbow Experiment cultivates spaces where Black Trans and Gender Nonconforming people can explore, generate, and transform who we are through intentional self-creation, storytelling, creative practice, and embodied exploration.
We believe that creating ourselves is inseparable from creating our belonging and our freedom. As we move beyond imposed identities, binaries, and limitations, we also build interconnected communities that affirm our existence, deepen our relationships, and expand what is possible for us collectively.
Through the cultivation of organizational chapters, artistic practice, mutual support, and cultural exchange, we nurture ecosystems where Black Trans and GNC people can imagine and inhabit new ways of being. We honor Black Trans and Gender Nonconforming lives as essential sites of knowledge, creativity, and transformation, using our lived experiences to reimagine identity, community, and the world itself.
Inspired by the legacies of the Underground Railroad and the Chitlin' Circuit, we are building an interconnected network of communities that share resources, opportunities, cultural practices, and pathways to collective thriving. Our long-term vision is to develop a constellation of Black Trans and GNC-led live-work communities where creativity, care, economic cooperation, and self-determination can flourish across regions and generations.
We believe that when we create ourselves, we create our communities; when we create our communities, we create new possibilities for belonging, liberation, and freedom.
What We Do
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Create
Through collective writing and making processes, URE seeks to develop new theatre works annually that communicate lived experiences of BTGNC kin in the U.S. and around the world. Check out this year's production of The First Time I Saw Me: Stories of Black Trans Emergence. -
Connect
Create intentional and lasting connections among arts and culture and social justice institutions for the sake of our collective liberation. -
Heal
Create spaces where BTGNC people can create ourselves and our lives through connection, self-actualization, and imagination. Learn about the Blue Roots Residency.
URE reimagines arts and entertainment as equitable, cooperative, and accessible ecosystems. Grounded in Black feminist theory, African-Diasporic healing traditions, community care, and cooperative economics, we create pathways that transform creative practice into stability, connection, and collective power.
Our Values
We believe that to create oneself is the greatest task given to each of us.
We are autoluminescent beings, capable of generating and regenerating our own light regardless of condition.
Our lives are not fixed, they are consciously authored through our will, practice, and imagination.
1. Self-Creation & Autoluminescence
2. Interdependence
We believe no one does anything in isolation. We create ourselves through our relationships, communities, and collective care. While each of us is responsible for our own freedom, we cannot become ourselves without one another. Our liberation, belonging, and thriving are interconnected.
We believe kindness is a transformative force that fuels collective liberation. Through intentional acts of care, generosity, and mutual support, we create the conditions for belonging, growth, and change.
Just as kindness, courage, and determination sustained those who traveled the Underground Railroad, we believe kindness can help build the freer, more connected world we seek today.
3. Kindness
We reject limiting binaries and affirm the full spectrum of existence.
Our essence can be bent, reshaped, and expressed in infinite forms that move beyond socially constructed boundaries.
We honor fluidity, multiplicity, and ways of being not yet fully imagined.
4. Expansive Expression Beyond Binary
We recognize Black Trans and Gender Nonconforming people as vital stewards of transformative knowledge.
Our lived practices of self-creation and survival illuminate pathways for collective evolution.
We are committed to building liberatory systems that hold the full complexity of human existence.
5. Collective Evolution Through Black Trans & GNC Wisdom
Our Story
The Underground Rainbow Experiment (URE) was founded on Juneteenth (June 19) 2021, in Baltimore, Maryland, by Djérae, a Black Transmasculine artist, educator, and cultural organizer, and their sibling Kaja Limberg, a Black Transfeminine artist, healthcare professional, and disability justice organizer. What began as a creative production initiative for QTBIPOC artists has since evolved into an ecosystem of interconnected communities for and by Black Trans and Gender Nonconforming (GNC) creators committed to creating ourselves, our belonging, and our freedom.
URE is rooted in the Theory of Autoluminescent Being, a framework developed by Djérae through their lived experience as a Black trans and gender-expansive person. The theory proposes that all people possess an internal source of light born from the soul that can be shaped, regenerated, and expressed in different ways throughout our lives. Just as light can be produced through friction, movement, and sound, humans retain the capacity to create and recreate themselves under any condition.
At its core, the theory asserts that self-creation is a natural human capacity. Transformation is not a departure from who we are, but a process of becoming more deeply aligned with our souls. Through intentional acts of self-definition, we generate new expressions of ourselves, creating multiple lives within a single lifetime.
This understanding became the philosophical foundation of URE. Initially envisioned as a space where QTBIPOC creators could learn, heal, and express themselves freely outside systems of extraction and survival, URE emerged from a recognition that both arts organizations and social justice organizing spaces were missing something essential. Community organizing often lacked spaces for imagination, joy, and artistic experimentation, while arts institutions frequently lacked pathways for collective care, movement building, and liberation.
After relocating to California in 2022 to deepen their organizing practice and access gender-affirming care, Djérae encountered another critical question: What would it look like to build environments where Black Trans and GNC people did not have to fight simply to exist?
The challenge of securing safe and stable housing alongside their sibling, Kaja, revealed the persistent barriers facing Black Trans creatives, even within politically progressive regions. In response, Djérae and Kaja began reimagining URE not simply as an organization, but as infrastructure: a living network of spaces, relationships, resources, and opportunities designed to support Black Trans and GNC people in becoming who they are.
Today, URE applies the principles of the Theory of Autoluminescent Being at both individual and collective scales. We believe that just as people can intentionally create new expressions of themselves, communities can intentionally create new expressions of society. Through artistic practice, cultural production, mutual support, and community-building, we cultivate environments where Black Trans and GNC people can experiment, evolve, and thrive.
Our long-term vision is the development of an interconnected ecosystem of Black Trans and GNC-led live-work communities across regions and generations. Inspired by the pathways of the Underground Railroad and the cultural networks of the Chitlin' Circuit, we are building an ecosystem where people, resources, creativity, and care can move freely between communities. We believe that the practices Black Trans and GNC people have cultivated for generations, the ability to consciously transform, adapt, and create ourselves beyond imposed limitations, hold vital lessons for collective liberation and human evolution.
URE exists because we believe that when we create ourselves, we create our belonging. When we create our belonging, we create our freedom. And when we create freedom together, entirely new worlds become possible.
