Our Journey

The Underground Rainbow Experiment (URE) was founded on June 19, 2021, in Baltimore, Maryland, by Djérae Lucas, a Black trans-masculine artist and cultural organizer. Initially launched as a creative production initiative, URE was envisioned as a space where QTBIPOC creators could learn, heal, and express themselves freely, outside the pressures of extraction, surveillance, and survival that so often shape artistic life.

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After years of working in arts administration, Djérae shifted into community organizing and began to notice two critical gaps: organizing spaces were often missing joy, creativity, and artistic innovation, while arts nonprofits were frequently disconnected from intentional community building and movement-driven mobilization. URE was born at the intersection of these realizations, designed to weave cultural production and organizing into a single ecosystem.

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In 2022, Djérae relocated to California to deepen their organizing practice and to access more consistent gender-affirming care. Soon after, they supported their sibling, Kaja, a Black trans-femme artist, in moving across the country. Despite the Bay Area’s political progressiveness, the process of trying to secure housing for Kaja exposed the layered realities of ableist and racist discrimination embedded in Bay Area shared housing systems, particularly for Black Trans creatives.

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Out of this experience, Djérae and Kaja reimagined URE not simply as an organization, but as a practical system of space, care, and opportunity; a network of environments where Black Trans creatives could learn, heal, and be, without having to fight for their right to exist. This moment marked the evolution of URE into its current vision: a solidarity-based infrastructure project dedicated to building sustainable futures for Black Trans and Gender Nonconforming artists nationwide.