Pride Pixies Aims to Change the World Through Inclusivity

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Pride Pixies Aims to Change the World Through Inclusivity

BY JOEY AMATO QNOTES STAFF WRITER

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Taylor Diamond-Vizcaino is the Founder and CEO of True Dream Vision, a company that is introducing the world to Pride Pixies, a series of NFTs created to change the lives of others for the better through activism, support, inclusivity, acceptance and representation. The company wants to see people in the LGBTQ community succeed financially, emotionally, physically and culturally. A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a financial asset consisting of digital data and intellectual property stored on the blockchain such as video, photos, film and art. Recorded ownership of this asset is stored on the blockchain for the world to see.

“The enactment of the Florida ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’ appeared to be designed to marginalize, vilify and set back humans rights for the LGBTQ community,” states Diamond-Vizcaino. “I utilized the evolution of technology as a method for change, activism and social awareness. Society has already built foundations to fight this bill, but now through the power of blockchain, we can remove censorship through an immutable distributed ledger and support those that haven’t had the education and freedom to search for their identity without prejudice.”

Born in South Florida, DiamondVizcaino was the child of teen parents and raised by what she calls a village of independent youngsters. “Growing up in a Latin household to young parents instilled in me a sense of responsibility and independence. My upbringing allowed me to have room to grow and be creative, but still feel responsibility and a sense of duty.”

Nearly every member of her family was a teacher, artist, or entrepreneur. Throughout high school, she was taught leadership and perseverance through the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and was presented an award for her outstanding leadership within the district. After high school, Diamond-Vizcaino relocated to Orlando, where she studied medical and cultural anthropology and sociology at the University of Central Florida.

“During these years, I built a new support team with my co-workers while working as a lifeguard. Orlando granted me the opportunity to meet individuals from all over the world searching for their community while I searched for mine. With an anthropology degree and my knowledge of medicine, I began to turn my focus back onto society. At this time in my life, I was sure about my sexuality – as a bisexual woman. I started to educate myself more on the labels and conservative thoughts about marginalized people.”

Diamond-Vizcaino grew to embrace her creative side by selling custom prints, designs and apparel on online marketplaces. Not only was she filling her need to be creative, but she figured out a way to help the community. NFTs first hit her radar in early 2020 and her instant thought was to merge her creative passions with technology. “Since technology is rapidly evolving, I called upon my father (a long-term Cryptocurrency investor) to provide me insight into cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and the monetization of intellectual property. The ability for creators to monetize their own intellectual property from videos, photos art, music, film, memberships really had me thinking about how I can serve more of a humanitarian purpose in this world for good.”

She realized that creators, visionaries and people of all backgrounds now have the opportunity to utilize this technology as a humanitarian effort for social change. It was at that moment, Diamond-Vizcaino created Pride Pixies.

Pride Journey

NFTs allow their buyer to say they own the original copy of a digital file in the same way you might own the original copy of a piece of physical art. An NFT creates a chain of title and a certificate of authenticity that you couldn’t attain in today’s system. Among some benefits of owning an NFT, owners can obtain special rewards, or an authentic certificate of admission to an event, preventing counterfeit items.

“The industry’s biggest challenges are lack of inclusivity, the lack of education, and friction in the NFT and crypto markets. We are addressing these challenges by building an inclusive community, donating 5% of our profits to Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Ofrezco. org to support marginalized people and women in tech. We are developing the first animated non-binary series of NFT’s, the first non-binary play-to-earn video game, and building an NFT/DeFi platform with ease-of-access to enter the market as well as supplying tutorials and webinars to educate all.”

There has never been a time in a creator’s life when they could monetize their intellectual property for life in perpetuity. Creators now have the ability to program a smart contract built into the NFT that can pay royalties to the creator of the NFT for life as long as the NFT trades on the open market. “These royalties can be used to fund educational events, be used to donate to human rights activism, support women in tech, develop and build out more an animated series, film or video game.”

Pride Pixies NFT was originally set to Mint on June 1, 2022, but due to the recent volatile market conditions and inflation Diamond-Vizcaino decided internally to postpone our mint date to June 1, 2023, allowing for more time to promote Pride Pixies, increase their engagement for a larger community and to continue developing the items on their roadmap. Diamond-Vizcaino will only offer 10,557 Pride Pixies NFTs, so the limited-edition supply will surely be in-demand.

“Change is evolutionary and the impact we make is one that sets the path for the new visionaries of the world.”

For more information, visit www.pridepixies.com. : :

DeLesslin George-Warren Considers Himself a Pollinator Bee on the Catawba River

Queer Artist, Researcher and Organizer From Catawba Nation Weaves Past and Present to Sustain Community

BY SAM CARNES|QUEENS UNIVERSITY NEWS SERVICE

In an environment marked by disappearing lakes and rising wildfires, DeLesslin George-Warren believes the people of the Catawba Nation raise an existential question: How do you create a society that lasts 6,000 years?

“What we’re doing is reclaiming, revitalizing and reweaving our culture,” said DeLesslin George-Warren, a citizen of the Catawba Nation near Rock Hill. He is an organizer, educator and researcher of the tribe who call themselves the people of the river. The Catawba River flows through 26 counties in the Carolinas, provides drinking water for more than two million people and generates electricity for nearly three million residents, according to the Catawba Riverkeeper organization.

“Our ancestors survived here for at least 6,000 years, therefore, something had to work. You can’t survive 6,000 years on an unworkable system,” GeorgeWarren said in a recent interview.

He’ll turn 31 in late August and has served as a diplomatic polymath for at

least a decade, translating across diverse fields that include gender identity, art, music, food, language, technology and culture. In the last four years he’s led programs to strengthen the food sovereignty of the Catawba Nation and the development of an app to teach the Catawba language. George-Warren has used tours of presidential portraits in the National Portrait Gallery to teach Native American history, and once created an art installation in Washington with 15 pounds of red glitter.

“We’re in the middle of a crisis, particularly around climate,” GeorgeWarren said. His travel and study has shown him that social issues and climate issues are intertwined.

Where Do You Change the World?

George-Warren was born in Atlanta and spent a lot of time growing up on the reservation when his mother – who helped restore the federal status of the Catawba Nation – was serving as tribal administrator. He studied music and art at Vanderbilt University, graduated in 2014, and spent a couple of years in Washington before returning to the reservation.

“I really remembered why I left Rock Hill in the first place after I moved to D.C.,” he said. “I wanted to change the world, but realized that doesn’t happen in D.C.”

He now volunteers and consults at the Catawba Cultural Center, which protects, preserves, promotes and maintains the cultural heritage of the Catawba Nation. His aunt, Wenonah Haire, the center’s director, wrote recently in an email that George-Warren has been a part of tribal work “since he was a little tot.”

The Role of a Bee

George-Warren considers himself lucky to have grown up in the tribal community,

DeLesslin George-Warren. (Photo Credit: George-Warren)

where his grandfather was assistant chief for almost 30 years.

“What I think my role is, is more of a pollinator, like a bee,” he said, “showing up and helping to solve problems.”

His aunt wrote that their ancestors lived off the land, but knew they couldn’t live without the land. They continue to practice land stewardship, crop rotation, revitalizing culturally relevant plants and teaching gardening classes. Dance and pottery classes focus youth on environmental issues.

Clay From an Ancient Source

“Our pottery is dug from the very clay hole site our ancestors dug from, so conservation and stewardship is being taught to protect this site,” Haire wrote.

While George-Warren focuses on the Catawba community in South Carolina near the reservation, he said the rest of the Catawba population – around 3,500 citizens – is scattered around the world. “One of the biggest places to find

The Catawba River provides drinking water for more than 2 million people and generates electricity for nearly 3 million residents (Photo Credit: William Jugle)

Catawbas other than South Carolina is Utah,” he said. “Most of the tribe are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Preserving the River

Other programs of the cultural center include preserving plant life and original aspects of the Catawba River. The Yehasuri Trail on the reservation dates back to 1810 and leads to one of the river’s only two existing free-flowing sections. Along the trail, plant communities are untouched, including oak, hickory and pine trees. “We are looking at our past, we are looking at our present,” he said. “We are trying to weave them together into a culture that can hold us and sustain us for another 6,000 years.” Sam Carnes is a student in the James L. Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte, which provides the news service in support of local community news. Her summer work is supported by the James E. Rogers Research Program. ::