Bio: Isaiah Lawrence (he/him/his) is a community health worker who specializes in trans health navigation and community outreach. He is passionate about uplifting the intersections of Black and trans lived experiences. He works directly with trans youth from Maryland, providing their families with resources and connections to community and gender affirming care. He facilitates several trans peer support groups for Marylanders, youth, and Black trans-masculine folks. In his personal time, Isaiah enjoys exploring Maryland’s various state parks, especially those by water; and he has recently become an avid vinyl collector. His current favorites are The Crusaders, Johnny Mathis, and Yussef Dayes. Isaiah resides in Baltimore City with his sassy black cat, Lavender, and his photographer girlfriend, Octavia.

Why I submitted to the cookbook: Cooking became a large part of Isaiah’s life when he stopped eating meat in 2007. He cooked some food from recipes, but he did most of his cooking through eyeballing and tasting. Almost all of the recipes he did use were written by women and femmes. He is honored to be part of a cookbook that is exclusively produced by masculine folks of trans and nonbinary experience. Of the plant-based cookbooks he owns, very few of them have comfort food recipes, so he is excited to share his own vegan comfort foods. He hopes that his recipes will give both vegans and non-vegans the opportunity to cook and enjoy quality vegan comfort food at home.