In our initial attempts at conceptualizing trans liberation and resilience, my collaborative partner Malachi Lily (they/them) and I were stymied by the fundamental truth that the birth of trans folks (and particularly Black trans folks) defies historicization or canonization because of global colonialism and white supremacy.
This legislation will take effect in the summer of 2020 Own safety will have their charcoal locs retwisted in Trans elders will be held in solitary confinement for their Smaller, borough-based facilities will slip into the risingĪtlantic, the ribs of our dead prepared to cage it
Trans day of remembrance 2021 series#
The Rikers Island compound will be replaced by a series of “we are the intervention” on the courthouse rubble Trafficking Intervention Court will spray paint the words Sex workers will have their cases diverted to Human Sex
The Board of Correction will convene a task force willīe tasked with something useful, like beekeeping, or collecting
New beds will be added to the transgender housing unitīeds of wildflowers will erupt from lots that were notĬounselors will be made available to all trans inmates we Non-binary, and intersex inmates will turn out its pockets,Īll officers with trans inmates in their custody will undergoĪ competency training will have their badge numbersĮtched off with diamond-tipped acrylics, aquamarine The New York City Council will pass a package of legislation,Įxpanding services for transgender, gender-nonconforming, What we landed on was doing hair, a site the captured the themes of Black intimacy, joy, and labor outside of capitalism, and which Glori envisioned as representing multiple generations of Black, trans, femme, and gender nonconforming bodies.Įven as Benji’s poem went through intense edits - ultimately landing as a revised version of the various bits of legislation ostensibly passed in Layleen’s name by the New York City Council-the image of Black trans elders having their hair braided/retwisted by chosen community members remained a central image of Black trans life beyond both interpersonal violence and prisons.įor Layleen Cubilette-Polanco Xtravaganza With these areas of interest in mind, we began our first collaborative discussion looking for shared imagery around which we could build our respective pieces. She hoped to imagine aging-while-trans not as an anomaly but a right, and to capture the tension between Black trans intimacy and public defiance. While Benji entered the project struck by and hoping to pay homage to the life of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco Xtravaganza - an Afro-Latina trans woman who died inside Rikers Island prison in June of 2019 - Glori was particularly interested in honoring Black, trans elders. Let’s dream and shape an irresistible future together.įor press inquiries, please contact ChaKiara Tucker at artists - one of us a painter, the other a poet - our visions for trans liberation were united by our desire to center Blackness, and the challenge to imagine tangibly what a world post-incarceration might look, feel, taste like. May this project, for and by trans people of color, help us see ourselves safe and cherished, rested and healed, fully alive. With art as our portal, we imagine and femifest the world we deserve. Our freedom dreams could set the whole world free. We refuse to forget or forfeit our power, even in the face of epidemic violence. Our rebellious mourning recommits us to the living. The day gives us space to grieve the siblings-overwhelmingly Black trans women and femmes-who were pushed out of this world too soon. November 20 marks Trans Day of Remembrance, an annual memorial for our murdered kin. Led by Forward Together, its current name and spirit emerged from a 2015 call from New Orleans trans justice organization BreakOUT! to celebrate the resilience of our trans family. Founded with the Audre Lorde Project in 2014, the Trans Day of Resilience art project is an annual love offering to trans people of color everywhere.
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