I’m takin back my body. U dun played wit it, longgg, enuf. Yeah I see ya hemmin n hawwin. But I neva said you ass cud have it in na firs place now did I? You was weak. I was convenient. And nah hea we r. You was lookin fa powa, and you found it, in, dis, hea, flesh. I was yo science project, voodoo doll, And playground all in fuckin one. Yeah! Ya hid ya secrets in me! Even tricked me inta thinkin they was mines ta keep. I can’t go ten seconds witout yo lies searin thru my skin. Hmph! When did my body become yo ashtray? N why am I jus now feelin da fuckin burn? I’m takin back my body. Gon dust it off, take it to da cleanas, open do’s fa it, hol it close when we watchin scary pictures, sava tha kiss good night, n spin aroun’ like onna dem white bitches In ah old powda face movie. Happy! Happy cuz sumbody dun gaves huh sumn beautiful. You hea dat? Fo da firs’ time eva! I’m gon gi myself sumn beautiful. I’m gon gi myself? Me!
What About My Body
not anutha poem not anutha movie Zenobia corpse laid up in da French Quartas like a runned ova possum Milani head was ripped off huh body like a ole track left out on Christopha Street n I still, can’t sleep on my back where my national holiday? where my creation story? no tea! no shade! I get it, evry 5 seconds a black binary woman is beaten well evry 2.5 seconds, a “black” non-binary femme or person is beaten, then killed. I’m done advocatin I’m through, empathizin she ain’t no mo tiyad ah gettin huh ass whooped den me not anutha pamphlet not anutha intervention fuck tha dumb shit! quiet as it’s kept evry time I’ve eva been raped, there was a binary black woman eitha eggin na shit on, or joinin in onna got-dam fun why don’t my screams warrant da police? why don’t my psychosis warrant a savior? I wanna fuckin know! I wanna, fuckin, know! I said I wanna fuckin know! What about my body?
Reacquainted With Life
wade through rocks punch fist through earth reach for the moon as if it were a life preserver climb out one limb at a time spit out worms gnaw mold from fingertips wipe eyes of tears and dirt massage throat allow fatigue clinch torso awaken voice then find pride in where I lay wounded, but alive
KOKUMỌ is an African-American transgender woman and product of Chicago’s South Side. While growing up, the only messaging she received in regards to her identity was that it would lead to either death or institutionalization. Therefore, upon reaching the age of opportunity she was behooved to give herself a name that spoke of life. After an extensive search and emotional journey she discovered KOKUMỌ. KOKUMỌ means, “This one will not die” in Yoruba, a West African language.
Lady Shug, the 2016 Miss New Mexico Pride winner, and a prominent voice in the Navajo Nation’s LGBTQ community.
Sharnell Paul, a transgender teen, at her home with her horses in Dennehotso, Arizona. Paul, 19, was recently removed from the “Women of the Navajo” calendar after someone outed her to the publisher.
Buffalo Barbie at home with her dogs in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.
Lola De La Hoya at a friend’s where she often takes refuge from the criticism of her parents.
De La Hoya getting ready for a drag performance at Gay Prom, one of the few events of the year aimed at Navajo LGBTQ people.
Michelle Sherma and her grandmother live together. Her grandma helped Sherman’s parents understand traditional Navajo notions of gender and their daughter’s identity.
Yes! Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta is by a Nigerian author and set in Nigeria; For Sizakele is by Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene, who’s Nigerian; and the upcoming Kaleidoscope Song by Fox Benwell is set in South Africa. There’s also Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember, set in Fantasy Africa; I don’t think it’s tied to a real, specific country. If you’re open to anthologies, you might also like Queer Africa.
is “femme refers exclusively to lesbians” a white thing or no?
what tf am I missing
trying to write this quickly, if i can… my sense, fwiw, is that “fem” (i use joan nestle’s spelling, not the frenchified one) as a term is in a state of almost total incoherence right now, because there are at least three or four versions of it in circulation, all with quite different histories behind their different meanings and breaking down to some extent along racial lines. (1) starting in the early 1900s, ‘fem’ as a specifically working-class dyke gender position, common across racial lines, which is very distinct from the normative/passable femininity of middle-class lesbian circles. after being actively suppressed in the late 1960s-early 1980s heyday of an androgenous (read: soft butch) lesbian ideal, it reemerged in the 1980s-90s, and was adopted by a whole cohort of (largely but not entirely) white middle-class queer women (mostly either dyke/lesbian-identified or so actively not that they count anyway through denial) (many of them college students, who proceeded to theorize it), as well as coming back into visibility among working-class dykes who’d never actually abandoned it. (2) since the mid-1900s, but with roots back to the mid-1800s, ‘fem’/ ‘fem queen’ as a specific gender position and performance genre in the Ball House world, held by folks who in other connects might be called trans women, drag queens, or effeminate gay men, almost all of them black or latinx. there’s some big shifts in the visibility (and appropiation) of Ball culture going on this decade, which has brought this version into wider circulation. (3) since 2000ish, the desperate attempt by many ‘right-on’ cis folks to avoid calling trans women “women”, which has led to the widespread use of archaic/patronizing “ladies”, has also led them to grasp for other terms that more or less mean “women” but don’t actually say the word, including ‘fem’. (4) also since 2000ish, (mostly white) trans men looking for a way to signal various combinations of gender-nonconformity-as-men / “softer” masculinity / “not all men”-ness have used ‘fem’ as an identity term (rather than the more rooted “nelly”, because former queer women know less about gay male culture than they think). (5) and finally, over the last 5 or so years, more and more nonbinary folks moving away from the category of man have begun to use ‘fem’ to mark a simultaneous proximity to and separateness from the category of woman, or as an umbrella category for all non-men. i think this is more common among black & latinx folks, because of the Ball/House use of the word, but I’m not sure.
holy shit thank you 💕
I only knew like half of these things and not in so much depth, I really appreciate you taking the time to lay them out!
a lot of the time it can seem like all of the nonbinary people out there are teens/kids but older nonbinary people exist and it’s important that we recognize that being nonbinary is not just a kid thing that people grow out of!! nonbinary adults exist!
alder-knight 