Photo courtesy of alokvmenon.com

“I validate the idea that survival is the ultimate act of creation in a world that has reduced us to fascist arithmetic, of being a quantitative statistic, not a human soul. So we still found a way to care, love, and create - isn't that art? I teach people to decipher the art that they’re already doing, recognize the artistry and the everyday miracles of life around them, and create from that place.” This week we immerse ourselves in the aforementioned call to recognize the myriad of creations all around us from guest ALOK, who guides us in an ever-expansive dialogue around spiritual wellbeing, the importance of creative literacy, and the tremendous freedom that awaits us when we make gender unknowable. We begin our conversation by foregrounding the importance of moving out of the paradigm of understanding trans and queer as something that is exclusive to the body. Instead, ALOK shares how challenging the gender binary is not only in service to our collective wellbeing but is a reverential offering in acknowledging our true celestial expansiveness that has been dimmed under binarism, heteronormativity, and colonialism. ALOK is a gender non-conforming writer and performance artist. Their distinctive style and poetic challenge to the gender binary have been internationally renowned. As a mixed-media artist Alok uses poetry, prose, comedy, performance, fashion design, and portraiture to explore themes of gender, race, trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017) and Beyond the Gender Binary (2020).

by Peter Haldeman
Photo by Tony Luong for The New York Times

"These writers are embracing a more elastic literary form — the novel — and a number of recent works, often genre-bending as well as gender-bending, have won critical acclaim."

Featuring Andrea Lawlor (they/them), Jordy Rosenberg (he/him), Kai Cheng Thom (she/her), and Akwaeke Emezi (they/them).

by Casey Plett
Illustration by Sebastien Thibault

"Too often, trans characters are written as tortured heroes. We're more complex than that."

by Matthew Whitehouse
Photo by Adamah Jalloh

"Akwaeke Emezi’s extraordinary debut novel 'Freshwater' is the real life tale of a queer, trans, black, African, Nigerian writer as they attempt to navigate the occasionally odd sensation of being alive."

Head over to the Books, Plays, and More section of this digital exhibit to learn more about Freshwater, available in the library for check out.

by Morgan M. Page.
Photo by Zipeng Zhu.

"The best-selling author of Detransition, Baby talks about how friendship shaped her hit novel and the process of writing its upcoming television adaptation."

Get more information about Detransition, Baby in this exhibit's Books, Plays, & More section, or check it out at the library for yourself!

by Ryka Aoki
From: Publishers Weekly Vol. 262, Issue 21

"I am a born writer; I can't imagine doing anything else. Just as a trans pianist does not limit herself to trans composers, nor a trans doctor to trans patients, as a trans writer, I would rather not limit my stories, my imagination, and my craft. One of my writing professors had a favorite saying: "Writing is a public act." I take this lesson seriously, prescriptively. In a world where queer, and especially trans people are dehumanized, I think we need more public acts, not merely as demonstrations but as affirmations that our stories, as different as they might be, are exquisitely human."

Head over to the Books, Plays, and More section of this digital exhibit to learn more about He Mele A Hilo, available in the library for check out.

by Alexis Soloski
Photo by Ike Edeani for The New York Times

“'I would love to see more trans stories by trans people in every theater,' the playwright MJ Kaufman said. 'That’d be great.'
Kaufman, a transgender writer who foregoes honorifics like Mr. or Ms., just might get that chance. The playwright uttered that wish while sitting in an atrium across the street from Lincoln Center on a recent weekday morning, drinking coffee and noshing on a blueberry pastry. Also present for a discussion of gender and performance were Basil Kreimendahl and Jess Barbagallo, two other transgender playwrights."