Announcing the Black Trans Thought and Histories Series
Collage of Black trans artists, creatives, organizers, and organizers. Left to right: C. Riley Snorton, Jackie Shane, Marsha P. Johnson, Pauli Murray, Lady Chablis, Lucy Hicks Anderson, Erica Malunguinho, Renae Green, Alejandra Monocuco, Desi Hall, Jazzie Collins, Miss-Major Griffin-Gracy, Monica Roberts, Sir Lady Java, and Elise Malary. Collage by Doriana Diaz.
By Naomi Simmons-Thorne and emerald faith
The Black Trans Thought & Histories Series is an invitation into the worldmakings of African diasporic peoples and communities of trans*, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming experiences.
Curated by Naomi Simmons-Thorne and emerald faith, Black Women Radicals’ latest series, Black Trans Thought & Histories, is an invitation into the worldmakings of African Diasporic peoples and communities of trans*, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming experiences.
About the Series
Aware that no single English word could possibly encapsulate the spiritual, ethnic, linguistic, transnational, and historical richness curated here, we employ trans* as an ideograph, denoting in place of identity, a range of discourses and experiences made meaningful through complex matrices of modernities, exchanges, diffusions, trades, migrations, empire makings, and of course, contacts with the western worlds. In our struggles against stigma, persecution, discrimination, prejudice and violence, Black transgender advocates, like journalist Imara Jones, are often compelled to remind our spectators that “Trans people are not new” and how “We have always been here.”
With this series, we seek to deconstruct the histories and historiographies which continue to subjugate black trans experiences; those which compel us to repeatedly issue the kinds of reminders which deplete us of intellectual freedom and separate us from our wider pleasures. Drawing on wisdoms from around the Black diaspora, we envision living alternatives to the representation of our Black trans* subjectivities, advancing under the presumption that the intellectual and the material are neither separate nor autonomous, but interlocked.
We query who and what is enriched when Black trans* people are regarded as ‘new’? We ask what violence does the construct of ‘new’ perform? We reflect on who and what we marginalize when we claim ourselves historical? Postcolonial historian Dipesh Chakrabarty defines historicism as the pernicious “idea that to understand anything,” things must “be seen … in [their] historical development.” When violently dispossessed of our indigenous means of storytelling, historicism has often sanctioned colonial peoples as unthinking and nonhistorical when powerless to tell the stories strategically erased by colonialism itself. Thus, weighing historicism’s paradox—strategically claiming historicity/reinforcing historicity as a yardstick of world commonweal—we tell these stories guided by Black trans scholar Dr. C. Riley Snorton who defines Black transness: “a movement with no clear origin and no point of arrival.”
Though not uncritically, we do tell these stories as the intellectual and the material exact distinct and complicated demands. In doing so, we wish to represent ourselves commonly thinking and commonly historical. This gesture runs contrary not only to the colonial historicist worldview, but sadly, oftentimes to the Black feminist, Black queer, and Black radical traditions alike which, at key moments, have failed to steward our stories and query the assumptions of our exclusion. Therefore, to the extent to which our collective efforts might stand to enrich the self-esteems, community makings, and political/cultural struggles of Black trans* peoples diaspora wide, we humbly share this living, though imperfect, offering.
About the Curators
Naomi Simmons-Thorne
Naomi Simmons-Thorne (She/Her) is a graduate student and educator. She is currently at the University of South Carolina where she studies teacher instruction, qualitative research, foundations and philosophy of education. Naomi has served as a Fellow at the Department of Education-funded North Carolina Central University Research Institute For Scholars of Equity as well as the Center For Minority Serving Institutions at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
She was recently awarded the distinction of becoming the inaugural recipient of the Cheryl A. Wall Prize in Black Women Studies. Between her studies, Naomi is working toward the completion of her first book, The Ontological Problem: Black Racial Ontology and the Politics of Sexual Difference.
emerald faith
emerald faith (she/they) is an English PhD candidate and Advanced Opportunity Fellow at The University of Wisconsin-Madison where she also received her master’s degrees in English and Afro-American studies. Their research interests include 20th century African American literature, Black queer literatures, Black queer theory, and Black feminisms. Most recently they were a Freedom Summer Collegiate professor where they co-taught a course on Black queer southern literatures.
Photo Credit: Bria Brown
Series Content
On Art, Actualization, and Affirmation: An Interview with Mercy Thokozane Minah
Collage of Mercy Thokozane Minah by Doriana Diaz.
Mercy Thokozane Minah’s art is an ongoing project of self and communal actualization and affirmation — a rendering of the dynamic, complex, and beautiful lives that Black queer and trans folks live. To kick off the Black Trans Thought and Histories series, Naomi Simmons-Thorne and emerald faith interviewed Mercy in March 2022 to speak about their journey as a maker. Read more.
Upcoming Event: An Evening with Vincent Martell, Director of FINESSE and Founder of VAM STUDIO
Promotional flyer for Black Women Radical’s upcoming Zoom conversation with filmmaker and writer, Vincent Martell. Photo Credit: KVNTY.
On Thursday, September 8th, 2022 at 6:30 PM EST via Zoom, we hosted a Zoom conversation with Vincent Martell, director and writer of FINESSE and founder of VAM STUDIO! We will discuss their journey into filmmaking; the personal and political impetus behind FINESSE; their award-winning collective and company, VAM STUDIO; and more.
You can watch the conversation here.