Watch Part Two: Is There (Really) A Black Feminist Movement? On Diasporic Black Trans Politics

Flier featuring panelists from Part Two: Is There Really A Black Feminist Movement? (L-R): Renae Green, eli berry–st. john, D’andrea Gates-Riley, and Nala Toussaint.

On Thursday, August 29th at 6:30 PM EST, we hosted Part Two of “Is There Really A Black Feminist Movement?, a four-part online series that serves as a political provocation to discuss the convergences and divergences of Black feminist movements and politics. Part Two of the series focuses on Diasporic Black Trans Politics, Praxes, and Perspectives. Featured panelists included eli berry–st. john, d’andrea gates-riley, Renae Green, and Nala Simone Toussaint.

Part Two of the series – Diasporic Black Trans Politics, Praxes, and Perspectives – examines the power of global Black trans feminist knowledge, political, and cultural productions as central, critical, and integral to Black feminisms. From Xica Manicongo to Pauli Murray, to Alessandra Ramos to Sharon Davis and Rummie Quintero Verdú, to Marsha P. Johnson and Jazzie Collins, we know and understand that Black trans communities have always been at the vanguard of Black feminist movement building. Moreover, we know that Black trans organizers, educators, activists, and more have radicalized and transformed Black feminist politics, and ultimately, are foundational to historical, contemporary, and the futurity of Black feminisms, as theories, movements, embodiments, and practices.

However, if we (those who identify as radical and revolutionary Black feminists) know and understand the information above, then why do many of us still adhere to Black feminist theories and practices that advance bio-essentialism, racialized gender binaries, and anti-trans radical feminisms? On discourses on state, structural, and symbolic violence and knowledge and political productions, why, in 2024, are we still stuck in the phase of centering cis-heteronormativity and gender essentialism, which we know are oppressive and impediments to our liberation? How do we move beyond inclusion, integration, and performativity to political inherency, where Black trans feminisms are not seen as “addendums” but as central, foundational, and inherent to Black feminisms? These questions — and more — serve as the political provocations of this event and beyond.

Jaimee SwiftNews