Exploring the power of trans writing
It was five days before the inauguration, on the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and there was a sense of hope in the Starline Social Club — even in the long line of people who would clearly never make it into the room. It was the debut event of Bay Area Writers Resist, a grassroots effort in solidarity with a national movement to use writing as an act of resistance against injustice, and people were eager to be galvanized.
Writers spanning genres and demographics shared their fears and anxieties as well as their resolve and insights on moving forward; BAWR invited the International Institute of the Bay Area, Southern Poverty Law Center and Transgender Law Center to set up tables and speak at the event, and encouraged everyone to learn about and assist their work.
“The outpouring of support — the people that showed up for that particular event, which was way more than we expected, was just tremendous and inspiring, so we decided we wanted to continue and do something further,” core organizer Shafer Mazow said by phone.
With a background in creative writing and fundraising, he’d been invited by a friend and colleague to help organize the fundraising component of that first event.
“Personally, it was a recommitment after the election, and particularly after the threats to rights for youth, in terms of restroom use in schools across the country,” Mazow said. Under his direction, BAWR collaborated with 100 Days Action on International Day of Transgender Visibility; they encouraged people to engage in a personal protest called “I.P. Freely” and though they offered some ideas of forms that might take, the point, he said, was “to give experiential understanding to people who don’t normally experience what it is to not be able to use a facility.
“So, for example, we did a sort of test case where I work where we changed staff bathrooms: one day if you had brown eyes you used one restroom; if you had blue eyes you used another; if you had green eyes, well, there are alternate restrooms downstairs.”
On Thursday, BAWR, Foglifter Press, Radar Productions, Queer Rebels and TAJA’s Coalition present a panel on trans writing as activism, which Mazow is moderating.
“We want to showcase expression around gender, and particularly at this time, but the hope for me,” he said, “is to have the panel illuminate for the audience and others how these types of expressions and activities are politically motivating, personally freeing, and advance movements toward social justice and taking care of vulnerable communities.
“So it’s not just in this time — this is a particularly bad time — but these types of activities have been used for a long time, and continue: There’s an awareness and an experiential element to all of this beyond what laws are or are not in place, that bring us to a common understanding of each other.”
For participating authors and more information, go to facebook.com/events/ 285746035206696.