Storytelling Project

FEATURED STORY

DAHLIA

"I think this idea that there is one way to be traditional or to pay homage to your indigenous roots is something that's irking me so much, especially as I uncover more and more about the queer histories of West Africa..."

We believe trans folks deserve more than just tolerance: they deserve to be celebrated and deeply known.

A history of trans narratives being intentionally erased, omitted, or dismissed has led to a strong oral tradition in our community, one that we pay homage to through intimate interviews.

We aim to take this legacy a step further by making these stories accessible in our public archives, so that trans stories are not only heard but preserved.

By publishing four unique profiles a year, we aim to leverage the power of storytelling to celebrate the beauty, complexity, bravery, and humanity of the trans experience.

In this way, our project honors storytelling as a transformative practice: one that honors our pasts and gives us new futures to fight for.

We believe trans folks deserve more than just tolerance: they deserve to be celebrated and deeply known.

Meet our
interviewers

Aristotle X
(they/them)

I have grown up surrounded by anti-trans violence at the intersection of race, class, and transness. These cannot be the only trans stories I pass on, share, and teach – it is the stories of survival and liberation I have learned from our community which sustain me.

My personal search for care, hope, and coalition is why I believe in trans storytelling. Storytelling is how I remember the joy amid the struggle.

I believe in trans storytelling because it is an ever-present reminder of the ways we have survived and the ways we continue the struggle for shared liberation.

I document these stories for every trans youth who needs to know that their transness is loved, celebrated, and cherished.

T.C. Long
(he/him)

“Art is a tool of empathy.” – Lorainne Wilson

Stories shape our realities and the ways that we perceive ourselves, but we also have the ability to create and shape our narratives: As the queer body is malleable through dress, form, and affect, so too are our ways of figuratively articulating ourselves in the world.

The very act of speaking ourselves into the world affirms that we inhabit it, both to observers and to ourselves. In this way, telling our stories can honor individuals while fostering new connections across communities: our world grows when we see others as ourselves, and hear them.

By examining trans folks’ lived experiences, my hope is to make the queer quotidian and the stranger neighborly, and to give ourselves permission to be messy—to be unpolished—to be nascent—in the telling. And to show that trans stories aren’t all one shape: they’re as varied as the people that live them: no two are alike.

Furthermore, I want to show trans readers that doors are not closed to you because you are trans—rather, they are opened to you because every trans journey is different, and you have a unique experience that only you can bring to the world: your story is essential.

Above all, a world where we are known is a world where we can flourish, as ourselves and for each other.

By cultivating hope, we build our futures.

In living, we write our own stories.

What's your story?

Do you have a story to tell? Know someone who does?
Reach out to us here to be in touch with our Storytelling Team!

What's your story?

Do you have a story to tell? Know someone who does?
Reach out to us here to be in touch with our Storytelling Team!

Share Your Story