Last week we celebrated two very complicated days: Transgender Day of Remembrance and Thanksgiving. Two days in which we remember violence done to human beings from the birth of nation to today. Over forty Transgender people have been murdered in the US alone this year, over three hundred and fifty globally.
I'm a graduate student at Boston University School of Theology, and I celebrated Transgiving. A day where Queer Survivors came together over Zoom to mourn and imbibe and find joy in the Queer Art of Survival as a Family. Can you imagine a day for Trans people to celebrate their Lives instead of their Losses? I did and it felt like heaven.
Have you thought of having a time for your underserved populations in your life where they can be themselves in community? If you haven't, I invite you to try this new practice, "Manicures with Marsha".
Marsha P. Johnson was an integral champion of Queer rights in America, a Black Trans Woman. This simple practice can be 15 minutes or it can be 5 hours, the timing is up to you and the participants. Sit together in person or virtually, call upon Mother Marsha to bless this space with Her fierceness and courage, and start painting your nails! You will find that stroke by stroke, as your color brightens that the Tea being Spilled will be HOT! When I am doing my nails, I am mighty, so it's easier for me to talk about my pains and woes. I may be crying, but I look damn good while I'm doing it, and afterwards I often find I have a new perspective or a spark of hope, and a bitchin' set of claws to carry me through the battle of the day.
"History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities."
"I may be crazy, but that don't make me wrong."
- Marsha P. Johnson
Slay the day!
jere
Comments (0)