Fat transqueer disabled dance is a guest post by Ming. Photos by Ming!
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The dance happened on the same day as a national political protest occurred, Hands Off. We at the Fat TransQueer Disabled Ecstatic Dance were creating and celebrating the world that the protesters were dreaming for. Here is now. Why not?
Before we danced, I visited the site of the local protest and saw a medic friend. I spontaneously delivered some bottled water to be supportive of the aid of protesters.
Such a crowd, and even counter demonstrators. Many known people to bump into.
list
Notable occurrences at the fat transqueer disabled ecstatic dance:
A dancer’s hematite ring fell off her finger and broke. Four parts were recovered. At Laura-Marie’s request, I washed the four pieces and put them on Laura-Marie’s altar.
Chalk art was created.
The weather was beautiful: sunny and lightly breezy.
Rainforest certified roses decorated the venue, as did Laura-Marie’s protest signs.
balance
I enjoyed it and the balance of energy in the space.
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Ok, back to Laura-Marie. Here are things we learned.
architecture and safety feelings
It can be confusing when a building has multiple entrances. The Lavender Network is in a former church which has a visually clear front entrance, while the back entrance is what’s near the parking lot and makes more sense for people who come by car, which is almost everyone. Architecture fail?
We need to let people in and help them find the courtyard, which means we need a door person at all times. That was hard for me to wrap my head around, how to help people use the entrance that’s counter-intuitive to use. Thus the flier sign with arrow. Of course not everyone knows where south is.
But the music will help people know where to go.
Also I learned that people hesitate to attend an event unless they know people who will be there and know the organization and venue. Having a website on the flier or some way people can learn more about the event and the org will help folks feel safe and ready to attend something unknown.
I need to make a website for the org and build reputation.
justice
It will help to frame the event around a need. I’ll explain the mentality of centering fat trans queer disabled bodies as valid and worthy of community and movement. Of course I’ve been thinking about how we get worth in this culture for 48 years. Power in culture and in communities is my obsession.
Other people are blessed to have other obsessions. So I need to spell it out: Centering fat transqueer disabled bodies is healing. We’re doing respect in motion, love in motion. Who gets what in our culture is whacked. We can build justice by being intentional about who we dance with.
It was exhausting to do it for the first time, but subsequent dances will be easier. We plan to do it again next month.
questions for discussion
- Are you a different person when you’re dancing?
- How do you like to build justice?
- Do you need breaks from language?
- If you’re disabled, how do you describe your disabilities?
- If you’re not disabled, do you have suspicions about what might eventually disabled you?
- Is there anything that almost disables you?
- Do you enjoy promoting events?
- Do you believe that all bodies are valid bodies?
- Is that knowledge theoretical in your head, or do you believe all bodies are valid bodies in your flesh?
stuck to
I want to write the poems, but not market them. I want to dance truth to power; I’ll tell the truth with my fat body as I move. But I don’t want to advertise necessarily.
It’s too bad the work is stuck together. Please let me know if you’d like to join us and take on a part that you enjoy.
