seeing rainbows, seeing stars
i played my show.
maybe when i have a bit more free time i’ll share some clips.
i recorded the whole thing, but my head and chest were cut off.
it’s possible i’ve been doing too many things. i forget where i left this a few weeks ago, and i can’t be bothered to look back right now, but as of today, seeing rainbows, a new, 100% trans-led and operated arts organization here in the berkshires, is a week old. we went to the bank today — and that was a whole experience. i don’t want to say too much because it’s not really my story to tell, but let’s just say that the reasons for needing a 100% trans organization are more apparent every day. on our way out, a short, older white man with a white beard eyefucked me, and then nodded as if to say “yeah, maybe i could fuck a tranny,” before wandering off to his car. the two trans mascs with me fully saw this and were just as speechless as i was.
i it was to my back on that very spot two days earlier that another cis white man had felt bold enough to say to me “you look like you’d be a lot of fun.” to which i blandly responded, “sir, that is not something you say to someone in public.” which i feel could have been stronger. something like “i am a good time, just not one you’re ever going to get acting like a fool.”
but i’ve “buried the lede” as they say — yet i am not only against capitalism, i am bad at it. the very first official event will be the new salon: a seeing rainbows co-creation workshop experience. our hope is to continue offering all seeing rainbows events on a pay-what-you-can / no-one-turned-away-for-lack-of-funds honor system, in the hopes people will enjoy what we are doing enough to want to support this work.
we’re still collecting funds to launch the seeing rainbows website, hopefully later this week, and are about $100 from what we need to comfortably be able to pay for our own site hosting for the first year of our operation. our staff are full of ideas from art auctions to variety shows to zines, and we’re excited to see what kind of programs our community will most be interested in as we all grow this experiment together.
we’re seeking to build the smallest pocket of trans liberation, right here, right now — and through the growth of that tiny universe of warmth, to grow structures that will help support others as their full selves.
it’s exciting. it’s terrifying. it’s daunting. and even if we never see it, “it is not your obligation to complete the work, neither are you permitted to abandon it.”*
