Celebrate Transgender Day of Resilience with these stunning posters and poems
Since 2015, a group of artists has marked the solemn day known as Transgender Day of Remembrance, on Nov. 20, with vivid art and poetry meant to celebrate the strength and determination of trans people.
The separate project, known as Transgender Day of Resilience, is a "reimagining" of how to honor both transgender people who died violently and transgender people who lead happy, fulfilling lives, despite the often terrifying odds stacked against them.
At least 25 transgender people, many of them people of color, have been killed this year in cases that involved clear anti-trans bias or where their transgender status exposed them to increased risk, such as homelessness. At least 23 trans people died last year in similar circumstances, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
"It's important to continue to fight for the living and honor them in the ways I know how."
Organized by the grassroots nonprofit organization Forward Together, this year's Transgender Day of Resilience brought together five pairs of trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming visual artists and poets of color from across the United States.
The pairs created complementary visual art and poetry that explores themes of resilience and liberation. An audio track that accompanies each project features the poet reading their words.
"It's important to continue to fight for the living and honor them in the ways I know how," says poet kiki nicole, who wrote "litany in which you are still here." (Nicole styles their name using lowercase letters.)
Nicole, who uses the pronouns they, them, and their, drew inspiration for the poem from an afternoon spent in Oakland, California, where they felt safe to explore a new neighborhood.
"I was trying to channel a space in which I didn't feel heavy, and what that would look like to continue that feeling," nicole says. "I wanted to channel that feeling for other people who may be able to get that respite."
Nicole worked with the artist Amir Khadar, who created artwork with references to the star tarot card and the West African spiritual practice known as Yoruba. Both nicole and Khadar wanted to avoid cliches often used to depict black and trans people, like an emphasis on genitalia. Their goal was to instead focus on the "beauty and magic" of being black and transgender.
"In terms of what I want trans people to take away is that we have hope — a combined power that's not been measured yet, and we can do really beautiful things," says Khadar, who identifies as non-binary.
The project's other artwork and poems evoke the joy of sisterhood, the feeling of liberation, and the reverie of childlike play.
"It's important to recognize how much strength we all have," Khadar says. "It's so important to celebrate that."
To see all of five of this year's poems and posters, visit the Transgender Day of Resilience website.
Topics Activism LGBTQ Social Good Politics
Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes. Rebecca has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a masters degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
