“Dreaming Trans Futures: Creative Writing, Community, and Liberation” is a generative writing and reading workshop centering the radical potential of trans desires in the pursuit of collective liberation. Grounded in the understanding that our deepest longings for justice, healing, and joy are revolutionary acts of love, this program guides participants through a powerful process of visioning, skill-building, and creative expression to manifest the futures we deserve.
The workshop will be facilitated by members of Trans/gressive Writers’ Workshop, including Josephine Defaye, M. Lopes da Silva, Aiko Nakagawa, and Pravina Visakan.
The program will take place at One Gallery in West Hollywood on Sunday, October 13, 2024, from 1-3:30 p.m.
This program is suitable for all ages.
Participants
Josephine (Josie) Defaye (she/her) is a writer, educator, and founder of Trans/gressive Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Los Angeles with her human family and their two dogs, Duncan and Lady Macbeth. Find her work in Gulf Stream Magazine, Resurrection Magazine, and on Medium @josiedefaye.
M. Lopes da Silva (he/they/she) is a non-binary trans masc author, artist, poet, and critic from Los Angeles. He believes that the articulation of desire is political power. Weirdpunk Books just released his collection of heartbreaking and exquisite trans and queer horror stories, Infinity Mathing at the Shore and Other Disruptions, in March of 2024. You can find him on Instagram @authormlopesdasilva.
By day, Aiko Nakagawa (they/them) takes the form of a person in the nonprot world and a sensible human. By night, they take their preferred form of being an egg in the sky.
Pravina Visakan (she/her) is a computer programmer and aspirational poet/activist living in Los Angeles. When not crawling through bookstores and libraries, she is thinking about identities, technologies, and futures.
This workshop is organized by Trans/gressive Writers’ Workshop as part of Circa: Queer Histories Festival 2024, presented by One Institute.
One Gallery is an art gallery and cultural programming space operated by One Institute, the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the country. Located in the heart of West Hollywood, One Gallery is dedicated to hosting archival and contemporary art installations that showcase LGBTQ+ history. Through partnerships with established and emerging community partners, the gallery also serves as a low-cost, multi-purpose space for community meetings, creative workshops, classes, and other mission-aligned programming.
Trans/gressive Writers' Workshop (TWW) empowers transgender and gender nonconforming poets in Los Angeles through weekly workshops, public readings, and community collaborations. By fostering creativity, skill-sharing, and collective healing, TWW amplifies marginalized voices and harnesses the transformative power of poetry to challenge dominant narratives and manifest liberatory futures.