TRANS SURVIVORS PROJECT The Trans Survivors Project holds community-led spaces for trans people who have faced any kind of violence. We are based at LGBTQ Switchboard, Brighton’s oldest LGBTQ charity
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It doesn’t feel natural for this body to be folded into another. Taut lean control; spent too long needing to be my own to find this in others. It isn’t deviant behaviour to find the safety of my body in the curves of arm to body body to leg buttock to stomach to back of the thigh to knee.
anonymous
D - A.S.D
gratitude journaling - Simon
Hauwaerts
The difference between sleepiness and exhaustion is strange and wonderful. Today I am sleepy. I take in lungs full of air and let the oxygen travel through my body. My body, resting beneath warm sheets that look and smell nothing like a body bag. There’s no zipper except for the one at the nape of my neck. I zip it open and reach inside. My fingers come away wet. Not with blood. With ink. When I put my hand to
the page it swirls around. That’s new. It used to sink immediately. The whole page would turn black, along with every page beneath it. I’d close the book without writing the date. The ink would’ve erased it anyway. Now the ink forms neat numbers. A nice calendar square with no gaps in the sides. Beneath it, all the things I’m grateful for. The funny pigeon, the boring comedian who got an applause anyway, and the bus driver who waited ten seconds longer. My body bag-free body. My neck zips itself back up and the journal closes. My sheets are clean of ink stains and bloodstains. Theres only sleepiness, and then sleep.
-
H
-Vin
Corrupted Data Files on If I Qualify as Human
V i n Ta n n e r i s a w r i t e r, p o e t , a r t i s t , a n d communist with more projects than they should b e mu l t i t a s k i n g at o n c e. @ h o l o g ra mv i n o n t w i t t e r.
Image and words by Sarah-Kye. Punk. Queer. Genderchaotic.
Ashley Beachey @folktalesofashley on Insta. 'My work concerns a personal connection between queer identity, witchcraft and fairytales. I work using a variety of mediums such as ink, paint, sculpture and photography. Much of my work incorporates themes of nature, welsh heritage, gender and femininity.'
A flux of spirals, waves and glimmers, swirling relatively peacefully - anon
With thanks to the contributors Harry Lindsey Vin Tanner H ASD Simon Hauwaerts Sarah-Kye Ashley Beachey and several anonymous contributors. Thanks also to Celia Mae Jones, who designed the zine, and to Ro Leahy, who facilitated a workshop exploring zine culture and creative body-mapping.