Ariel Gore and Jessica Lawless
Following in the tradition of David Wojnarowicz, Audre Lorde, Leslie Feinberg, Dorothy Allison and so many more, we will look at memoir as a queer strategy of resistance against the violent systems designed to erase us. We think about writing and reading books as a radical act that creates intimate spaces of solidarity while fighting against the complicity required by the systems that profit from our suffering. We will read from our recent memories that weave together personal loss with structural critique—one examining queer love against the cancer industrial complex, one tracing a path through three decades of left activism and the connections between interpersonal violence and institutional oppression—we'll consider: How to fight supremacy while also trying to survive it; Writing as an historical record and vehicle for imagining a liberatory future; Grief and love as forms of resistance; Maintaining our humanity within dehumanizing systems; Interconnected creative practices (visual art, writing, culinary arts, music etc) as an anchor for surviving the end of empire. The session will be moderated include participatory discussion with time to write, draw, and color as a temporary affinity group.
Rowan Saoirse, Malkia Cyril and more Toshio Meronek
We live in a moment defined by the authoritarian politics of repression and extermination. Transgender lives are in the crosshairs of an emboldened far right agenda to remake society along rigid and violent lines of gender oppression.In this panel, trans radicals will discuss how we can navigate this historical moment, what kind of material struggles can facilitate our survival , and how we can build radical left wing social movements that put trans/gender liberation at their center, as the right puts our extermination at theirs.
Wilder Zeiser, Amari Owens, Delphine Brody, Dan Kabella
This panel will spotlight the campaign to remove the private prison operator GEO Group from 111 Taylor Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, site of the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, and to transform it into a community-owned space. Organizers from the Compton’s x Coalition will share how they’re confronting authoritarianism through zoning appeals, direct action, and just transition organizing rooted in trans, abolitionist, and decolonial frameworks. The conversation will explore how land use, privatized incarceration, and state violence intersect, and how targeted communities are building power to steward urban space for collective liberation.
Simon Knaphus
Simon Knaphus and Jess Gutfreund
Trans+ joy and reproductive choice are powerful forces of autonomy and freedom from authoritarianism. Join us for a conversation and visioning session about trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive family building and reproductive choice. This panel springs from the recent anthology Seahorses: Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender-Expansive Pregnancy, edited by Simon Knaphus with contributors including Jess Gutfreund. Cis allies and co-conspirators are welcome.
