[ View text transcript for this YouTube video about the Transgender Day of Visibility ]
shea martin is a lit teacher, scholar, and community curator raised at the intersection of gospel and go-go. Their scholarship and praxis explore the liberatory possibilities within queerness, transness, Blackness, and education in the past, present, and beyond. In their work, shea partners with teachers, community leaders, and (most importantly) young people to reimagine what reading and teaching literacy can look, feel, and sound like. A seasoned educator and audacious dreamer, shea is a co-founder of Love and LiteraTea and spearheads The Unicorn Express, two community initiatives focused on providing books, support, and affirming literacy experiences to LGBTQ+ youth. Currently, they spend most days drinking espresso, reading, and writing while working toward their doctoral degree in Adolescent, Post-Secondary, and Community Literacies at The Ohio State University.
Edited interview excerpt
Carlotta Penn – Hi, I’m Carlotta, Senior Director of Partnerships and Engagement for the Office of Equity, Diversity and Global Engagement in the College of Education and Human Ecology. Today, I’m speaking with shea martin in commemoration of International Day of Trans Visibility, a day of celebration and advocacy for Trans people around the world. To begin shea, can you tell me a little bit about yourself, including your academic program and research interests?
shea wesley martin (they/them) – Yeah, so I am shea wesley martin, my pronouns are they/them and I am a fat, queer, non-binary scholar, teacher activist, all of the things. I like to say that I was raised at the intersection of Gospel and go-go. I’m from outside of, or I’m from the DC Metro area right outside the nation’s capital and I am currently a first-year doctoral student in Teaching and Learning. In that program, I focus on adolescent, post-secondary and community literacies. A lot of my work and my scholarship really looks at the liberatory possibilities of queerness, of blackness, of transness, and what happens when they’re all together, and the magic that can ensue. I am also a consultant, and a writer and I really do a lot of work that seeks to partner with teachers, with administrators and students around the country, around the world. Thinking about how we can reimagine, receive pedagogy and learning in classrooms and outside of classrooms. So, I run a couple of initiatives that are national. One is Love and Litertea and that is an online book club for queer and trans youth in the U.S.; a really cool thing that I started with a friend of mine, Dr. Coby Miller in 2020. It’s running strong and we read amazing, YA books with students and talk about them twice a month. I also spearheaded an initiative called The Unicorn Express, which is actually a newer initiative that formed in response to all of the book banning around the country, and so, essentially LGBTQ+ youth can go on and request a book, and they will be matched with a personalized, and like a book that’s specially tailored to them, based on their interests and their background and it is sent to them free of charge. So, we have Librarians and teachers all around the country who are kind of the unicorns, who work behind the scenes, matching and paying for the books and then they get the books. It’s really cool. So, that’s me in a nutshell. My first year in Columbus and loving it. So, yeah, I’m excited to be here.
Carlotta Penn – Thank you. There was a lot in that bio that you just gave us, but I’ll just ask about one thing. Can you tell us more about your writing, because I’m a writer as well, so I’m interested in how you’re writing, you know is sort of is involved in all that you do?
shea wesley martin (they/them) – Yeah, so, I write mostly personal essay outside of academic stuff. I am an essayist, but I also like to dabble in young adult and middle grade writing. So, I’m working on a couple of projects right now that really center the black, kind of black, queer experience and thinking about it within a speculative fiction, kind of realm, where we are really just centering black, queer joy and youthfulness and pleasure, because I feel like there’s so many books out in the world right now where it’s a lot of trauma-heavy, and there’s so much more to blackness, to queerness, to transness than trauma. So, the products I like to work on are really kind of exploring that and yea, I just really enjoy writing. I see it as a way to express myself and growing up, I loved to read and kind of reading is where I found a refuge to be able to escape in books and just, I remember I would read at the kitchen table and Mom would be like, put that book away. I read before bed, I read on the bus, and so I just really enjoy reading and writing and that’s kind of reflected not only in what I do as a writer, but also in my work as a student at Ohio State.
Carlotta Penn – Thank you. I can really relate to that sense of urgency and need around joy and just the acknowledgement that the trauma, you know media, trauma filled media and books are really kind of popular, and so I appreciate your interest in writing away from that. And that brings us to our topic of today because I, in looking at the sort of the history of this day, I noted that one of the reasons it was started was as a day of celebration and not necessarily to commemorate some of the traumas around trans experiences, but to celebrate the lives and accomplishments and contributions. So, can you talk a little bit more, from your perspective, about what this day means for you and to you?
shea wesley martin (they/them) – Yeah, I think when I think about transness and trans visibility, it is for me so incredibly beautiful and freeing, and liberating because when we think about transness, it is in my eyes, this deviating from a norm that often felt as restrictive, or incomplete of who we are, as people, and so, the Trans Day of Visibility is this celebration of wholeness, of freedom, of people who are living boldly and defiantly in a society, in systems that are not designed for us, and so I think there is so much joy and encouragement that I get from seeing other people who identify as part of the trans community just living their lives and celebrating and loving themselves and loving others and being loved on. So, for me, you know, like you said before, there is so much trauma in the world, is so much grief and bias and bigotry that I feel like this day is really just about celebrating our existence, and our defined existence in a world that often refuses to acknowledge that.
Carlotta Penn – Yeah, and so you talked about sort of transness, and you mentioned wholeness and freedom and since you’re also so interested and passionate and committed to the black experience, I’m wondering, if can you talk about the intersections of transness, freedom and blackness and what might be unique about those experiences or those perspectives on trans visibility?
shea wesley martin (they/them) – Yeah, you know, I did an interview a couple of weeks ago with, a co-interview with a professor from the University of Oklahoma, Dr. (inaudible) Reed, and someone asked him what makes black trans and queer folks so special? His response was, our swag, our magic, just like the brilliance and excellence that exists, and I think in this society there’s a lot of heaviness that comes along with being black in the U.S. context, being black in a Western context and I think that there is equally a lot of heaviness that comes with being trans in this context and combine, like it is, it is quite the mountain to overcome to self-acceptance, to self-love. What I see really interesting, right, is in the black, trans experience, is a resilience, a power that I have only seen, and a lot of trans people of color who, they are you know, just a lineage of, musicality, a lineage of storytelling, a lineage of just a way in which we are able to connect and create webs of support, webs of chosen families. Being able to just celebrate and find those moments of celebration, and hold on to them tightly, and that is what helps us get through the day. So, I always say that some of the most holiest moments I’ve ever had as a person has been, have been at drag brunch on Sunday morning, which, is you know I grew up in the church and so quite just flipping the location but still feeling very sacred and very holy and very loving. So, yeah, I just think there, there are so many connections, I think the black experience is a trans one, I think the trans experience is black one, and don’t often think of them separate because of who I am and how they collide within me and with other people that I know who are black and trans.
Carlotta Penn – What are some meaningful ways that schools and universities can commemorate and celebrate the visibility of the trans community beyond just the acknowledgement or the Awareness Day?
shea wesley martin (they/them) – Yeah, I think, you know, I think that I’m always going to say, you know, funding projects that you know I think you know we work in higher education and money, money talks, and so funding projects where we are really unpacking and exploring gender and transness, right now there are so many bills that are around the county that are trying to make trans youthfulness be outlawed, or be hard to access care or, sport or books that kids need to read and want to read, and so I think a lot of it is doing the everyday work of learning about people who are existing in our own communities, who are the trans folks in your classrooms, who are the trans folks in your offices, in your neighborhood? How are you celebrating them every single day, and supporting them and speaking out and asking? How can I support an initiative or how can I show up in this space in a way that honors the existence of trans folks, and they’re organizing and also lends a voice and lends a helping hand as a cis-gender person? I think, also, a lot of people think that you know, all that’s needed is to celebrate, to acknowledge without doing some of the unlearning that is harmful, and in our day-to-day lives, and so I think a lot of what I’ve seen is that people are really trying with pronouns, and trying to understand different pronouns, but I think it would be helpful if people focus less on getting the pronouns right and more on unpacking the gender lessons that we’ve learned throughout our lives that make us think about the make us assigned certain pronouns a certain bodies and so, it’s one thing to get my pronouns right, it’s another thing to do the work and unlearning, unpacking those binaries that we’ve learned from a young age. So, those are some ways I think the best way that, you know, we can celebrate each other is by acknowledging and fighting for each other every single day and so it’s great to have a day to celebrate but I’m also really interested in what people do every single day, how they’re speaking out, what conversations they’re having with their family, with their friends when they are not trans folks in the room, when it’s not a special day for trans folks. When we’re a trans person, you know you don’t learn about a trans person dying, like every single day, like what are you doing? And I think those are some of the ways that people can show up every day.
Carlotta Penn – And so, to your point, is there anything more that you would like share, especially about maybe promising work or groups or activities that you’re seeing specific to EHE or OSU or the Columbus community, yeah, anything, any good work going on here, you talked about your national work but I’m wondering if you can share any ways that folks might have an avenue to learn more or get involved or raise their own awareness on this ongoing basis or, or become, and join and be a part of communities?
shea wesley martin (they/them) – Yeah, I think, you know, there are some just amazing scholars, who are doing great within EHE and also within the black Columbus queer and trans community. Every fall, there is, I believe it’s called Black, Queer Intersectional Pride, maybe, that’s in the fall. They have a planning committee that the BQIC Collective, I believe? They have planning meetings and learning groups and do such amazing work with mutual aid throughout the year in Columbus, and so I would really recommend tapping into them. Just seeing what they need, how you can support showing up in the fall for the Pride event and just, yeah, I think just doing your own learning and trying to figure out, what are the laws right now in Ohio? If you’re registered voter, calling, emailing, figuring out how you can tap in, especially if you are registered voter, if you are working in schools, how can you interrupt on a day-to-day basis and so those are the ways that I would suggest.
Carlotta Penn – Thank you and thank you shea, so much, for taking the time to talk to me and share with me, it was really nice to meet you and for all of those who are watching, thank you for taking the time to learn and share with us today.
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