2021 Trans Awareness Week Spotlight: Dane Figueroa Edidi

by Dane Figueroa Edidi, she/her

When I was asked to write a blog about Trans Awareness Week I assumed I knew what I wanted to write about, but for many hours I sat staring at a blank page. There were so many questions that came up for me, such as what is the role of rest this week for trans people? This year has been one of the deadliest for trans people and several state legislators have specifically made it their mission to introduce laws to attempt to stifle and harm trans people out of existence. Our community has been combatting not only the effects of COVID-19, but the systematic oppressions perpetuated by conservative Law Makers and celebrity terfs alike. Should this week center our right to rest from the wars we have been battling?  Is it not possible to have rest and reflection live in the same house? What does it mean for this week to be a week of community, and care rather than a week tailored to address the curiosities of cis people. 

Another question I grappled with was, when is our storytelling not actually in service to ourselves but a tool to feed a certain demographic of cis people’s desire to consume trans trauma porn? 

Trans people are not the violence that we endure. I do not believe hardship is necessary for enlightenment or birthing clarity. So often trans people are lured into cis spaces to tell our stories or speak but it is born of the guise of consuming trans stories without honoring the fullness of who trans people are. What does it mean to be in community with us beyond fulfilling a service to cis people. 

I think about the fact that trans people are not a monolith and are also multifaceted. We have full lives, lives that spark joy, lives that are steeped in love, and lives that strive to thrive in spite of the attacks on our person and our livelihoods. We are not only experts in survival but also in a plethora of other things, one of which is what it means to imagine oneself outside of the restrictive ideas about gender, sexuality and personhood perpetuated by oppressive systems. Our imagining ourselves into being is a clear indicator of what it means to resist white supremacy’s attempts to kill the imagination. While sometimes our stories are ones reflecting the reality of enduring, they are also stories of brilliance, and the manifesting of possibilities. What does it mean to have us on panels that have nothing to do with being trans, but honors our realities as experts on a many different topics? What does it mean to recognize we are people with a plethora of gifts.

Another question is, what does it mean to honor our history, history before Stonewall, and our history beyond colonization? Recently a comedy special, that shall not be named, made a grave error in pretending as if Black LGBTQIA people do not exist. This error is not only riddled with falsehoods but attempts an erasure of the many contributions that Black trans people have made to The Culture. When we are having conversations about liberation, civil rights, abolition and resistance, the fallacy of erasing the work of Black/ Indigenous/ Brown trans people is a manifestation of a white supremacist colonist agenda, that attempted to erase the presence of what we now call Trans people from many Indigenous cultures across the globe. 

We have several names of our cultural ancestors who were there at the forefronts, who were loved, honored, who cared for and were cared for by members of their communities. Names like Mary Jones, Frances Thompson, Jim McHarris, and Lucy Hicks Anderson.  We have the stories of elders who are still cultivating safe and affirming spaces for our community. And we have ourselves whose cultural work continue to celebrate our community while fighting against oppressive systems. Trans people have always been here. Trans people will continue to be here. And a world free of oppression is possible but not without Black Trans people. 

Trans Awareness Week ends with Trans Day of Remembrance. Typically, during a Day of Remembrance ceremony, the names of our fallen community members are read. The Last question I had was, will cis people care after the last name is read? When the day after Trans Day of Remembrance comes, while some cis people, find their tears are dried, the systems that have led to the death of our trans siblings begin their business again. And where are these cis led institutions that wept with us the night before? Where is their solidarity? Where is their rage that the lives of so many loving and brilliant trans people were cut down too soon? What does it look like to care for us every day of the year not just this week? 

As I grapple with my complicated feelings, what is certain for me, I am reminded of the great beauty of our community. Of the stories of our ancestors whose acts of resistance and love were not only about their own right to thrive but cultivating a world in which we can thrive too. I am reminded of the incredible ways that members of this community hold one another, love one another, and fight to make affirming spaces for each other. I smile, as I think of the great art that is being born within trans people; Art that centers our lives outside of the cis gaze. I am thinking of the fact that where trans people go, the sweet of life is known. I think about how when I imagine a world free of oppression, that we, trans people, have the blueprint for leading us there.  Trans people, if you can, do something sweet for yourselves this week, do something sweet. 

Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book.

She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays. Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound. She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.