Welcome to Made for Flight

Made for Flight is a Transgender youth and ally empowerment project created by TC Tolbert and run in conjunction with Casa Libre en la Solana. Made for Flight receives gracious funding from the Kresge Arts in Tucson grant via Tucson Pima Arts Council and the Alliance Fund's Queer Youth Initiative grant. Thank you both!

This workshop series incorporates transgender history, ally development, creative writing, and kite building to commemorate the lives of the transgender individuals who have been murdered in the last year.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Where you can see us fly

We will be walking in the All Souls' Procession and carrying the kites on Sunday, Nov 7.  If you would like to walk with us and/or carry a kite, please meet in the Casa Libre parking lot (228 North 4th Ave) by 4:30pm. 

The kites will be displayed on the UA mall on Monday, Nov 15 from 11-1pm.  Please join us there for the kickoff event for Transgender Awareness Week.  There will be a poetry reading, speakout, and celebration.

The kites will be displayed in the windows of Voices from Nov. 16-19.  Voices is located at 48 E. Pennington in downtown Tucson.

We will display the kites and march with them in the Transgender Day of Remembrance final event on Saturday, Nov 20 at 5:30pm in Catalina Park.  900 N 4th Ave.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Hope and context

First off, thank you for taking the time to look over this blog and be an ally to transfolks and this project.  Just your interest and time give me hope that the violence against trans and genderqueer people (to only mention a few of the many oppressed groups we stand with in solidarity) will one day end. 

As I sat at the 2009 Transgender Day of Remembrance and listened as over 100 names were read, I looked around and saw transpeople and our fiercest allies re-traumatized.  It became clear to me that "tolerance" was not working.  And besides, who wants to just be "tolerated" anyway?  Transgender and genderqueer people deserve to be supported, celebrated, and valued. 

It is my hope that Made for Flight will encourage those of us with privilege (and there are many kinds of privilege in this world - white, straight, passing, male, the list goes on) to use that privilege to speak out, call out, and act out against transphobia and other forms of oppression.  We cannot talk about transphobia and ignore the fact that the majority of those we commemorate on Transgender Day of Remembrance are transwomen of color.  Racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia are inherently inter-related and we must work in solidarity with one another to overcome them all.

I created Made for Flight with the goals of building awareness, community, and a sense of the power and history of transgender people despite the many forms of violence and oppression we experience.  I wanted to focus on our resiliency, our ability to transform and transcend.  I hope that you will join us in this endeavor. 

From The Bone People by Keri Hulm:

They were nothing more than people by themselves.
Even paired, any pairing, they were nothing more than people by themselves.
But in a group, they formed the heart and muscle and mind of something
perilous and new.  Something strange and growing and great.
Together, all together, they are the instruments of change.

Upcoming Workshops

We will be holding a workshop at Voices, Inc on Thursday, Oct 7 from 4-6pm.

We will hold a workshop at UA Pride Alliance on Friday, Oct 15 from 3-5pm in the classroom in the Center For Student Involvement and Leadership. It's on the fourth floor of the student union.   We will also hold a workshop on Wednesday, Oct 27 from 5-7pm at UA, specific location TBD.

If you are interested in attending one of these workshops or if you would like to host a workshop at your school or community group, please contact me at tigercakes74(at)yahoo(dot)com.

What we do

Made for Flight creates a space specifically for youth voice during the preparation for, and the implementation of, Tucson’s Tenth Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20, 2010), culminating with a public display of hand-made kites that celebrate the lives of murdered Transgender individuals and a youth literary reading at UA.

Workshops are ongoing and open to trans and allied youth. During each workshop we learn a bit of transgender history, share personal stories, learn about our transgender sisters and brothers who have been murdered in the previous year, and build kites to commemorate their lives.