Page 13 - Vo Vo | FIX MY HEAD #10: COMPLEXITY

sounds extreme to say that white feminism brings death upon people but it is true. we’ve seen it play out in the murder of Emit till, and many other modern day cases that flood our facebook feeds of white women trying to get away with some kind of crime and using black and brown bodies as a shield.
5. Similarly, what are the driving forces behind TERF-y behavior, and ways you have interrupted or averted it?
I think the driving force behind TERF behaviour is the need to be gatekeepers of liberation and the inability to see past one’s privilege. I’ve tried my best to call out that behaviour as soon as I witness it or speak out against it regularly. Also, when my hardcore band Novelas ever played a show I would make it intentional to say that the space in which we were about to play is a Trans/queer/femme centered space so that everyone knows and everything has been made clear.
6. Please share any other observations and analyses on your history/experience of being white-washed, invisibilized, tokenized, bio-essentialized, etc... (this question is so readers can get more of a snapshot of your Pisces brilliance)
I am a very femme presenting non-binary person in a world that does not want to share space with me and who I am.
I am very aware of this. Because I am so damn fabulous at being femme, I am constantly being misgendered, catcalled, talked down to, and invalidated on all fronts of organizing, music playing, poetry reading, etc. I have been told after a
set my band played that I was “So cute up there doing my thing” or commended for not sounding like some “ghetto ass black girl”. I have had white queers and people who dont know me speak to me in AAV(African American Venacular) so they could try to relate to me more.
At a certain point I got tired of being angry all the time, although sometimes I still do get angry, so I started using my queerness, my blackness, my femme-ness as a weapon and a tool to create the community I’ve always wanted and be my authentic black ass self without apology. I’m very fluid in the way I dress, always switchin up the look, always slayin’ the fuck out of life. I change my hair hella. Box braids, twists, straight, undercut, pink, wigs, long, short. All this to make sure that I could never fit into a box. Brows on fuckin fleek always. Celebrating my black skin. Making sure I carve out space for myself to do all the cool things I wanna do and never taking no for an answer. Life is too short to let the fuck shit prevent me from shining.
7. Any other comments on queerness, queering art/practice, etc and intersections with blackness?
Queerness and its community has given me the inspiration to shine. I look at all my queer community and friends I’ve made over the last 3 years and I am constantly speechless at the beauty of my people. It blows my mind that some of these cool ass people are my friends! WOW! You just never know what you can do unless you try. Even if its a little try. I make a lot of little tries into big victories every day. Sometimes its just getting out of bed and that’s okay.
8. This issue is themed on Organizing, Creativity and Complex Responses. Can you speak a little to complexity in relationship to identity, strength, struggle?
Its a struggle to come to terms with our identities, but when we do, we are able to see strength we thought we would never have. I’m always wondering what the fuck I’m doing with my life if I haven’t finished college and work a part time job at a teashop at 27. Then I remember that I do hella cool things like write poetry, film cool ass shows, I organize community gatherings around town,and play music with my friends that have moved people to tears. Like, wow I do all those things. I’m actually a lot cooler than I give myself credit.
9. Links, websites, reading recommendations, words of power?
Ive got Instagram: @obsidianbrat, and a cool youtube channel if you google Brat Collective.
I’m currently a huge fan of any poetry by Kiki Nicole and my favorite book of all time is In Search Of Our Mothers Gardens by Alice Walker.
Always drink tea, side eye at the ready.