All year long, Atwood Journal invitations members of the music business to take part in a collection of essays reflecting on artwork, identification, tradition, inclusion, and extra.
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Right this moment, Matt O’Connor (of Fear Bead Information and the band Tuxis Big) gives a particular, intimate essay on magic, vulnerability, and the novel braveness of trans youth, to accompany the ‘True Names’ profit compilation for the Trans Youth Emergency Challenge!
Matt O’Connor runs Fear Bead Information, a family-run, community-oriented DIY label primarily based in Queens, NY, with their associate, Jenny Ruenes. A profit compilation to lift funds for the Trans Youth Emergency Challenge, ‘True Names’ brings artists like Keep in mind Sports activities, Squirrel Flower, 2nd Grade, and Pink Navel collectively.
“The title, ‘True Names,’ was impressed by Ursula Ok. Le Guin’s Earthsea collection,” O’Connor explains. “On this planet of Earthsea, True Names are sacred, holding unbelievable and transformative energy. To know your True Title is to know your self. And to share your True Title is an excessive act of vulnerability and braveness. States throughout the nation are focusing on trans youth by proscribing their entry to life-affirming care. With this comp, we’re elevating funds for the Trans Youth Emergency Challenge, which helps households of trans youth discover healthcare suppliers, journey to appointments, and pay for treatment. ‘True Names’ was an enormous crew effort. The songs – all unreleased b-sides, demos, and dwell cuts – had been collected from our music communities in Boston, New York, Philly and past. With this comp, we hope to do our half in supporting TYEP’s essential work.”
‘True Names’ is out Could 2nd through Fear Bead Information. O’Connor’s band, Tuxis Big, can also be releasing an album through Fear Bead this August.
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by Matt O’Connor
I’ve been on an enormous fantasy kick these days.
It’s taken me by way of Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, Kelly Hyperlink. Actual heady stuff. However, in all my studying, there’s one creator who stands above the remainder: Ursula Ok. Le Guin.
My first Le Guin was The Left Hand of Darkness, a sci-fi opus set in a world of genderfluid aliens. The primary character—a human envoy visiting this world—is confused for a lot of the guide. We’re, too. However Le Guin guides us with a delicate hand, asking we embrace our outsider standing and watch rigorously over the envoy’s shoulder. We be taught the folklore, really feel the political pressure, after which, ultimately, make some sense of all of it.
I learn The Left Hand of Darkness just a few years in the past, across the time I got here out as trans. The belief got here after years of confusion. It took love, work, and remedy to maneuver by way of the unknown and—like Le Guin’s envoy—lastly see issues clearly.
It’s arduous to overstate the menace our authorities poses to trans individuals proper now. America’s right-wing regime has us of their crosshairs in what quantities to a fascist cliché: Scapegoat scapegoat scapegoat. One of many president’s first government orders this time period rebukes the very idea of “gender ideology,” implementing a inflexible binary within the identify of “defending girls.” The transcript is so idiotic, it’d’ve been written by J.Ok. Rowling.
Jabs apart, I’m scared. So are my buddies. However as scared as I’m, I can’t think about how a trans child feels. As if loos and passports weren’t sufficient, state governments have begun stripping protections from trans individuals, rising their threat of hurt in an already-perilous world. And hospitals—even right here, in New York Metropolis— have ended gender-affirming take care of sufferers below 18. They’re going after our most susceptible.
That’s why my label, Fear Bead Information, is releasing the True Names charity comp, which is able to increase funds for the Trans Youth Emergency Challenge. The TYEP helps trans children entry healthcare, pay for treatment, and journey to appointments. So many buddies confirmed as much as donate a music, present paintings, and unfold the phrase. I can’t thank them sufficient. I hope you, pricey reader, determine to purchase the comp and help TYEP of their essential work.
Now, in case you’ll indulge me, I’d wish to let you know about Ursula Ok. Le Guin’s Earthsea collection. They’re the type of books I want I learn as a child: episodic fantasy tales the place the magic is delicate and the dragons are smart. There are not any bloody wars waged between good and evil. The battles fought are inside oneself.
True Names in Earthsea symbolize your core identification; the sacred place nobody else can contact. To know your True Title is to know your self. And to share your True Title is an act of radical vulnerability.
And braveness. Actual braveness. – Matt O’Connor
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:: buy True Names right here ::
:: be taught concerning the Trans Youth Emergency Challenge right here ::
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A Profit for Trans Youth
