A.S.T.R.A.L, S.T.A.R, and STONE: Supernovas Rising up for Trans* liberation

• In Event: Transfeminista: A Cartography of Transfeminist Praxis across the Americas

Abstract

In this work I theorize the stellar trans semantic and political connections between the movements sparked by A.S.T.R.A.L and S.T.A.R, whose acronyms respectively stand for the 90’s Brazilian organization “Associação de Travestis e Liberados” (Travestis and Liberated Association) and the 70’s New York organization “Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.” I discuss how that trans semantic connection also bring us to think of how the light of those movements have travelled across time and space in order to create spaces for communities and resist police brutality and other forms of state violence. I use the metaphor of supernova as transient movements that stay and constitute our bodies of work and assure the survival of our flesh as black trans people across the diaspora. Blackness becomes embodied transitioning, through time. In order to situate those experiences, I establish a dialogue among the voices of some of the leaders of those movements, namely Brazilian black travestis Jovanna Baby and Keila Simpson as well as Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major, black trans women who have resisted during the Stone Wall riots of '69 in New York.

Author

• Dora Silva Santana