{"id":7135,"date":"2013-03-31T19:58:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T23:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.qwoc.org\/?p=7135"},"modified":"2013-03-31T19:58:42","modified_gmt":"2013-03-31T23:58:42","slug":"queer-women-trans-people-of-color-sin-fronteras-borderlines-call-for-submissions-writing-art-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/?p=7135","title":{"rendered":"Call for Submissions (Writing, Art, Poetry): Queer Women and Trans People of Color Sin Fronteras (Without Borders)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In the Borderlands
\nyou are the battleground
\nwhere enemies are kin to each other;
\nyou are at home, a stranger,
\nthe border disputes have been settled
\nthe volley of shots have shattered the truce
\nyou are wounded, lost in action
\ndead, fighting back;<\/p>\n

To survive the Borderlands
\nyou must live sin fronteras
\nbe a crossroads.”<\/p>\n

— Gloria Anzaldua<\/p>\n

My Borderlands Story<\/h4>\n

One afternoon while waiting for my grandmother to pick me up at the BART station in Richmond, CA I was approach by a teenaged black girl. I was wearing headphones, and (I assumed) everyone knows what that means: “do not talk to me.” But she felt that her question was so pressing that she had to wave her arms to get my attention. I removed my ear buds with a quizzical look, preparing myself for the multitude of questions she may ask.<\/p>\n

“You’re black, huh?” Cue the combination of joy for actually being recognized as a part of the black community and horror at the fact that people really think it’s appropriate to ask that question to a complete stranger. She followed up with another doozy, “Why are you so light?” Honey, if I knew that I would have saved myself hours of wondering about my racial heritage and just as many tears. Of course, I didn’t actually say that…she was just some random kid at a bus stop!<\/p>\n

A few years later I decided to acknowledge my attraction to men AND women. It wasn’t new by any means but I just kept telling myself that my attraction to men was PROOF that I wasn’t a lesbian. \u00a0Although I knew bisexuality was an identity that many people embraced I wasn’t ready to add yet another identity I had to explain to my list of oppressed ones. It’s hard enough to navigate racial ambiguity, now I was “choosing” to navigate that in a sexuality identity too.<\/p>\n

Now armed with multiple fluid identities I find myself exhausted in conversations about race AND sexuality, the only one in the room with an experience that requires so much explaining. While it can be hard at times, I am finding comfort in my border identities, and I’m starting to take solace in those complex spaces<\/p>\n

Sound familiar?\u00a0Do you often hear some variation of the question, “so what are you anyway?” more than you thought humanly possible?\u00a0Are you constantly trying to carve out a place for yourself and your identities in spaces that acknowledge only certain fragments of who you are?<\/p>\n

Do you have more than one identity that is hard to fit into a check box? For instance,\u00a0Are you multiracial, pansexual, queer? A bisexual South Asian stud? A transgender Latina? An intersex Muslim parent? A genderqueer republican? A Two-Spirit marriage equality activist?<\/p>\n

Submit \u00a0Your Story “Queer Women and Trans People of Color\u00a0Sin Fronteras\u00a0<\/em>(Without Borders)”<\/h4>\n

We’re looking for submissions from queer women, trans people, and gender non-conforming people of color who inhabit multiple “in between spaces.” We’re offering you a space to talk about how you navigate “life in the gray,” and how the experiences of these multiple identities converge or share territory? (For inspiration, see this web comic about an inter-gender and inter-racial couple.)<\/p>\n

This call for submissions will culminate in a special editorial series to be released in June 2013. \u00a0We are open to *all kinds of submissions (including original visual art, poetry, music, and mixed media)*, but we’re particularly interested in personal narratives\/essays, creative non-fiction, social commentary submissions in the following categories:<\/p>\n