After Michelle O’Brien’s workshop on the NYC Trans Oral History Project, OHMA student and librarian Kae Bara Kratcha wondered whether the material needs of all trans people will ever be met well enough that all trans people who want to could spend most of their time learning and teaching their histories. To explore this question, Kae wrote and recorded a poem and created a video to accompany the recording.
Video description: a video taken of the East River from Manhattan taken from a moving car is overlaid on a shot of docks and industrial machinery in the Erie Basin in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Occasionally cars, boats, and buildings move through the overlayed video, while the movement in the Erie Basin comes mostly from the water moving gently. Both videos are slowed down, and the overlay creates a dreamy, abstract mood.
the transgender archive as a science fiction poem
Kae Bara Kratcha
In 50 years we will wake up and we will walk into the transgender archive
And we will hold one story there
And the next day we will wake up and hold another
And the next day another
until we have held all of them
In 50 years every day will go like this:
take however long it takes to hold one story from the transgender archive
take however long it takes to process that story from the transgender archive
take however long it takes to talk through that story from the transgender archive
take however long it takes to learn from that story from the transgender archive
take however long it takes to pay respects to that story from the transgender archive
In 50 years we will wake up and we will walk into the transgender archive
And none of us will have jobs to get to
And none of us will have to worry about how we will eat
And none of us will have to think about where we will sleep that night
In 50 years every day will go like this:
take however long it takes to hold one story from the transgender archive (in the mornings we eat the bread we baked yesterday and drink hot coffee and cool clean water)
take however long it takes to process that story from the transgender archive (before lunch we take walks around the neighborhood and sit in plush warm chairs)
take however long it takes to talk through that story from the transgender archive (in the afternoons we make lunch together and eat at one long table)
take however long it takes to learn from that story from the transgender archive (if we want we take a nap or see a play)
take however long it takes to pay respects to that story from the transgender archive (in the evenings we invite our friends in and feed them and they take what they need)
In 50 years we will wake up and we will walk into the transgender archive
And all of our clothes will fit us just right
And all of our apartments will be beautiful and swaddled in light
And all of our stories will enter the archive while we dance in the hot night streets
In 50 years every day will go like this:
take however long it takes to hold one story from the transgender archive (in the mornings we eat the bread we baked yesterday and drink hot coffee and cool clean water; we grow food in our gardens and take it to our elders and our mothers and our cousins across the city)
take however long it takes to process that story from the transgender archive (before lunch we take walks around the neighborhood and sit in plush warm chairs; we make the world for our family under trees and in our rooms)
take however long it takes to talk through that story from the transgender archive (in the afternoons we make lunch together and eat at one long table; we take turns playing with our children while our mothers go to the spa or read a book)
take however long it takes to learn from that story from the transgender archive (if we want we take a nap or see a play; we send our children and our aunties and our elders to meetings and protests and teach-ins)
take however long it takes to pay respects to that story from the transgender archive (in the evenings we invite our friends in and feed them and they take what they need; we host parties in the transgender archive, we host salons in the transgender archive, we hold remembrances in the transgender archive)
In 50 years we will wake up and we will walk into the transgender archive, and we will have always been there. The archive will enter our bodies and we will be the archive everywhere we are, which is everywhere.
Today i have questions: why must the transgender archive wait fifty years? what happens to our bodies when we enter the transgender archive? when will a day be long enough to live every day in the transgender archive? what is a science fiction poem? and what do i need to do to live in the transgender archive today?
Kae Bara Kratcha is a nonbinary librarian and oral historian in Queens, NY. This poem was inspired by the NYC Trans Oral History Project.