Sideshow Skin

SIDESHOW SKIN is my forth-coming poetry chapbook.

Part poetry, part memoir, my aim with Sideshow Skin is to shed light on the experiences of trans women in a world that constantly questions our existence, and the validity of that existence - a world where trans women are made to feel like spectacles or oddities on display for cisnormative audiences. Using familiar sideshow imagery, tropes, and personalities, Sideshow Skin explore a funhouse of flesh: the shifting space between artifice and authenticity, the limelight of hyper-visibility, the deeply-personal performances of both gender and identity, the artistry of self-creation and reinvention.

I have always been fascinated by the way freakshows meld the glamorous and the grotesque, grittiness and grandeur. I first saw the classic 1932 film “FREAKS” as a child and felt a strong connection to the performers, outcast from “normal” society because of their appearances - miraculous anatomies, curious physiognomies, indeterminate genders. This affinity for the abnormal has followed me ever since; I felt a kinship with the titular “freaks” - not only because I had been called the same for my gender expression, but because they exhibited a regal, commendable dignity in the truly ugly face of their treatment by society.

When trans people began transitioning, we are constantly met with questions that range from the innocently inquisitive to the entirely invasive as we struggle to navigate our changing bodies and positions in society. I began to draw parallels between my own experiences as a hyper-visibile trans woman and those of the exhibited “freaks of nature.”

In highlighting our shared “otherness” and “freakery,” I hope to reveal our similarities as human beings, deserving of dignity, respect, and admiration.