A Letter of Welcome to Our Black Trans Kin
Yɛ nua,
Akwaaba.
Yɛ kyea wo.
Yɛ ma wo akunya.
Yɛ ma wo nsuo.
Yɛ ma wo adweane.
Yɛ gye wo wɔ asase yi so a ɛyɛ Liberation Medicine School.
Dear Kin,
Welcome.
We greet you.
We offer you a seat.
We offer you water.
We offer you food.
We receive you on this land that is Liberation Medicine School.
We are a growing kin-tribe of AfroTrans, AfroQueer, and AfroIntersex medicine-seekers and medicine-makers on a radical mission: to create a decolonial, indigenous-rooted, autonomous, and interdependent health/care ecosystem that is entirely dedicated to the healing needs of the diasporic Black Trans community. We are an underground grassroots movement that envisions a world where Black Trans people across all corners of the world - and by extension the entire Black community - are fully liberated; are thriving; and are free from the violence of carceral systems like the medical industrial complex.
Within and outside of the medical industrial complex, Black trans, queer, and intersex folks face the most violent assaults to our health. Despite being disproportionately impacted by health and healthcare disparities, we continue to be neglected by the larger society in justice movements.
We do this work because we believe that the systems and structures of power that be will never account for our needs, and will never give us the type of healthcare that we truly need to be free in our bodies. We do this work because we believe in the urgency of a world where Black Trans peoples no longer have to rely on the "death"-care system and on other systems of violence that harm our health. We do this work because we believe that as a community, we hold the knowledge and skills needed to heal and care for each other. We do this work because we believe in the possibility of a world where Black Trans peoples are harnessing our own indigenous powers as medicine-makers to self-determine our own paths to liberation.
To learn more about some of our work, we invite you to visit other areas of this virtual land.
If you are interested in learning more and or want to connect with us, kindly reach out to us at liberationmedicineschool@gmail.com.
Thank you for visiting us. We wish you rest, care, and nourishment.
--- The Black Trans|Gender Non-Conforming|Non-Binary leadership @ Liberation Medicine School
***Within LMS, we use Black Trans to denote all Black people who live beyond, between, and without the cis-gender binary; including Black Trans Mxn, Black Trans Womxn, Black Trans Non-Binary people, Black Gender Fluid individuals; Black Gender-Queer individuals, Black Two Spirit folks, Black Gender Non-Conforming peoples, and all the other names (known, unknown, and yet-to-be birthed) that Black folks give to our transcendent genders***