Introduction
Cuttings: Ceremonies of Trans Grief holds space for collective grieving in challenging times for queer and trans people.
Political, cultural, and physical manifestations of Transphobia are rife, and violence against trans people is at an all time high in the UK. Waiting lists for gender-identity services across the UK are exceptionally long, and current legislation makes it difficult to be legally recognised in one’s chosen gender.
The programme is hosted around Trans Day of Remembrance and World Aids Day in 2024 offers space for gathering with others, an invitation to build a living altar, a vigil at the TopSoil allotment, and performance night Grief is a Drag.
Take this care pack, ground yourself, share with a friend, or pass on to someone who needs it.
We hope this programme and this care pack can go some way to holding our grief, extending care to each other and ourselves.
Self care
Some of the topics covered may be emotionally distressing. Looking after yourself is a first priority.
• Reach out – If you are struggling reach out to a friend, family member, or see ‘Additional Resources’ for contact info for confidential and anonymous support 24/7.
• Ground yourself – If you are able to, place your feet on the floor to help ground you. Take deep, slow breaths in through your nose for four counts, hold for four, then release your breath slowly out of your mouth. Repeat this exercise a few times.
• Take care of yourself – Drink a glass of water. If you are able to, take a walk outside in nature. Take five minutes for yourself.
• When we panic it can be easy to spiral. A simple exercise to follow is tune in to your five senses: Notice 5 things you can see around you / 4 things you can touch / 3 things you can hear / 2 things you can smell / 1 thing you can taste
• Finally, you are the expert on you! If something isn’t right for you, you are always able to walk away. Put yourself first, and do what’s right for you.
Reading List
The reading list and online resources are brought together from our Reading Room library and recommendations by Conal McStravick, Leo Hargreaves, Holly Argent and Kaan K.
☆ Available in the Reading Room ✦ Available at NewBridge Books
ADAM ZMITH, Deep Sniff (Repeater Books) ☆
BANU SUBRAMANIAM, Botany of Empire ☆
BUG SHEPHERD-BARRON, Through the Vitriol: Exploring Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Representation in Western Cinema (Page Masters Press) ✦
CARRION PRESS, Queer Responses to Dante’s Inferno ✦
CARRION PRESS, Queer Responses to Dante’s Paradiso ✦
DAN GLASS, Queer Footprints (Pluto Press) ☆
DANEZ SMITH, Homie ☆
DEREK JARMAN, Through the Billboard Promised Land without ever Stopping ✦
DEREK JARMAN, Blue (David Zwirner Books) ☆
DVIJKA COLLECTED (Eds and Translation), Queer Ukraine: An anthology of LGBTQI+ Voices during Wartime ✦
ERICA CARTER AND SIMON WATNEY (Eds), Taking Liberties: AIDS and Cultural Politics (Serpents Tail and in association with the ICA) ☆
HARRY JOSEPHINE GILES, THEM ☆
JASON ALLEN-PAISANT, Thinking With Trees ☆
JOSHUA BUETUM, If These Sheets Could Talk ✦
JULES JOANNE GLEESON AND ELLE O’ROURKE (Eds), Transgender Marxism (Pluto Press) ☆
JULIET JACQUES, Variations (Influx Press) ☆
KAAN K, If I Were Erol ✦
KATE BORNSTEIN, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives for Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws (Seven Stories Press) ☆
K WALKER, If I Close My Eyes Long Enough I Can Be Something Else ✦
KERRI NÍ DOCHARTAIGH, Thin Places ☆
LEAH HICKEY, Grief (in few forms)
LONDA SCHIEBINGER, Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science
MCKENZIE WARK, Life Story ✦
MARTIN P. LEVINE, Gay Macho: The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone (New York University Press) ☆
MARY OLIVER, Wild Geese ☆
M.E. O’BRIEN, Family Abolition (Pluto Press) ☆
MJS, Remix, Re-wind, Re Queer - Hail to the Zine Baby ✦
NEIL BARTLETT, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde (Serpents Tail) ☆
NAT RAHA & MIJKE VAN DER DRIFT, Trans Femme Futures (Pluto Press) ☆
NAT RAHA, Of Sirens, Body and Faultlines ✦
NATHAN A S ARMSTRONG & ELLIOT
JAMES FRASER GALLUS, New Queer Writing ✦
OLIVER BAEZ BENDORF, Poetry oliverbaezbendorf.com
PAUL BAKER, Outrageous!: The Story of Section 28, And Britain’s Battle for LGBT Education (Reaktion Books) ☆
PAUL THEK, Responses to Untitled (Eye with Comet) (c. 1985) (Pilot Press)
PILOT PRESS, A Queer Anthology of Wilderness ✦
REBECCA JANE MORGAN, Gender Heretics (Pluto Press) ☆
ROBIN WALL KIMMERER, Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss ☆
ROBERT GLÜCK, About Ed (NYRB) ☆
ROGER HALLAS, Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness, and the Queer Moving Image (DUKE) ☆
SAM MOORE, All my Teachers died of AIDS ✦
SHON FAYE, The Transgender Issue (Penguin) ☆
SIMON GARFIELD, The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS (Faber) ☆
STUART LINDEN RHODES, Out & About with Linden: A Queer Archive of the North (Pariah Press) ☆
Trans Muted Zine editions 005, 006, 007, 008 ✦
VERITY SPOTT, Prayers Manifestos Bravery ✦
VISUAL AIDS, Duets: Kia LaBeija & Julie Tolentino in Conversation ✦
Online (recommended by Leo Hargreaves) queernature.org
queerbotany.com queerecology.org queerherbalism.blogspot.com
Gay Plants (Online Zine) scribd.com/ document/371543938/Gay-Plants-OneMonsters
Fungi Futures by Maymana Arefin https://maymanaarefin.com/
Re-imagining Reproduction: The Queer Possibilities of Plants by Band Subramaniam researchgate.net/ publication/369879743_Reimagining_Reproduction_The_Queer_P ossibilities_of_Plants
Additional Resources
The following organisations and services provide information and support for the topics explored in Cuttings: Ceremonies of Trans grief.
AKT support LGBTQ+ youth with homelessness akt.org.uk
Action 4 Trans Health Durham - Trans healthcare and social group a4thdurham.wordpress.com/
Be:Trans support (North) - A weekly Trans support group in Newcastle benorth.org.uk/
BookWyrm - A Trans-owned bookshop in Durham bookwyrm.co.uk/
Cloud 9 - A weekly trans support group in Middlesbrough transunite.co.uk/ group/cloud-9/
Crisis - support people experiencing homelessness crisis.org.uk/
ESA.NE - Trans friendly East and Southeast Asians queer network (North East) esanortheast.wordpress.com/ about-east-southeast-asians-north-east/
Gendered Intelligence works to increase understandings of gender diversity genderintelligence.co.uk
Mermaids support trans, non-binary and gender-diverse children, young people mermaids.org.uk
Mindline Trans - Trans specific helpline 0300 330 5468 (Friday evenings)
Northern LGBT+ Social GroupTrans-inclusive social group
Pink Therapy - Bereavement counselling/therapy for the LGBTQ+
Community pinktherapy.com/
PLUS group - Trans friendly LGBTQ+ group for anyone 13 to 19 meet in Gateshead
Pride Action North - Trans-friendly LGBTQIA+ charity providing one-to-one support and other services prideactionnorth.org.uk/
ReCoCo Recovery college collective - A peer-led mental health charity in Newcastle recoverycoco.com/
Rainbow Home - North East service for displaced LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and refugees rainbowhome.org.uk/
Samaritans offers confidential support over the pone, face to face or onto to anyone who is feeling any type of distress or despair samaritans.org
Sister Shack - Trans friendly Black and Queer-led Activist and intersectional
Feminist CIC sister-shack.com/
Switchboard LGBT+ helpline - 0800 0119 100 (10am - 10pm 7 days a week)
TransActual work to improve Trans healthcare and legal protection transactual.org.uk/
Trans Healthcare Coalition consortium.lgbt/trans-healthcarecoalition/ Terrence Higgins Trust support people living with HIV the.org.uk
This care pack was produced for the public programme ‘Cuttings - Ceremonies of Trans Grief’ at The NewBridge Project in Newcastle upon Tyne, November to December 2024.
The NewBridge Project is an artist-led space with studios, gallery and bookshop. It hosts a programme of exhibitions and events including TopSoil, a queer gardening club, Reading Room, a resource of thought provoking books and zines, Create Disrupt, a development programme for people who have not been to university and For Solidarity, a project sharing learnings about solidarity economies.
Thanks to Conal McStravick, DGA Collective, Leo Hargreaves, LUX London, Neil Bartlett, Northumbria University, Reading Room, Topsoil, The Wardrobe, Visual Aids, Zach McDade, The NewBridge Project team, Frances Stacey and Programme Committee: Holly Argent, Ellie Armon Azoulay, Dan Goodman, Kaan K, Shelly Knotts, Seymour Mace.
Printed by Overlay Press
