About Toi
As a brown genderqueer who is often marginalized in many movements, Toi is dedicated to providing their intersectional perspective in various media sources and outlets, while also working on the ground in their communities towards liberation. Toi's work seeks to acknowledge and illuminate the injustice black, brown, queer, trans and gender non-conforming and non-binary, women, disabled, and other marginalized people face. This work not only validates and affirms the reality of their experiences which are so often negated, but also provides resources, dialog, and a call to action to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism by helping communities to see their present and historical power and also helping to strengthen their collective power. Over the years, Toi has facilitated spaces for dialog about racism and internalized oppression, and skillshares where participants can step into their power and see Truth, history, and their value. Toi's current workshops and skillshares address power, privilege and marginalization, internalized racism, self/communal care and release, the reclamation of agrarian knowledge and foodways for people of color, and also focus on ways that artists can use their art to organize for social justice. Toi has both collaborated on and compiled resource guides that provide an impetus for autonomy around wellness and well-being, and has created both fiction and non-fiction liberatory literature. These writings give readers permission to envision liberation from oppressive systems and a better future for our communities and society. Toi seeks to to co-create a world without discrimination based on our identities, where social determinants don't guarantee disparities; a world where our basic needs are met, and our rights are not just rhetoric; and a world where people are valued more than capital and corporations, where we are able to know our true histories and reclaim our rich cultural inheritance. Toi's writings serve as a platform for collaborative discussion, networking, engagement and aim to co-create collective change. Fighting to bring awareness to the various ways that racial oppression manifests in the food movement, Toi served as a community health organizer for the Sustainable Food Center and helped to radicalize one of the most influential non-profits committed to food work in Central Texas. Toi's recent article, Frankly Not about Food Forests for Black Girl Dangerous garnered national attention and opened the conversation about racial
oppression, classism, and the food system among differing communities. During that time, Toi also worked to connect all of these struggles while working as a core organizer in the Undoing Racism Austin Collective. Toi was a co-author and advisor for the race and ethnicity chapter in the recently published Trans Bodies Trans Selves resource guide, wrote the foreword in the anthology Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, and has written articles for Racialicious, Black Girl Dangerous, People of Color Organize, Afro-Punk, and Wild Gender while maintaining the philosophactivism blog for the past four years. Their current writings, Queering Herbalism 2 and Resistencia: Sangre, are literary resistance that seek to dismantle white supremacy by connecting readers to ancestral knowledge, assisting readers in healing from both internal and external oppression by acknowledging injustice and validatin, reclaiming, and centering people of color's histories, cultures, and knowledge and giving resources to build individual and collective power to move toward liberation.
Toi's writings include:
Notes from an Afro-Genderqueer 1 Volume 1 of my brown, genderqueer anthology with blogs, essays, and articles addressing intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and ability. The book is an on-going dialogue on simultaneity of oppression, art and artivism, anti-racist organizing, organizing within queer and queer people of color (QPOC)/people of color (POC) communities, and much much more. Notes from an Afro-Genderqueer Volume 2 Blogs, essays, and articles addressing intersections of race, gender, sexuality, ability, anti-racist organizing, organizing within queer people of color/people of color communities, and much much more. Philosophactivism 1 A written journey into social change, this collection contains reflections on social justice and commentary on Voice, Power and reclamation for marginalized communities/ the global MAJORITY.
Philosophactivism 2 This volume of Philosophactivism was written specifically for the radical queer pride event Queerbomb, held annually in Austin,TX.
Queering Herbalism Queer. Brown. Herbalism Compiled partially from queerherbalism.blogspot.com which contains commentary and resources about holistic healing with an anti-oppressive (namely anti-racist and pro-queer)framework and a lens toward a more historically accurate, complete and inclusive (decolonial) history of healing. Herbal Freedom School volume 1 and 2 A zine developed from the Herbal Freedom School webpage: A compilation of links, books, articles about herbalism and other holistic healing modalities that complement it. An attempt to make herbal and holistic knowledge more accessible (again) and to provide more inclusive perspectives of people of color's experience and history to holistic healing. Genderqueer Files A brown, genderqueer story of Rebellion, Resistance, Reclamation, Revolution, and espĂritu/Spirit. A collective of brown, radical gender/queers find that to continue to protect and heal their community that they must discover their innate super powers tied to their indigenous spirituality and the wisdom of their ancestors. Resistencia: Sangre A radical, queer/genderqueer play and novel based in Puerto Rico about resistance, remembrance, reclamation and collective liberation that focuses on themes of: liberation, independence/interdependence, autonomy/sovereignty, trans and queer identity and rights, Afro-Puerto Rican identity ,Taino identity, ancestry, land rights, environmental justice, economic justice, feminism and gender justice, racism, and classism. A group of queer punk band members committed to collective liberation journey through past, present and future as they connect with their ancestors, anarchist and feminist radical
predecessors, and the freedom they strive for -NOW.
For a detailed Curriculum Vitae: http://issuu.com/toiscott/docs/cv2015