There Are Trans People Here

H. Melt

• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781642596687
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

There are trans people here in the past, the present, and the future. H. Melt's writing centers the deep care, love, and joy within trans communities. This poetry collection describes moments of resistance in queer and trans history as catalysts for movements today. It honors trans ancestors and contemporary activists, artists, and writers fighting for trans liberation. There Are Trans People Here is a testament to the healing power of community and the beauty of trans people, history, and culture.

STUDY GUIDE

Written by Rabiya Kassam-Clay

Rabiya Kassam-Clay has a Masters of Education in Secondary Education with a focus in Social Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught middle and high school English and Social Studies in Philadelphia, Mexico City, and Los Angeles.

The full guide, with additional classroom activities, assessments, and resources, can be found online at www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1761-there-are-trans-people-here.

I. Three Big Questions

What is liberation? How do we recognize it? How do we practice it?

How does care work flourish in the context of community?

Who are our ancestors? What do our inherited and chosen ancestors teach us?

II. Analytical Projects

1.Imagine you were creating your own collage inspired by the one in the book. Locate a photograph that you would include in your collage of community. Take note of the visual elements present including: setting, objects, people. Determine the significance of the photograph: Why does it matter to you/us? What has or has not changed since the photograph was taken? What does it reveal about our past, present, or future?

2.Explore the themes of death and the future in There Are Trans People Here. In the afterword, H. Melt writes, “I need to know trans joy exists in order to imagine myself living in the future,” and “Transness is inherently futuristic. It requires us to imagine ourselves anew.” What is the relationship between death and the future?

3.How does H. Melt open up the theme of family? What are the connections and contrasts between families of origin and chosen families? How are different types of families in the book tied to sweetness?

III. Creative Projects

1.Who in your life has a story that connects to the poems in There Are Trans People Here? Listen to, watch, or read an interview from an oral history project. Examples include: the Act Up Oral History Project (and the corresponding film United in Anger), the Dragon Fruit Project, the podcast Gender Reveal, Outwords, and the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Record an oral history with someone in your life like a friend, a relative, or a community member. Share it with text, drawings, audio, or video.

2.Create an artifact of abolition, liberation, or community care. As H. Melt writes in the afterword, “We are reimagining our communities one garden, march, protest, lesson plan, name change, and poster at a time.” What would your poster or flag be? Consider the following resources:

Monica Helms’ transgender pride flag

Trans Day of Resilience Art Project

Aram Han Sifuentes’s the Protest Banner Lending Library

Justseeds’ Celebrate People’s History poster series

Matthew Riemer & Leighton Brown’s @lgbt_history Instagram archive

ONE Archives Foundation’s digital collection of posters

3.In the afterword, H. Melt writes,

“In ‘City of Trans Liberation,’ I dreamt of public art dedicated to trans elders. Other people must’ve imagined this too. A few years after writing that poem, She Built NYC announced plans to install permanent statues of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in New York. When I learned about this, it was a reminder that dreaming and action are both required to transform the world.”

What other people and events in history do you think should be commemorated and how? What event, exhibit, museum, monument, public space, organization, or public resource do you think should be created to honor them? Create your vision.

IV. PEOPLE

Howard Melton (1931-2021), grandfather of H. Melt, was born in Lithuania. He was 10 years old when World War II began. Howard and his family were sent to a labor camp in Latvia. Howard’s younger sister was sent on to Auschwitz where she was killed. His mother and older sister were both killed in Stutthof. Howard was sent to Dachau concentration camp where he survived countless human atrocities, including a death march at the end of the war. He moved to New York City in 1949, and later to Milwaukee to be near his friend Al Beder, who he formed a lifelong bond with in the camps. He was married in 1951 to Evelyn Melton. They had four children together, and eventually, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. He dedicated his life to speaking about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. On My Way to Liberation , p. 3.

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Table of contents

• COVER
• COPYRIGHT
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• THERE ARE TRANS PEOPLE HERE
• ON MY WAY TO LIBERATION
• ALL THE MISSING SWEETNESS
• DYSPHORIA IS NOT MY NAME
• TRANS CARE
• TO SYLVIE, TO FRANK
• AT THE CHICAGO MARATHON
• INTENSIVE CARE
• GIOVANNI’S ROOM
• IF YOU ARE OVER CIS PEOPLE
• FAGGOT WITH FLOWERS
• TO ALL THOSE LISTENING
• AT THE DREAM JOB
• ODE TO TERFS
• MEETING CHELSEA MANNING
• TRANS LIT
• CITY OF TRANS LIBERATION
• ON TRANS STREET
• TRANS HOUSE
• TAKE ME TO THE TRANS SPA
• CAMP TRANS
• TRANS MUSEUM
• EVERY DAY IS A TRANS DAY
• TRANS DAY OF REVENGE
• I DON’T WANT A TRANS PRESIDENT
• TRANS PEOPLE AGAINST BANS, WALLS & BORDERS
• & AGAIN & AGAIN
• THE MOST DANGEROUS JEW IN GERMANY
• TRANS TEMPLE
• PRAYER FOR MY TRANS SIBLINGS
• THE RIOTS MUST CONTINUE
• AFTERWORD
• STUDY GUIDE
• NOTES
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• GRATITUDE
• BACK COVER