Sideshow Skin

SIDESHOW SKIN is my forth-coming poetry chapbook.

Part poetry, part memoir, my aim with Sideshow Skin is to shed light on my transition and experiences as a trans woman in a world that constantly questions my 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, I 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 I began transitioning, I was constantly met with questions that ranged from the innocently inquisitive to the entirely invasive as I struggled to navigate my changing body and position 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.