TC Tolbert Projects Writing Images Bio  

 

 

Trans & Queer Poetry & Poetics

THE VOLTA is a multimedia project of poetry, criticism, poetics, video, conversation (audio), and interview (text). Evening Will Come is the poetics section of the Volta. In December, 2012, I curated a trans and queer issue featuring the work of 18 trans, genderqueer, and queer poets, visual artists, and filmmakers. Get ready to fall in love.

 

 

 

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Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry & Poetics

While trans and genderqueer poets have existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, there has never been a collection of poetry exclusively by trans and genderqueer writers that also highlights a diverse range of poetics and other marginalized identities. So, we (TC Tolbert and Trace (Tim) Peterson) are creating an anthology.

This anthology will highlight writing that makes us wet our panties a little bit and wonder what the f* have we been doing with our lives all this time. While this project exists in a historical context of several important anthologies that gather marginalized and under-represented writers (This Bridge Called My Back, No More Masks, The World in Us, Premonitions, The Open Boat, etc), this will be the first anthology to foreground the poetic writings of trans and genderqueer authors. To find out more, please visit our website: www.transanthology.com


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Made for Flight

I am the founder and Artistic Director of Made for Flight, a transgender youth and ally empowerment workshop series designed to celebrate youth voice and resiliency. We integrate transgender history, ally development, creative writing, and kite building to commemorate the lives of transgender individuals who have been murdered in the last year.  Made for Flight is generously funded by the Alliance Fund, Kresge Foundation, and Tucson Pima Arts Council – thank you!

It is my hope that Made for Flight will encourage those of us with privilege (and there are many kinds of privilege in this world - white, straight, passing, male, the list goes on) to use that privilege to speak out, call out, and act out against transphobia and other forms of oppression.  We cannot talk about transphobia and ignore the fact that the majority of those we commemorate on Transgender Day of Remembrance are transwomen of color.  Racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia are inherently inter-related and we must work in solidarity with one another to overcome them all. To find out how to bring Made for Flight to your campus click here.


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Movement Salon

I am a member of Movement Salon, a group of movement artists, writers, and a musician who practice and perform the art of compositional improvisation. That is, we pay close attention to one another as we simultaneously create.  Our only parameters are space and time.  We make the rest up, each and every time.  All of it.

While this could seem silly or even a little opaque, the work is not about joking or any sort of careless “whatever happens” philosophy.  Instead, we practice the Four-Fold Way: show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and be open to outcome. With this in mind, we work to create instantaneous and ephemeral compositions that explore the relationships between movement, sound, and text; bodies and space; choice and responsibility; and self and others. Dancer and co-founder, Jennifer Hoefle, says, “We believe that the act of attention is transformative.”  Because of this, the pieces can feel quite risky.  And I guess they are.  The lifts are not choreographed, the music is not set, the words are not memorized, and neither the beginnings nor endings are planned.  “Choosing is another word for composing.  We choose to create something and then we choose to allow it to change,” says Kimi Eisele, dancer and co-founder.  Life changing, really. I am so lucky to be a part of this.

 

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Casa Libre en la Solana

I am the Assistant Director of Casa Libre.  Casa Libre is a non-profit writer’s community center and art-space in Tucson, Arizona.  We hold several ongoing reading series, writing workshops, and other literary and collaborative events.  Casa Libre serves a diverse audience, presenting readers from all over the country, while keeping in mind that Tucson is both our physical home and community base. We are devoted to honoring and making space for thinking, writing, conversation, art-making and performance in a world dearly in need of artistic vision, creative solutions, and celebration of the human mind.  In addition to our on-site readings and workshops, Casa Libre provides an event base for many Tucson-based groups, including local chapters of the National Writers' Union, Kore Press, Queer People of Color, Pan Left Productions, Trickhouse, and Read Between the Bars.

 

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Trickhouse
I am the Interview Curator for Trickhouse – an online cross-genre arts journal.  Our mission is to serve as an environment for visual art, writing, sound, video, interviews, essays, and experiments. We are interested in the generative nature of collaboration, the notion that temporary venues can suggest intriguing strategies for engagement and community, the proximity of medium and genre, the possibilities within given venues (site-specific work), and the unformed and the raw; the polished and the pristine.

 

 

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Read Between the Bars
I am a collective member of Read Between the Bars, a grassroots books-to-prisoners collective serving all prisoners in Arizona.  As allies to prisoners we work to provide them with educational and entertaining materials. Our collective strives to inform our community of the toll that the prison industrial complex imposes on the incarcerated, their families, and society as a whole. Locally we serve as part of the global movement towards prison reform and its abolition.  Join us – we need your support!

 

 

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Heroic Journey with Outward Bound and Judi’s house
I am a Course Director and Lead Instructor for Outward Bound.  I have been with Outward Bound for 8 years and in the last 3 years I’ve had the opportunity to lead trips with Heroic Journey. Heroic Journey is a unique 7 day experience funded and delivered in partnership with Outward Bound, and is specifically designed for teens coping with the death of a loved one.  If you know a youth who has experienced the death of someone close, please have them contact Outward Bound and connect them with this exciting, healing opportunity.  Full scholarships are available.

 

 

 

 

 

contents © copyright TC Tolbert 2013 / webdesign by Noah Saterstrom