“#morelove. always”
Reading Smokii Sumac’s Transmasculine First Nations Poetry on and beyond Social Media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.928Abstract
In this article I explore the ways that Sumac creates a two spirit transmasculine role for the 21st century within such an environment. I begin by looking at the cultural implications of Sumac’s choice of cover images as a way to situate Sumac among his trans* poetry peers, and use this as the springboard to a discussion of Sumac’s use of social media tropes, particularly hashtags, that situate his poetry as the product of a specifically digital environment. This, I argue is simultaneously a welcoming space for trans* and Indigenous people to find community and develop communal identities unaffected by physical distance, and also a space that carries particular dangers not only for both groups, but also for creative artists, in its flattening of affect. Finally, I look at the poet’s use of natural environments and images, and the ways that these function to balance and indigenize a shifting and uncertain digital no-space.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 James Mackay
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).