“#morelove. always”

Reading Smokii Sumac’s Transmasculine First Nations Poetry on and beyond Social Media

Authors

  • James Mackay European University Cyprus

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.928

Abstract

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.

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Published

2021-07-01

How to Cite

Mackay, J. (2021). “#morelove. always”: Reading Smokii Sumac’s Transmasculine First Nations Poetry on and beyond Social Media. Transmotion, 7(1), 40–81. https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.928