Transfeminine writer ALOK returns with Your Wound/My Garden, a collection of poetry created during Covid-19 lockdown. It is an argument for beauty in the face of grief, loss, and chronic pain. With Audible, ALOK has taken their words to a new dimension, allowing words on the page to transport us to their world.
Additionally, Audible has worked with ALOK to create an audiobook version of their debut poetry collection, Femme in Public (2017). It is a meditation on anti-trans harassment, a ceremony for loss and grief, and an imagining of what could be if we weren’t taught to fear the very things that have the potential to set us free.
In these performance pieces that feature the latest spatial audio technology, ALOK’s words are enhanced with sound art. Words and sound taken together, ALOK continues to challenge not just themselves but us to think about what parts of ourselves society has made us destroy, which of us is questioned, and how we can go beyond the pain towards freedom.
In this conversation, GLAAD’s Vice President of Communications & Talent, Anthony Allen Ramos, sits down with ALOK to discuss their newest release on AudibleAudibl.
It’s lovely to see you again or, well, to hear you.
First question for you is: For many LGBTQ people, inspiration is often drawn from role models and idols within our community who have changed the way that we’re seen, heard, and represented in society.
Tell me about some of the people in the community who have inspired you in your work.
Do they have to be living or–
No, they can be from now, from before, from the future. [Both laugh] I’m just kidding.
So first, especially for this conversation, is Audrey Lorde, the renowned Caribbean Black feminist poet and lesbian. One of my first jobs out of college was working at the Audrey Lord project and I got to really become familiar with Audrey Lorde’s legacy as a poet.
What she really taught me was how to tell our stories in a way that changes the society around us. She helped me understand that it was only in being honest with myself and truly committing to my internal transformation that I could change the society around me.
I feel very indebted to her legacy as a queer poet.
Secondly, I want to shout out Sylvester, the Queen of Disco from the 70s. The more that I learned about Sylvester’s life, I just feel such a sense of permission. So many people told Sylvester to tone it down to become less feminine in order to have more commercial viability. Sylvester is totally uninterested in that and they were so committed to being the fullest version of themselves.
Whenever people dismiss gender nonconformity as some newfangled phenomenon, I remember that we have incredible ancestors like Sylvester who had done it for such a long time.
I don’t know if you caught it, but we played a little clip of Sylvester at the GLAAD Media Awards–
Oh I heard it.
I was like, we need that. So I love that. Thank you for sharing.
You know, thinking about Audible, I think access to LGBTQ stories and content is easier than ever. So what kind of LGBTQ story still needs to be told and heard?
Oftentimes we only hear stories of tragedy or stories of triumph.
It’s either that we’re under attack and experiencing hate violence or that we’re full of pride and celebrating. But I think what often gets lost is the ordinary lives of LGBTQ people. We’re just walking down the street and getting a coffee and hanging out with our friends and just being.
The stories that I’d like to hear more are just stories that acknowledge us as just fundamentally complex people who live everyday lives where we don’t have to be spectacular to have worth.
Speaking of this format: audio storytelling, It’s such a strong platform for elevating diverse voices, all parts of the community. Why was it important to create audio productions for your work?
I love audio because it reaches people at such a close level–you’re literally up in their ear. People are listening whenever they’re in a car or they’re in transit. It’s like you’re having a personal conversation with someone.
What’s happening right now with trans visibility is often people consume images of us, but they don’t actually hear our stories. For me, stories are a portal to experiencing our humanity.
i\It felt like a really important time to be able to reach people everywhere that they’re at with my story, with my pain, with my beauty, with my fullness.
What I also love about audio is that it’s a genre that I feel is so magical.
One of my favorite quotes is by the writer Philip Pullman who says that “Poetry is not just a fancy way of saying things, it’s actually a spell. It changes things, it changes you.”
I believe that how we say things often matters just as much as what we’re saying. And so the opportunity to actually create something that was kind of musical that had this sonic dimension also felt really exciting to me.
Audio productions of Your Wound/My Garden and then Femme in Public, narrated by you, are available on Audible. Let’s break it down a little bit: Tell me about the process of Your Wound/My Garden. Was that the one that you wrote during the lockdown?
Yes. I wrote Your Wound, My Garden in 2021 and in 2020 during the lockdown. What we were able to do with this audible version is bring on a sound producer to put soundscapes for each one of the poems. So they take on a kind of unique dimension. I wanted it to feel like a fundamentally different piece of work than just the written text.
What I was trying to communicate in this was this sort of transition from being broody at home and learning and self reflecting, then exiting and feeling a renewed sense of possibility.
So we mirror that with the sound design. I was so lucky Audible paired me with this incredible sound producer named Brian Master because Brian would just take the most ridiculous ideas I have and then make them.
I said, “You know, I want New York City to be a character in the story” and we would find different noises to populate it. I wanted there to be a sense of you being in the room and hearing me perform.
So Brian came and watched me perform and recorded some audio. It really felt three-dimensional and collaborative.That was really important for me as an artist is to have creative control of my product. And I feel like every time I could be like, no, this is not the direction I want or here’s where I wanna go.
So I feel really proud about what we created together.
And then for Femme in Public, how would you compare the experiences of making that one into an audio production?
So that was a book that I wrote a few years back and it was really wonderful to come back and revisit it in audio because it kind of re-enlivened these pieces that were so necessary for me in the past.
What that book is really about is about street harassment facing trans people like me and the things that we wish that we could say in the moment that we can’t because it might jeopardize our safety.
I felt especially aware of the political situation facing trans people and making this. Right now, unfortunately, in the time of this conversation, there’s an orchestrated effort of people trying to define trans people out of legal protections and ban us from the public.
What was really important for me in this book was actually finding audio that was loud, that was present, that penetrated past all of these barriers that are trying to confine us in one space, that celebrated trans-ness in a world that’s often trying to disappear us.
And that was able to be accomplished through sound because we were able to really play around in each piece to give it their own life.
It felt really necessary for me especially in this moment where we’re being told to tone it down, to mute, to hide, to really create a work that was celebratory.
I love that.
I stumbled upon Audible a couple years ago, but I can’t help but think about the first audiobooks that I listened to. Do you remember some of the early things that you listen to on Audible? Did it have an impact on you in a different way than had you read just as a book?
I’m a huge audiobook person. Especially living in New York whenever I’m doing anything walking down the street.
I know transportation [laughs together].
Yeah, I’m just constantly tuned into an Audible.
So, my favorite series growing up was a series called Wheel of Time, which now people might be familiar with because there’s a TV show on Amazon Prime.
They’re like tomes. So, like 1000 pages each.
I had read them multiple times but I decided to go through the full Audible version and these are like hours and hours and hours and hours. It took me months to get through it. And on the other side, I just wept because it was truly the most beautiful experience. I get even emotional thinking about it now. It was incredible to be immersed in that world.
Science fiction and fantasy are about world making. But when you’re hearing it, you can kind of participate in it. It made meandering through so many airport lines and being on tour and all the chaos easier. I felt this profound sense of peace every time I was able to tune in.
What’s also been great is that through Audible I’ve been able to read a lot of amazing LGBTQ authors, which has been a big priority for me.
I read the novel Nevada by Imogen Binny, which I’ve been meaning to read forever, which is kind of seen as an important book that set off a generation of trans writers What I like, and I’m being honest here, is that I can get through so many books because I can listen at twice the speed or 2.5 speed. I’m like a very savvy reader, but it’s really just because I can binge-read. There’s binge-watching and then there’s binge-reading.
ALOK, it’s always great to catch up. I hope to catch up with you soon.
Yep, I’ll see you soon. Thank you.