M. Téllez's Blog, page 2

nonbinary storytelling ~ Shameless Mag interview

The homie Estraven interviewed me about non-binary storytelling for a trans n women youth mag, Shameless. I liked this interview! Here's an excerpt:

Often when we hear the word binary it’s associated with the gender binary. But are there other binaries that you are exploring with your work?

ALL OF THEM.

Ok, well I think the numerical binary (0/1; on/off) coding and computer programming are at the foundation of perhaps all our modern computer tools and devices. Many of them were developed for use by and for the military, in fields of medicine, communication, and behavior prediction and control. Sorting and categorizing, identification and surveillance technologies have brought great economic wealth and power to governments and individuals who control, develop, and distribute them onto others. These technologies are powerful and efficient at what they do because they have been standardized and ubiquitous – meaning introduced to the whole of society as “normal” – but to work they often reduce and force very complex things into one of two options and discard what can’t or won’t fit. That’s where language comes in.

When I was a pre-teen surfing the dial-up internet, I came across an anonymous document called the Laws of Life. It’s also known as the Laws of Magick or Laws of Reason, but here are two of the laws that stuck with me ever since: (8) Law of Infinite Universes: change your perspective in one area and you change your universe. There are always three choices available; and (12) Law of Polarity: everything contains and implies its opposite.

So keeping those in mind, I think many of us are raised to use binary phrases in language. For example:

this or that
if X, then Y
on one hand/on the other hand
on one side/on the flip side
with us/against us
always/never

Many, many people will try to make you act or choose something using this kind of language, and many times it will be to disempower you for their benefit. In arguments, someone may try to get you to admit that you “always” do one thing and “never” do another, but what if the reality is “sometimes” you do both or all, or you are both or all, depending? What does your opponent have to gain by forcing you to make one of two choices, when there’s so many more available?

I don’t believe in just two aspects of anything, and I question anytime someone uses binary language to describe a problem or solution or issue. There’s always more than two sides to any story, you know? The moon has cycles. The earth rotates. We are not flat or two-dimensional in body or spirit, and so binary language does not serve us well.

Read the full interview here.

Unbound Worlds roundtable jawn

I got on a video chat last weekend with Cat Fitzpatrick, Jeanne Thorton, Trish Salah, and Ayşe Devrim for a roundtable now transcribed over at Unbound Worlds sff magazine: Viable Ways For Living: Trans Authors on SFF in Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers

Link here:
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/10/...

I also dropped another newsletter going on about Samuel Delany, patriarchy and trans femmephobia, and that stupid fucking blade runner 2049 movie. You can subscribe or read the archive (where the newsletter lives) here: https://tinyletter.com/cyborgmemoirs

This Friday, 2017 Afrofuturist Affair Costume & Charity Ball

I’m tabling METROPOLARITY wares & tending books for the Afrofuturist Library at the 2017 Afrofuturist Affair Costume & Charity Ball at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is the first year the ball will be received and held in a real deal institution of perhaps any kind. Come thruuu.

October 27, 2017
5:00 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
Free after admission

A celebration of AfroFuturist and Black speculative music, design, art, and creativity. Come dressed to impress in your best sci-fi and AfroFuturist fashions for a night of imagination, art, and activism. This evening has been envisioned by Black Quantum Futurism (Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips) and is presented as part of Philadelphia Assembled.


Mobile Futures Institute Bus
5:00–6:30 p.m.
East Terrace
Watch some Afrofuturist films in this retrofitted shuttle bus.


Tarot Readings
5:00–8:00 p.m.
Women’s Committee Gallery 164, 1st floor
Oshun, a generational bruja whose work is rooted in African ancestral energy, is on hand to help you achieve your highest purpose.
Space is limited; first come, first served.


Music Performances
(hosted by MC Kennedy Allen)
5:30–8:30 p.m.
Great Stair Hall

MovaKween
Soul and R&B singer MovaKween honors the many layers and levels of the Divine Feminine.

:3LON
Groove to ethereal and industrial tunes by underground producer and vocalist :3LON

.Sammus
Don’t miss a rousing performance by beatmaker and lyricist Sammus

.Moor Mother
In collaboration with local musicians, Moor Mother presents an eclectic mix of jazz, poetry, hip hop, and electronics.

King Britt presents Fhloston Paradigm
In this live solo presentation, King Britt transmits “omniversal signals from divine abstractions into a sonic experience.”


Body Painting
5:30–7:30 p.m.
Great Stair Hall Balcony, 2nd floor
Kitakiya Dennis and Rell Stylez transform your look with detailed designs.


Mask Masking
5:30–7:30 p.m.
Great Stair Hall Balcony, 2nd floor
Need a finishing touch for your costume? Make a decorative face mask with Anthony Molden.


AfroFuturist Library
5:30–8:00 p.m.
Lenfest Hall (West Foyer), ground floor
Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse
and
Metropolarity
bring written works for you to read and explore.


Fashion Show & Best Dressed Competition
(hosted by MC Kennedy Allen)
7:20 & 7:40 p.m.
Great Stair Hall, 1st floor
Walé Oyéjidé of Ikiré Jones, Eva Preston, and Feya Sterling show off their futurist looks on live models. Also, three finalists from our Best Dressed Competition will get to strut their stuff before the winner is announced. (Stop by the photo booth and the nomination station on the Great Stair Hall Balcony beforehand to make sure you’re entered in the competition.)

October update

We have a few items for this update.

First...
Shout out to Katherine Cross for reviewing Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers on BITCH and having this to say about my story

>>>> M. Téllez’s story “Heat Death of Western Human Arrogance,” about a reptilian alien from Mars and their human girlfriend, is a masterpiece. It’s a challenging parable about how the good intentions of white liberals can dehumanize or even destroy those they seek to ‘save.’ As Inri, the story’s main character says, “there is nothing on Mars that is as aggressive,” as the “good intent” of white liberals. <<<<

I did make note in my recent newsletter to "replace white liberals with queer white radicals who to-date are still uncritical about their whiteness and keep asking for instruction & consuming critical media by authors/artists of color rather than looking inside themselves, their class position/access to wealth n resources, and their ancestors."

The full review is here:
https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/me...

You can sign up for my newsletter & see its archive (only 1 so far) here:
https://tinyletter.com/cyborgmemoirs


Second...
Another anthology I am in this year now has its own Goodreads page: Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2016. My story in it is titled "About A Woman and a Kid."

It was just reviewed in Publisher's Weekly:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...

Pre-orders for Transcendent 2 can be made here:
https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store...


Third...
2018 C U NEXT TUESDAY monthly & weekly planners are in my online shop:
http://cyborgmemoirs.bigcartel.com/

Last year I designed & produced a run of monthly planners by the same name and they were a big hit with fellow witches & bitches. All planners start their weeks on Tuesday, the firey day of action. Moon phases and other astrological weather is notated, and the size and design is cute. METROPOLARITY's Style of Attack report and some other items are also available in the shop linked above. Check it out or follow @gear4cyborgs on Instagram. =3

Press/reviews/interviews about MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE

One of the editor's, Cat, just emailed everyone in the anthology and sent this massive (to me) list of press.

I'll start with one that mentions my story =)
GUTS: http://gutsmagazine.ca/in-other-worlds/

"M Téllez’s “Heat Death of Western [Human] Arrogance” forced me to rethink my relation to individual autonomy. Narrated by Inri, a “third generation Slow Stepper,™” the story makes human-normal seem strange, in a way that allows readers to encounter humanness in a different way."

BUST: http://bust.com/books/193461-meanwhil...

LIVE IN LIMBO: http://www.liveinlimbo.com/2017/09/13...

THE DAILY DOT: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/meanwhil...

TRUTH-OUT: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item...

PLENITUDE: http://plenitudemagazine.ca/what-if-a...

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...

QUILL AND QUIRE: https://quillandquire.com/omni/casey-...

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH COOPER AND JANEY: https://kboo.fm/media/60427-talking-p...

A couple of great blog posts:
https://bibrary.blogspot.ca/2017/09/m...
https://medium.com/@brookshelley/a-re...

The book is available directly from topsidepress.com and probably indie bookstores that stocked Imogen Binnie's Nevada.

TRANSCENDENT 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction

Yours truly is in the lineup for this Lethe Press book edited by Bogi Takács. I have been trying to confirm when it ships, but I believe the date is this September?

You can buy it here: http://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/...

This is the Table of Contents:

"Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy" by Charlie Jane Anders
"Skerry-Bride" by Sonya Taaffe
"Transitions" by Gwen Benaway
​ "This is Not a Wardrobe Door" by A. Merc Rustad
"Three Points Masculine" by An Owomoyela
"The L7 Gene" by Jeanne Thornton
"Rhizomatic Diplomacy" by Vajra Chandrasekera
"The Pigeon Summer" by Brit Mandelo
"The Road, and the Valley, and the Beasts" by Keffy R. M. Kehrli
"About a Woman and a Kid" by M Téllez
"Sky and Dew" by Holly Heisey
"The Nothing Spots Where Nobody Wants to Stay" by Julian K. Jarboe
"Lisa's Story: Zombie Apocalypse" by Gillian Ybabez
"Happy REGARDS" by RoAnna Sylver
"The Way You Say Good-Night" by Toby MacNutt
"Her Sacred Spirit Soars" by S. Qiouyi Lu

MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE - Topside Press's trans scifi anthology

Suddenly time has collapsed and the release of this anthology featuring yours truly approaches.

You can add it to your To Read pile here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

=)

Soothsaying with METROPOLARITY episode now online

Myself, Ras Cutlass, and R. Phillips of our beloved METROPOLARITY crew were invited to do a show on PhillyCAM (Community Access Media) in Philadelphia.

https://vimeo.com/225603092

Join Metropolarity for an intimate night of prophecying, sh*t talking, and secret spilling.

Your anxieties about the future sent via email/text/social media will be answered on air in between doses of wisdom about how to live with the increasingly absurd, dangerous, and exciting[?] future present!

The show originally aired live on July 7th, 2017. It’s currently airing every Friday in July at 7pm EST, on Philly Comcast channels 66/966 and Verizon channels 29/30. =3

4/27 Reading at Jinxed West Philly

Hello

Myself and Alex Smith of METROPOLARITY will be reading our special blend of corner store sci-fi this Thursday, alongside Sarah Sawyers-Lovett and Moose Lane.

Consider this your invitation. =)

When: Thursday, April 27th, 2017
What Time: 6:30 PM
Where: Jinxed West Philly, 4521 Baltimore Avenue, 19143

Snacks & drinks will be provided.
Books will be for sale!

Here is a link to the flier online: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTRWwQGAP...

This is one of the first times I'm reading sci-fi in west that isn't at Alex's own Laser Life queer sf reading series.

a METROPOLARITY interview with Mask Magazine

There are four of us in METROPOLARITY but to date, I still don't think we have an interview with the whole coven. Here is one with three of us, though. And pictures.

http://www.maskmagazine.com/the-mater...