On My Way to Liberation

BreakBeat Poets

by H. Melt

How do you imagine trans liberation while living in a cis world? On My Way To Liberation follows a gender nonconforming body moving through the streets of Chicago. From the sex shop to the farmers market, the family dinner table to the bookstore, trans people are everywhere, though often erased. Writing towards a trans future, H. Melt envisions a world where trans people are respected, loved and celebrated every day.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Gender, Feminism, Nonfiction, Transgender

28 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

H. Melt is a poet, artist, and educator whose work proudly celebrates Chicago’s queer and trans communities. Their writing has appeared many places including In These Times, The Offing, and Them, the first trans literary journal in the United States. They are the author of The Plural, The Blurring and editor of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation. Lambda Literary awarded them the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers in 2017. They’ve also been named to Newcity’s Lit 50 list, as well as Windy City Times’ 30 under 30. H. Melt co-leads Queeriosity at Young Chicago Authors and works at Women & Children First, Chicago’s feminist bookstore.

Reviews

[Leah Rachel von Essen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve heard H. Melt read before and am continually and always impressed. Their poetry in On My Way to Liberation brings the quiet anger that trans people must face everyday, the self-affirmation, the frustration at erasure. Through their poetry, Melt explores a cis world that has so many nonconforming bodies hidden within it, being misgendered, struggling to fit. “Trans People Don’t Want to be Your Friend” begins “25% of americans / don’t want to be friends / with a trans person / 100% of trans people / don’t want to be / your friend” and ends “all I want is a love / that doesn’t end / in a headline.”

[Kazen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haymarket Books recently had 90% off sale on all their ebooks, so you can bet I was all over it! This is one of the four nonfiction books I picked up and, by virtue of being a chapbook, the shortest at 28 pages.

Melt, who is trans and genderqueer, writes directly about their experience. We sit with them as they are misgendered, deadnamed, and forced to deal with injustice every day.

But they won't stop murdering.
Stop legislating. Stop imprisoning.
Stop claiming we are ruining our
countries, families, friendships
and futures too.

When every day
we awaken to
build them
anew.

I'm grateful that Melt put their lived reality down on the page for others to experience - the emotion comes through loud and clear. However I'm not the biggest fan of the poetry itself. The work's missing oomph for me, that punch that makes you want to sit with a poem after you finish it, or go back and reread it immediately. Some of the images will rattle in my brain for a while yet but the words themselves will unfortunately fade more quickly.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

On My Way to Liberation was a moving mixture of poems that were slices of H. Melt's life and rallying cries for trans liberation. Their prose was incredibly emotional in a quiet, almost subtle way. I really enjoyed this chapbook and look forward to reading more of Melt's work.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little chapbook. Totally recommend it for anyone who is looking for a booster shot of trans poetry.

[Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

imagining trans futures full of love, community and abolition? count me in :) 💕🏳️‍⚧️

and i especially enjoyed the 2 poems about this very-hard-to-articulate situation of "belonging in the gay male community and trying to find your own place there but people perceiving you as a lesbian" - i have never seen anyone talk about this, but i know that a lot of trans ppl go through this.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd tell you which line in which poem made me instantly cry, but I think you should find it for yourself. Buy this book, and then pass it along (physically or by title) to someone else you realize also needs to read it.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received this as a gift from one of my daughters, and am glad she introduced me to H. Melt.

This is a short book, but there are at least three poems I would recommend to anyone: A Pair of Shoes, City of TRans Liberation and the concluding title poem On My Way to Liberation.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

so short, but such a gut punch

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5? I’m a bit surprised at the high rating here, as these poems were fairly predictable and to me uninspired. But to each their own, and perhaps they work for new trans people who need affirmation.

[Masha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and beautiful. On trans liberation loving in a cis world. American poetry is growing on me. Even though slowly

[Cooper Lee Bombardier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A love letter to all trans people.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m late to the party with Haymarket's Breakbeat Poets series, but I made it.

After reading Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal, I looked at what other books were in the series, and I found this chapbook by H. Melt. I had the pleasure of taking some of my middle school students a couple of years ago to the Poetry Foundation for writing workshops led by them, and I was excited to see their own work. It was really moving thinking about identity in general and trans identity specifically.

It's really something I can't imagine, so poems like "A Pair of Shoes" about a stranger and "Happy Holidays" about family felt like a gut punch emotionally even without a true personal frame of reference. (Not having a frame of reference is okay. I don't think that this book isn't for me, nor is it for me. It exists, and that's good.) I thought "On My Way to Liberation" really tied the collection together with this unexpected connection to their family's past and how identity is sometimes shifted for survival and how sometimes bucking what has been considered "normal" in search of truth is a new sense of survival and liberation. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from H. Melt in the future.

[Natalie T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Direct, accessible poems by a trans writer about what it is like to live as a trans person in a cis world. Written in 2018, before the current wave of bizarre and bigoted anti-trans legislation started sweeping though red states . . . Melt's poems, affirming the rights of trans people to simply live freely in this world, are an important resource for any trans person or parent/family member/friend of a trans kid, whose life is so incredibly difficult right now. Read and share these poems widely . . . you might save a life.

[lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this chapbook, short, beautiful, and to the point. trans liberation is celebrating and loving trans people as they are while we are still here to be celebrated and loved! this book highlights that through h. melt’s lens. it is often up to trans people to make spaces for themselves in this world but i think h. melt and i share the same hope that one day cis people will share the workload with us on the way to trans liberation.

[Suzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite poems: Happy Holidays, On My Way to Liberation
in the intro, they say that in this collection, they “transition from talking about cis people and how they’ve harmed [them], to directly addressing trans people and envisioning trans liberation.” for me, this doesn’t fully come across in the chapbook, but I am intrigued about their forthcoming full collection “There Are Trans People Here”

[Mahi - ماهی · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ I was honored with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. “
“My lawyer says illegal my therapist says trauma I say help and I say thank to all those listening answering my calls. “
I recommend this collection to everyone who struggles to belong somewhere!

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be like me and mistakenly read this chapbook after already having read the work it was preceding. Both are wonderful but of course I was confused as to why so many of the works were published in both :/

[WallofText · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but powerful collection. Having read There are Trans People Here by the same author before, this was another treat. While not every poem was a standout, the ones that did did so brilliantly. My favourites were A Pair of Shoes, If You Are Over Cis People, and On My Way to Liberation.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems of displacement and self-affirmation. Written with an audience of other transgender folk in mind.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was over so quickly I just wanted to read more! But will be looking out for more from this poet.

[Graham Supreme · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ PLZ

[Keeloween · Rating 4 out of 5]

liberating

[Frank Karioris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short excerpt from a forthcoming full volume. Will be picking up the full volume.

[Lottie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

!! important !!

[Pau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried.

[Bex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply powerful.

[anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe it could have been a 5 star but i still don’t get poetry

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melt is one to watch. These poems are powerful in their voice, and the rhythms are excellent.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, that last stanza is really what made me cry.

[Mal Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly most of these poems were in the other book I read a few days ago called “there are trans people here” and it was still just as good!!! The few poems that I hadn’t read were phenomenal!