At a performance Saturday in the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, attendees were met with a creative combination of activism, spoken word poetry and neon blue lipstick.
New York City-based performance art duo DarkMatter performed poetry and spoke in depth about gender identity, race and politics as a part of their #ItGetsBitter tour. The duo, both of whom identify as transgender, shed light on the origins of racism and homophobia and draw connections to the issues’ roots in colonialism.
The DarkMatter poets and activists, Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon, held a workshop in the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground before their performance to dissect the origins of racial prejudice and gender norms in modern Western society. The room was packed to capacity, and the crowd ranged from BU students to other Bostonians interested in race and gender-related activism.
Balasubramanian began by tracing the roots of homophobia and heteronormativity back to colonial rule and oppression.
“Heterosexuality and the gender binary exist to produce white babies,” Balasubramanian said. “We cannot understand the history of heterosexuality and homosexuality without understanding the history of whiteness and white supremacy.”
Vaid-Menon then described the intersection of race and homophobia.
“Over 30 trans people of color were murdered last year,” Vaid-Menon said. “Every single representative of the United States in a global LGBT form is usually a rich, white, gay man. They would never ask a poor, black, trans woman to represent the U.S. But in order to have this U.S. developmental frame that we’ve created, you have to have a white person representing the LGBT movement.”
DarkMatter then performed in front of a packed lecture hall in the basement of CAS. The duo’s poetry found a balance between profundity and accessibility and evoked both intense emotions and light laughter from the audience.
Vaid-Menon’s poetry delivered relatable prose that resonated with the crowd.
“Let’s be very clear,” Vaid-Menon said. “We experience all the homophobia you gay men just speak about. We live it. No one wants to look like us. No one wants to look like a hairy man in a dress. Even the trans movement itself erases us … If you don’t know what ‘transmisogyny’ means, I recommend that you hang out with my bestie Google. She’s very nice.”
By ending a statement about the heavy weight of oppression and injustice with a joke about Google, the poets fostered a sense of solidarity among the crowd, several students said.
“[The performance] initiated a dialogue about the notion of personal identity within an institutionalized society with more passion and honesty than I have ever seen,” said Hannah Williams, a sophomore in CAS who attended the performance. “As a gender-nonconforming person of color, I felt like this performance was so incredibly inclusive and inspiring. They gave words to thoughts and feelings that I’ve had for a long time but haven’t been able to express.”
DarkMatter articulates the struggle of trans people of color in the United States, who are often silenced and marginalized by society.
Hailey Branchford, a sophomore in the College of Engineering who was also at the performance, said she found the talk enlightening and especially important in the sheltered environment of a college campus.
“I think it’s really important to bring in speakers and performers who have unique experiences to share with students,” Branchford said. “At least personally, I tend to get caught up in the ‘BU bubble,’ and it’s refreshing to see and learn from people who are working so hard to enact real change.”
DarkMatter’s work unveils the hypocrisy and injustice they find within major systems of oppression in the United States and around the world. They emphasized the importance of empowering marginalized groups and validating their stories.
“The only way you’ll be happy is not by the amount of Instagram likes you have,” Vaid-Menon said. “The real love and happiness you desire comes from the black, indigenous and people-of-color activists from around the world.”
