STA TRANSforming Arts Group

In October 2008, the Scottish Transgender Alliance started running a transgender creative expression group called TRANSforming Arts. The Scottish Transgender Alliance’s TRANSforming Arts group is the first ever transgender-specific creative expression group run in Scotland.
 
During the 2008/2009 financial year, fourteen intensive TRANSforming Arts creative writing workshops were run, mostly held in the Glasgow LGBT Centre. The TRANSforming Arts participants performed selections of their creative writing to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20th November 2008 and to mark LGBT History Month in Glasgow on 5th February 2009 and in Edinburgh on 21st February 2009. Further TRANSforming Arts workshops and perfomances are currently being planned for the 2009/2010 financial year.

The key objective in running the STA TRANSforming Arts group is to increase accurate and positive public representations of transgender experiences in Scotland.

Many transgender people experience high levels of transphobic harassment and discrimination in their local communities and Scottish social attitudes are more negative towards transgender people than towards other minority groups. Mainstream media representations of transgender people often mock their identities and perpetuate negative stereotypes and transphobic prejudice rather than challenge it. Therefore, transgender people in Scotland can be particularly nervous of attempts to publicly and creatively represent their lives and experiences to the Scottish public.

The STA’s TRANSforming Arts group was developed to be a safe and supportive way to empower transgender people in Scotland to create their own representations of their lives and experiences and increase their confidence sufficiently for them to be comfortable performing their work live in front of small audiences. The group was facilitated by Jo Clifford - a playwright who is experienced in using creative performance to explore transgender experiences in an empowering manner and constructively mentoring inexperienced writers to increase their skills.

Jo Clifford, the facilitator of the STA’s TRANSforming Arts group explains why the group is so important and the increase in positive public representation of transgender experiences which it has resulted in: 

“One of the real difficulties transgendered people face is that our self-expression is silenced. In our fear and our shame, we often leave behind the painful limitations of the gender into which we were born and then submerge ourselves in the gender which we know to be our true home. 
But our experience of transformation is immensely valuable: and our voices deserve to be heard. 
In October 2008, I began facilitating the Scottish Transgender Alliance TRANSforming Arts group in Glasgow, and it continued to March 2009 over 14 sessions. 
The group consists of transgender people who all express their gender identity in different ways. What unites us is our determination to express and celebrate that difference through words; through publication and performance. 
We have performed our writings in various public spaces, notably for Transgender Remembrance Day in November 2008, and for LGBT History Month in February 2009. 
We have published the scripts of these events, so we can retain ownership of them while also making them available to other LGBT organisations who might find them helpful. 
Individual members of the group are now participating in the social justice community art outreach programme at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. One of us has had her writing published by Scottish Women’s Aid; another will shortly be performing in an alternative cabaret show in Edinburgh, and is involved in making his/her work into a film. Yet another is working on a sequence of short stories. My AN APPLE A DAY will be performed at Oran Mor and the Traverse in April and I will be performing my JESUS, QUEEN OF HEAVEN at Glasgay in November 2009. 
Participation in this group has had a profoundly positive effect on all our lives. We are looking for further opportunities to develop and share the work we have been doing together.”

Although the TRANSforming Arts group was primarily set up simply as a way to increase accurate and positive public representations of transgender experiences in Scotland, it has become very clear that the provision of the TRANSforming Arts group also significantly improves the general mental wellbeing and coping skills of the participants:

One of the group participants explains: 

“I joined the TRANSforming Arts Group shortly after my transition commenced last year. At that time I was very isolated. In my day to day life, I never met any trans people, I had no one who I could share my worries and concerns with, at least no one who actually understood what I meant without having to explain everything from the basics. The group, despite representing a very diverse range of transgender people, has for the first time in my life given me a sense of community. 
Through the group I have not only become more confident in my writing skills, but I have also found ways of articulating and coming to terms with various issues from my past, such as my alcoholism and attempted suicide. A concrete example of the direct benefit of the group is that, only a couple of months ago I was driven to consider self-harm when I became overwhelmed by circumstances at that time, but instead of self-harming, I chose to capture the feelings in writing, by which time the urge had passed.”

Another of the group participants confirms: 

“It was probably the one thing that not only kept me sane over the past few months, it is probably the one thing that has really challenged me to better my personal circumstances all round. I am now looking into every single way I possibly can to improve my current situation and circumstances, and currently, I am doing really quite a good job of that, this workshop, was what I feel was the thing that really set my new found determination in stone. So, can I sum-up Transforming Arts in a single word? Actually, yes I can – transforming!”

The audience reactions to the TRANSforming Arts storytelling performances were extremely positive:

“I just wanted to thank you for this evening. I appreciated the courage that it took for them to write, and to tell their stories, and their ability to transcend their circumstances and find humor or curiosity in their situation, regardless of what befell them. Really good stuff. thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“Funny - sad - powerfull - thought provoking. REALLY ENJOYABLE!”

“Thanks so much for an amazing afternoon. Makes me want to write my own story. Real spiritual + artistic value for ALL queer or not.”

“Inspirational!!!”


PDF scripts of the TRANSforming Arts group's storytelling performances marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20th November 2008 and LGBT History Month in February 2009 can be downloaded from the box at the left-hand side of this webpage.