Joelle Ruby Ryan
Gender Quake is a book of revolutionary poems that explores what it means to be a transgendered individual in America. Joelle Ruby Ryan, a self-styled 6’6” transgender warrior, bares her soul in this collection of poems which is at turns humorous, poignant, searing and deeply passionate. From the ashes of loneliness, rage, and despair, Ryan charts an emotional trajectory which jolts readers into confronting their own shared humanity with differently-gendered people. Ryan covers topics as diverse as feminism, porn, passing, violence, activism and the urgent need for solidarity across lines of identity and difference. While the book explores the darkest corners of a life marred by pain, discrimination and self-hatred, it also repeatedly calls upon hope, love and justice as the primary correctives for imagining a better world. Gender Quake will shock you, educate you and most of all move you to join the fight for a gender revolution.
“So World, take note: the Gender Quake is ready to activate, and the whirl is gonna be blissful, and divine, and unstoppable.”
Joelle Ruby Ryan holds Master of Arts degrees in English and Women’s Studies. Currently, she is a doctoral student in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, where her research focuses on gender/sexuality studies and film/media studies. She has taught university classes in English Composition, Women’s Studies, American Studies and Ethnic Studies. She is the founder of New Hampshire Transgender Resources for Education and Empowerment (NH TREE) and the co-producer of two autobiographical videos: A Transgender Path and TransAmazon: A Gender Queer Journey. She is a frequent speaker on issues of gender, identity and social justice in classes, community groups and regional and national conferences. She can be reached via the web at www.transpride.org.
Gender Quake
It’s time for Gender Quake
A radical sex role shake
Ending the great bipolar mistake
The boy/girl divide we will unmake.
Gender Warriors are all over the place
A rainbow of diversity—there is no single face
We fly through the world at a lightning pace
Sparkling our glitter with a steadfast and loving grace.
What we want, of course, is to be completely free
To be full human beings, not your shackled he-she
Life is so short, and sure as hell got no guarantee
To create a new world you must hear our fervent plea.
People are creating change in so many ways
Standing up for who they are, saying this ain’t no phase
Liberation is so strong it’s truly a craze
So many minds to open, so many trails to blaze.
Gender Quake is not a figure of speech
Transformation has an unstoppable reach
From the majestic mountain top to the pristine beach
We come to organize, rally, preach and teach.
Can you feel the tremors, ripple through the air
The undulating shocks causing righteous repair
It’s an earth-shaking affair, oh this I do declare!
A volcano of freedom, for ALL of our welfare.
It will always be tough for us on the fault line
But resistance, my friends, is an encouraging sign
Multiple seismic upheavals will forever realign
A potent desire no malevolent force can undermine.
So, it’s high time for a Gender Quake
An end to violence, pain and heartache
Justice, freedom and love will swiftly overtake
Shoulder-to-shoulder, the world we WILL remake.
