Before the event started, Ryka Aoki mingled. She walked down the aisle in Watson Theater and stopped by groups of students, thanking them for coming. During her introduction, she giggled, curtsied and waved at the audience.

Aoki spoke Monday as part of Transgender Day of Liberation, an event co-sponsored by ASIA, A-LINE, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the LGBT Resource Center.

Tiffany Gray, associate director of the LGBT Resource Center, introduced Aoki as a published poet, performer and professor. Aoki graduated from Cornell University with an Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and was the recipient of a University Award from the Academy of American Poets.

She began by speaking about November. The Transgender Day of Remembrance is in November, so consequently, November is when she gets the most work. She said it was relieving to speak on a day of liberation and not just on one of remembrance.

‘To have a day like this shows we are more than just memories,’ she said.

She said there was a time when coming out as transgender was thought of as a death sentence. There was no hope for the future because there didn’t seem to be one.

‘It’s as if we were planning for this brief life of glitter, drag and woe,’ she said.

Transgender individuals can now start thinking about tomorrow, she said, because of hard persistent work from the transgender community.

‘As trans people there is work to be done right now,’ she said. ‘Not simply learning survival skills, but learning and teaching them.’

Aoki then read two pieces of poetry from her newest book, ‘Seasonal Velocities.’ The book was published by Trans-Genre Press, a publishing company run by a completely transgender staff.

In one poem, she gave insight into the life of a transgender woman in Los Angeles. In the poem, she’s continually getting hit on by men at a bar with the same story and feels like she has to act a certain way.

‘If you’re smart, you’d know I know more than I’m letting on,’ she said. ‘But you’re not.’

She then spoke of the trans-liberation as not just a movement about transgender people, but as part of a bigger human liberation movement that’s fighting for everyone’s freedom.

But, Aoki said, this fight isn’t an ‘eye for an eye’ situation. ‘Saying I suffered and you shall as well doesn’t liberate,’ she said.

Aoki gave the example that some women, who at one point couldn’t run for office, are now denying rights to homosexuals. They, who have been liberated, are now continuing the circle of oppression, she said.

The last step to liberation is not liberation itself, she said, but making sure you don’t become the oppressor.

The problem, Aoki said, lies in that basic human rights need to be bought and earned.

‘In a liberated society, we should all start equal and work extra hard to be treated differently,’ she said. ‘We should not be born different, and work extra hard to be treated the same.’

Autumn Elniski, a sophomore paper engineering major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said she came to the event to experience a different perspective.

‘The biggest thing I took away is you have to learn to be comfortable with yourself and not let insecurities and sorrows bring you down,’ she said.

Erin Carhart, a sophomore policy studies and women’s and gender studies, also said the event was inspiring.

‘The greatest message is that trans-liberation can flower into human liberation,’ she said. ‘It liberates all of us.’

seschust@syr.edu 

Published on April 10, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Sarah: seschust@syr.edu