Qmmunity: Speak for Yourself

Local author KB Brookins describes themselves as a “career Texan,” and so it’s no surprise they’ve dedicated new memoir Pretty to the Lone Star State. This dedication isn’t uncritical: Brookins’ story is one built from the often contradictory forces of love and hate always at play in Texas, especially for someone whose Black trans experience puts them in opposition to the state’s oppressive politics. That’s why the second line of the dedication stands out as much as the first: “and all my bois who didn’t get to be boys.”

“I’ve only ever lived in a state that’s been working overtime to snuff out people like me since Black folk built it brick by brick way back when,” Brookins explains. Yet, it’s the same site of “nearly all the love I give and have been given,” they say. Pretty, out from publisher Knopf this past May and currently being toured by Brookins, reads as a map of this experience. To deny the setting of their life flattens it into two dimensions. “I transition here, I laugh here, I discover myself here,” Brookins says. “Texas is shown in the way that I speak, think, dream, do everything.”

“[When] I go to literary conferences and speak to audiences worldwide,” Brookins continues, “they have the nerve sometimes to feel sorry for me because I live in a 'regressive state.’ Since when has everywhere in the country not been regressive in its attitude towards all the identities that I am? Since when do we divorce our joy from the terror that we live through every day?”

Pretty is a tool against this predetermined narrative. As a primary source document of Brookins’ life, it stands in opposition to those who overwrite the stories of marginalized creators. “For a lot of us – especially trans, Black, &/or queer folks – other people (politicians, queerphobes, etc.) are constantly trying to tell us who we are,” they explain. “But in memoir, you can’t tell me what happened; the writer is the arbiter of truth.” When able to communicate their experiences with adoption, childhood sexual abuse, religious trauma, etc. in prose, Brookins says “I felt empowered to talk about things that I’d lived through, empowered to finally stop letting others speak for me.”

Brookins’ more common format – poetry – also appears in Pretty as a scene setting for many chapters. Writing nonfiction carried new challenges for the author, such as learning new rules in order to break them, but Brookins says that “the lines between memoir, personal essay, cultural criticism, and even poetry get blurred a lot in Pretty.” Despite initially envisioning the book as a poetry collection, the possibilities in nonfiction prose proved enticing. “There’s real power in saying, 'Hey, let me tell you about my life’ or 'This happened to me,’” Brookins says, “in the sense that people that have the same or similar experiences as me feel like their lives are not ones that can only exist in fantasy.” They reference a 2022 essay written for HuffPost, an early memoir piece on Brookins’ time seeing a gynecologist, as an example: “[There] are no slaying of dragons involved in going to the gynecologist as a Black trans person in Texas; just the truth, which feels absurd but is an everyday reality for many people.” Mixing together previously written poetry already painted in Pretty’s main themes (“Blackness, transness, masculinity”) with full exploration of the events that inspired them made the memoir, in Brookins’ words, “the genre (and gender)-bendy book that it is.”

In their own words, Brookins says Pretty is a book for “[if] you’d like to know more about being Black and trans in Texas, or you’d like to both laugh and cry, or you wanna see how one person created their own masculinity ... or you want to hear about how I would change the world if I could, or want to read about adoption, or trying to find one’s birth day, or trying to love one’s body, or trying to shake the feeling of not 'fitting in,’ or you love Solange and Frank Ocean, or you enjoy sexual/gender identity exploration, or you want to know how adult gossip affects children, or you want to read about religious (Christian) trauma from the perspective of a preacher’s kid.”

A little more simply: “I’ve lived many lives,” Brookins says, “so there is something in there for everyone.”

Hard Rubber

Friday 19, Highland Lounge

Let the rubber meet the road – aka the basement at Highland – at this techno & trance dance rave featuring music by ROSEi CiTY and Lucia Beyond. Grab tix early for $10 or at the door for $15.

Kingdom: Barbie Ball

Friday 19, Oilcan’s

The gentry of Castle Oilcan celebrate fantastic plastic on this dolled-up date, aka the one year anniversary of the Barbie movie! Join host Alexander the Great along with cast members Kino Kino, Brigitte Bandit, and Selma Bawdy – plus special guest Yvonna F’Mei Starr – for games, themed drag, and a costume contest.

Distorted

Saturday 20, Ovenbird

Malibu Imported hosts this South side drag show with brunch & drink specials and drag by Yvonna F’Mei, Eileen Dover, Iris Fleur, and Thee Carmelle.

Body Mechanics

Saturday 20, 4211 Todd Ln.

This weekend’s all vinyl at the once declared “worst rave” in Austin by – wait, by US? Oh no! Well, they’ll prove the faux Chron wrong with a night featuring DJs Ladyroxoxo, DJ FreakQ, and a b2b set from Dream Days and Jay Berd.

Oops! All DJs

Saturday 20, Double Trouble

Queer Vinyl Collective hosts an all-night DJ takeover on North Loop, with tunes from QVC resident platter spinners like DJ Dana Scully, DJ Beaujolais, and Celina Zisman.

Bebesota Drag Brunch

Sunday 21, Taquero Mucho

Bring your best girls, boys, and theys to this hot drag brunch special featuring host Beauty and cast members Amber Nicole Davenport, DeeGee Rey Whitney, and Kylie Gorgeous Dlux.

Sapphic Singles

Sunday 21, Double Trouble

Meet the love of your life or just a few new friends at this queer-women focused social. Erin Camp and Areesha Singh host.

Queer AF

Tuesday 23, Rain on 4th

Host Basura brings the best drag to your weeknight with performances by Miss Good, Yvonna F’Mei, and Lavender Thug. Plus tunes by DJ Montez.

Greetings From Queer Mountain

Tuesday 23, Cheer Up Charlies

Author and Portland-export Joni Dorian guest hosts this queer story-telling night where anyone can come tell their “Turning Point” tale.

Queer Film Theory: Action Movies

Thursday 25, Barrel O’ Fun

Who doesn’t love hot sweaty movie stars tussling with robots, beasts, and – what else – toxic masculinity? Join four queer film “professors” as they dissect their favorite action movies for hidden homosexual agendas – but in a fun way, we promise!