J Mase III

“Healing does not require a fixation upon or reinstantiation of narratives--the ones we make about ourselves or those others make for us. The insistence on such runs the risk of falling into Euro-North American colonial lies about how our psycho-emotional selves should function. Narrative can sometimes be a useful tool, (particularly in the crafting of new narratives), but is one of a myriad of possibilities. A move away from this form of functioning is to refuse the exploitive nature of what has come to be referred to as "trauma porn." In some healing modalities, it is by choosing to not engage in endless narrativizations that replay sites of harm that frees us from the trappings of getting stuck there (what can be an evasion of the healing process). Creating narratives, again echoing Gina Breedlove, can keep us trapped in questioning the validity of someone's lived experience, rather than the facts of the harm. It is how "but he is such a nice guy" takes precedent over having survived, and then having to hear incessant tales of said "nice guy" while feeling the harm in your bones. I refuse to give the harm any power over my life by narrating the details so as to make them seem up for debate, a conversation, or gratuitous consumption. In this intentional choice, I understand that my medicine and the medicine we hold as Black trans people is not born out of the ashes of trauma but rather, further refined by that which crumbles in the magnificence of its presence. It is from her I wish to depart. May my ancestors and Oludumare forever humble me before the life s/he has given and continues to give me.

--Daniel B. Coleman”
― J Mase III, The Black Trans Prayer Book