| Memory of an Avalanche is a graphic memoir about my memory of multiple traumas: the unsettling transitions of immigration status, community, and the gendered body. Set in Los Angeles within a one-year span (2011-2012), the story follows me, a recently graduated international student, as I navigate the nonprofit industrial complex to secure a work visa, deal with waves of unaccountable queer and trans community violence, and begin to physically transition from female to male while losing legal status.Memory of an Avalanche draws upon devastating traumas of the past in order imagine alternative queer futures that challenge capitalistic social formations, transnational circuits of exploitation, and white supremacist/heteronormative systems of erasure. Through alternative economies of desire and representation, this long-form graphic narrative transforms comic conventions into a medium for queer survival and community building—one that encompasses the complexity of intersectional struggles, disrupts mainstream LGBT politics of recognition and belonging, and builds allies horizontally across experiences. These images are part of my process of “working against the grain” artistically, interpersonally, and institutionally across various cultural spaces. |
