Poetry and Trans Politics: DarkMatter

“Trans people aren’t the problem, gender binaries are,” says Alok Vaid-Menon of DarkMatter, a transgender South Asian performance duo with Janani Balasubramanian. DarkMatter are playing to sold out audiences in theatres and art spaces around the world with their passionate, political poetry that explores race, gender, internationalism, liberation, and more, including a fierce critique of what they see as mainstream LGBT politics. Vaid-Menon also works with The Audre Lorde Project; Janani Balasubramanian is the primary organizer at the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, a contributing writer at Black Girl Dangerous, and is working on a science fiction novel.