November is Transgender Awareness Month, so it’s time to make special kites! We’ll be hosting a Made for Flight kites workshop and you’re invited to share your creativity.  Come on in and write community shared poetry, learn about the kites that will be on display, and help to decorate kites to commemorate the loss of a member of our community with hopes to educate and heal.

The Library will be displaying kites from previous years at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library through the month of November.  Please join us in creating ‘tails’ for the kites. There will be materials on the first floor to create a personal message, image or sentiment for Transgender Awareness.

This workshop will be held in the Children’s Meeting Room on the 1st floor of the Main Library.

What’s Made for Flight?

Known as Made for Flight, this project was first orchestrated by TC Tolbert back in 2010, as he felt there needed to be more done to memorialize the ones we’ve lost beyond just an annual quiet vigil, and in turn raise awareness about the travesty of the hundreds of those murdered every year for being trans-identified — especially transgender women of color. When completed, kites are mounted on long staffs and walked through the annual All Souls Procession, as well as put on display at the resource fair on the University of Arizona campus and during the annual vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance (which takes place on November 20th).

This year, kites made during workshops in previous years are being displayed here in the downtown public library, demonstrating vigil, awareness, and solidarity within Tucson for the transgender community.

—Southern Arizona Gender Alliance and Queer Archives