Documenting Our Own Lives: On H. Melt's "The Plural, The Blurring"

After putting out my post on some books by TGNC writers to check out, I had the pleasure of getting sent another book to read for myself. This was H. Melt's collection of short poems and essays documenting some of Chicago's queer and trans spaces and artists from their perspective. I recommend this quick, but not necessarily easy (as it is chokefull of emotions) read and here I offer some thoughts as to why. Thank you for writing and sending this to me H.

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In this small sized book, Melt packed a bit of punch and vulnerability, sharing personal thought and emotion on all things political and artistic that they have experienced mostly since coming to Chicago with homages to home and past, including Vermont, where I had first met H. (I'm not sure H remembers tho). The pieces that spoke to trans oppression and resistance within their arts school was particularly grabbing for me. There's an undeniable humanity in Melt's writing. It would be almost trite to say innocence, and probably inaccurate, but you can't help but hear the author, and not just read their words.

Ultimately, what Melt does with this book, is exactly what they're calling for all of us to do, and that is to document and to document collectively, not necessarily as a unified singular voice, but voices that honor our multiplicities and invites more of us into the fray. One of the ways Melt does this is by documenting not just their own being and life, but that of other artists that they have come to know, love, build with, and mourn. And as Melt themself said,

“No one will do it for us./We must do it. Ourselves./We must do it. Together.”