Open-access, peer reviewed article available here: Soapbox Journal

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A green strobe falls upon a convulsing body, naked from the waist up. With their mouth and hands illuminated, boychild crashes and breaks through a series of spasmodic bodily gestures to the lyrics of ‘say my name.’ As they come to an uncharacteristic pause they slowly arc their body backwards, falling into a pose of -almost- abandon to the beat, the lyrics, and the captivated audience. They hang suspended.

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The above short describes part of boychild’s performance to Cyril Hahn’s remix of the song Say My Name. originally by Destiny’s Child, during artist/activist Mykki Blanco’s set at Off Festival in 2013. Through this performance by the mixed-race, mixed-gender boychild set to a remixed RnB classic, I propose to consider how remixing acts as an agitative, queer design practice. In connecting Kodwo Eshun’s discussion of ‘remixing as reincarnation’ to both the current COVID19 pandemic, anti-trans* backlash, and ‘transgender rage’ (Stryker, 237-254) I propose that a form of contagious trans*birthing is relayed through boychild’s performance. This intervention seeks to detach birthing from both reproductive bodies and space-time locality, to instead consider how the performance enacts a contagious kin making that simultaneously ventriloquises previous trans*cestors and acts as a future trans*birthing practice.

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The full boychild video that I am referencing can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQw_kHoGKic