Prominent U.K. writer, performer, and playwright Travis Alabanza, the youngest recipient of the Artist-in-Residency program at Tate Galleries, is no stranger to archiving their existence. Burgerz, their award-winning debut show, was born out of an incident in which a burger and transphobic slurs were thrown at them. In None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary, Alabanza again beautifully memorializes their experience as a Black, trans, gender-nonconforming person. They interrogate categorization and the gender binary through the use of seven phrases that have been spoken toward them over the years (e.g., "So when did you know?" and "This ain't a thing we do round here, son"), "phrases that will immortalize the experience of those who are None of the above." At times, Alabanza struggles with the exhaustion of harassment; of being perceived; and of how white supremacy, race, and class complicate their transness. Their honesty is refreshing and affirming to anyone feeling like an imposter in their body: "I also can't remember the last time I read about someone in flux. Not reflecting on their transition as a past event, but instead trying to grasp the disorientating nature of being within one."
None of the Above concludes with hope for trans futures, Alabanza noting that untethered imagination and a reclamation of the narrative by trans people around trans bodies offers a path toward embodiment of a life beyond the binary. Much like Solange's "F.U.B.U.," Alabanza's mantra-like phrase--"This is for us, baby, not for them"--grounds them and ultimately reminds them and readers that choice and, most importantly, transness are a gift. --Sydney Tillman, freelance publicist