The Small Trans Library
Along with the evergreen Library goal of bringing trans people together in community, the STFC aims to bring together the work of contemporary trans filmmakers and underseen archival films by and about trans people. Screenings have included short films, feature presentations, live scoring by trans musicians and festival collaborations, with themes including trans parenthood, animation, dance, and an audience favourite strand on trans sexuality and intimacy. Of course, this being Cork Pride, you might say–enough about Dublin, where’s the Small Trans Library Cork? Well, you tell me! Core to the Library’s mission is that trans people need to be able to come together in community in person. To feed one another at potlucks, swim together in the sea, dance together in the club–this kind of community can only happen when we’re in a room together. And so we welcome trans people in Cork–or any town or city–who wish they had their own Small Trans Library to reach out to us or start a conversation on what trans people in their towns enjoy, what they crave, what they want to share. There are already three branches of the STL in operation–in Dublin, Glasgow and Belfast–and there is potential to start a new branch wherever there are trans people who want not just to live but to thrive. Fostering community is crucial to building power and resistance in the face of a growing Irish far right. To fight, we have to be able to live, and live well.
Any profile of the Small Trans Library Dublin should start with this: if you are a trans person on the island of Ireland and you are struggling, you can email dublin@smalltranslibrary.org to request money from the Library’s mutual aid fund. Founded in 2018, the current incarnation of the Small Trans Library Dublin crystallised around the administration of this mutual aid fund, initially created to support Irish trans in the COVID-19 pandemic. The availability and necessity of this resource brought the Library to the attention of many Irish trans people, as well as cis allies who were eager to lend their support. Following that, a series of park picnics over the summer of 2021 gave dozens of trans people in Dublin a way to come together during an extremely isolated time, and both the Library and the Dublin trans community have flourished in the years that followed. The titular Library is both aspirational and practical; while the Small Trans Library has no brick-and-mortar headquarters–but would welcome any donations of a spare office or two–it hosts a catalogue of over 600 trans and queer authored books available to borrow at pop-up library stalls and
This catalogue was the seed that today’s Library grew out of, and we can see much of the Library’s DNA in it; free access to trans books invariably enrich the lives of trans people who can read them, connecting them both to the artists and to the other trans people who have shared that book. The physical book becomes a
tangible connection to the wider trans community, and it becomes something to share and gather around that is entirely ours, not related to our pathologization by the medical establishment or our relationship to cis people and lawmakers. Sharing trans art is one of the first steps to fostering a thriving trans community, and the books are where that began. But if it’s not actually a physical library, what is the Small Trans Library? In broad strokes, it’s a grassroots community group striving to make life comfortable and pleasurable for trans people in Ireland. Along with the mutual aid fund and the book loans, much of this comes through the library’s community events which have included book clubs, book launches, reading groups and academic seminars and workshops, sea swims, self defence classes and skateboarding sessions. Since community members contribute to the Library’s schedule according to their own diverse interests and abilities, events programming stays fresh and eclectic. In the
work from the Irish trans community. Librarian Greta took the helm
alone for the first show but she’ll be joined by cohost Méabh in future. We also ran our first TTRPG and board game
day with some volunteer DMs taking players through one-shot Dungeons & Dragons adventures, and some shorter board games for other people to drop in and out throughout the day. This event was a big success–places for the D&D games booked out fast, so keep an eye out for another game day in future. These have come alongside the regular Small Trans Film Club, a monthly event screening films by, for and about trans people since November 2022 programmed by librarian James Hudson.
early months of 2024 we’ve already held two brand new events; in March we had our first radio show on Dublin Digital Radio, where we’ll be playing chill Sunday morning tunes on a monthly basis, with a community submission segment for poetry, songs, soundscapes, or any other audio-medium
other library events, as well as available to loan across the island of Ireland through free postal loans.
CONTACT: Web: smalltranslibrary.org
Twitter/Instagram: @translibdub Email: dublin@smalltranslibrary.org
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