Trans* Resistance Through Artful Existence: A Zine
Preface
The TransLab is proud to support the launch of the zine, Trans* Resistance Through Artful Existence, which emerged from The GenderFULL Meditation Project. This project was an eight-week, student-led community initiative run through the TransLab at Athabasca University. The project was funded by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Student Research Grant and coordinated by Kat Dittrich (they/them), Student Outreach Coordinator, during the summer of 2025.
Between July and August, participants gathered weekly in an online space to meditate, reflect, and talk together in community. Each session centered on a single theme connected to the experience of trans* life and was inspired by the work of a Trans, Two-Spirit, non-binary, or gender non-conforming artist or activist from Alberta.
The zine that followed grew organically from this process. With a general call for submissions, contributors from the Alberta trans community offered artwork, writing, and reflections shaped by their own lived experiences. These pieces were then assembled and designed by Jay Learn (he/they), TransLab Knowledge Mobilization & Social Media Coordinator. What follows is Kat’s reflection on the project and the zine it produced, offering their insights on collective process and why this zine matters now, especially in Alberta.
Trans* Resistance Through Artful Existence
By Kat Dittrich
Visibility is a difficult experience to navigate for the Two-Spirit, Transgender, Non-binary, and gender non-conforming (trans*) community. Visibility resists attempts to silence trans* experiences, but it also opens up this community to resistance. However, to go underground is to be erased. In a world that often demands survival at the expense of self-expression, the zine Trans Resistance Through Artful Existence offers a radical, vibrant counter-narrative: one where resistance is embodied in joy, creativity, and unapologetic presence.
This zine isn’t just a collection of art and words; it’s a manifesto of living. It weaves together poetry, visual art, personal reflections, and political declarations from trans* creators who see their very existence as a form of resistance.
A Living Archive of Defiance and Beauty
From hand-drawn illustrations to bold collage layouts, Trans Resistance Through Artful Existence bursts with life. Each page feels like a reclamation of space. The art doesn’t beg to be understood; it demands to be witnessed. Whether it’s a poem about the trans* body as sacred terrain or a chaotic visual explosion of colour and rage, the message is clear: trans* people are not just surviving, they are creating, dreaming, and thriving.
One of the zine’s core themes is that art isn’t a luxury for trans* people, it’s armour, it’s healing, it’s community-building. The contributors share deeply personal experiences that span a range of expressions of trans*ness through art. Each piece is an offering: a reminder that the trans* experience is not monolithic and deserving of space and reverence.
In a time where trans* communities are under renewed political and cultural attack globally, and close to home here in Alberta, Trans Resistance Through Artful Existence serves as both record and rebellion. It captures the raw, unfiltered voices of people who are often spoken about rather than with. It doesn’t center pain, though it doesn’t shy away from it. Instead, it insists on complexity. On full humanity.
How to Support
If you’re looking to get a free PDF copy, https://transresearchlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Trans-Resistance-through-Artful-Existence-PDF.pdf
And if you’re trans*, this zine is for you. If you’re not, this zine is still for you; to witness, to learn, and to show up differently.
Final Thoughts
Trans Resistance Through Artful Existence isn’t just a zine. It’s a love letter to trans* creativity, to staying alive, and to making something beautiful while doing it. It reminds us that resistance can take on many forms, such as softness, glitter, mess, or creating a zine with friends late at night, knowing that’s enough.
This is what it means to resist with artful existence.