Leon Tsai / Canada
“Leon Tsai (she/her), a Taiwanese transgender femme settler-immigrant (un)learning in Tkaronto (Toronto), Turtle Island. She is a blossoming flower giving birth to herself, a student/poet/storyteller searching for where the light pours in… Journeying to heal from a past of bullying, self-harm, domestic violence, and survival sex work to the present reality of institutional marginalization, economic instability, as well as continuous social unsafety: Leon meditates on the compassionate politics of transformative justice while striving to manifest for community reparations/healing. Coming to Canada at the age of 12 and coming out as trans-feminine around 16, her survival lies through the intersections of visibility and violence… ‘Blossom’ not ‘Bloom’: as blossoming refers to the whole glory of blooming and not just its peak.” She still sleeps on a mattress where she was rap*d on, embracing pain for salvation as sanity becomes a privilege… Leon weeps/wilts but her loneliness gets her through, she was told not just to embody life but to be the embodiment of love instead. While surviving/navigating through a colonial-capitalist society in a postmodern era, what becomes the most illegal is one’s radical self-love. Especially as marginalized people experiencing intergenerational traumas/oppression, Leon believes that the key towards healing is of our strength through vulnerability and staying soft against systems of assimilation.”
