This week, I talked with Estrella Salgado, a junior studying history with a minor in Museum Studies. She told me all about the perks of the minor, rude people, and her commitment to the power of museums. You can find her at the U-M Museum of Natural History, where she works as a docent.
Haloumi is cheese made from goat and sheep milk. That’s really the only part of this one I can explain.
Hope everyone had a relaxing break, and if not I hope you can absorb some of the restful vibes from this comic. Besides giving my lads a chance to chill, I was excited about this page because I wanted to make it a bit more explicit that both of them are trans men. As a trans person myself it’s important to me to represent and normalize trans bodies in media, because we exist and we deserve to see reflections of ourselves in the world! Of course, Basil and Gideon aren’t representational of all trans masc people, but they’re a little bit of what I’d like to have seen when I was growing up and figuring out gender.
The funny thing about the “To be or not to be” speech (which is the one Basil is supposed to be giving here) is that it’s too iconic. In my Shakespeare class we discussed how it can be difficult to understand this speech as both an actor and as a reader/viewer because it’s so famous, it’s lost its meaning. In a way “to be” has come to stand as an icon for the entire play. However, Oscar Wilde once said that “there are as many Hamlet’s as there are melancholies”. Which I take to mean that you have to take your own experience with melancholy to your reading of Hamlet and then Hamlet becomes more legible because he is part of you.
Basil + Gideon is an ongoing narrative comic, if this is your first time reading check out the first installment here!
This week, I talked with Sarah Cripsey, a sophomore in SMTD’s Bachelor of Theatre Arts program. She can be found on Instagram @sarahemilycripsey and stars as Lucy in “Vamps,” a new musical from NERDS that will be performing in Lorch Hall 140 on December 6th at 7pm and December 7th at 2pm and 7pm.
It’s just been Transgender Week of Awareness, so here’s a comic about something very important to me. My partner Cam is working on helping UHS switch to an informed consent model, and this will give you some information about what that means. Here’s the poster for the upcoming town hall meeting:
If this is something you also think is important, come to the meeting and show your support! If you can’t but you’re interested in this issue, I recommend reading up on informed consent and transgender healthcare, and spreading some awareness to help celebrate this week.
Thanks for reading!
