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tiny trans pride pottery, anyone? 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵

pssst: I post more frequently as a multimedia artist (abstract painter, zine fiend, amateur tiny pottery enthusiast, etc.) on instagram @ devinst_art!

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A Manifesto for the Liberated Autistic

(written by one Autistic person!)

Communication is a human right!  We demand access to whatever form of communication we choose, including unconditional access to Augmented and Alternative Communication technologies.

We demand autonomy over our own bodies and rightful decision-making powers over our own lives as we see fit.

We demand freedom from police brutality and all forms of abuse, including seclusion and physical and chemical restraint in schools and hospitals, and we demand freedom from all forms of violence, including filicide.

We demand that the shameful Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts—and all other institutions like it—be shut down.  #StopTheShock

ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is conversion therapy for autistics.  We demand freedom from all oppressive “interventions” or “treatments” and quack “cures” for Autism which seek to rob us of what—and who—we are.

We demand unsegregated access to an education alongside our peers.

We demand access to our own communities and our own cultures, and we demand access to knowledge of our people’s history!

We demand meaningful employment and an end to sub-minimum wage for all disabled people.

The way we move is political, and we demand freedom from all pressures to “behave” in accordance with neurotypical standards.  Embrace the stim!  

We must commit to cross-disability solidarity and cross-movement solidarity.

#ActuallyAutistic people are the REAL experts on Autism.

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Golden hour on the river Seine in Paris, France. Captured on my Pentax Auto 110. Instagram

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In 2023, I listened to 47 audiobooks, (totaling over 365 hours!) watched 15 documentary films, and tuned in to countless podcasts. Here are some highlights and recommendations.

Happy new year!

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I just published the 7th edition of Up to Something, a segment of my (always free) Substack newsletter, which is also available to read on Medium. Check it out for my latest media recommendations and general artsy endeavors!

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Copies of Mad Thought: a zine about being psychiatrized are available on my Etsy! It's a text-based, 12-page zine (or self-published booklet) of thoughts on my experience with psychiatric treatment. It also features a related ~400 word creative nonfiction essay I wrote. This zine measures roughly 8.5 by 5.5 inches and it is staple-bound. Thanks for checking out my work!

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Mount Tahoma as seen through the lens of my film camera on a flight into Seattle last month.

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a self-portrait in 7 of my google searches from last week:

“what is relationship anarchy”

“what is a slime mold”

“can a slime mold be trained to solve mazes”

“unexplained fevers”

“chicken of the woods”

“how many days until May 24, 2023”

“shrinky dink ideas”

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Mad Out Loud (my essay from Tinfoil Hats: Stories by Mad People in an Insane World)

Tinfoil Hats: Stories by Mad People in an Insane World is a collection of writing edited by Phil Smith and published by Autonomous Press. I wrote the following essay in 2020, and it was selected for the anthology, which was published earlier this year in 2023. Tinfoil Hats: Stories by Mad People in an Insane World is available for purchase in both e-book and paperback formats. As always, thank you for reading. — Devin S. Turk

The translucent pill boxes. The laminated hospital bracelets. The safety levels. The strip-search. All the hours spent staring at the carpet in therapy offices, trying to justify my life through words that don’t feel like they fit right. These things have happened to me. Even now, grasping at gut feelings and whisps of my memory to form these words is like trying to capture the vastness of the ocean in a bucket. I have been articulating myself over and over to what feels like little avail. I tell curious and well-meaning people that “no, those aren’t my pronouns” or “actually, I am Autistic.” I explain, explain, explain that referring to me as “high functioning” is an ableist aggression (before attempting to teach people what the word “ableist” means), that I am neither a man nor a woman, and that many things in my life — from my gender to my medical history — are “kind of a long story.” I explain, rinse, and repeat in conversations with friends old and new, with family, with strangers, and with health professionals. I noticed this cycle of articulation first with my transness, then my Autism, followed by the reckoning of such a combination. Now, finally, I see this urgency embedded in my quest to articulate something I have come to know as “Madness.” (continued on my Medium blog!)

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16 Trans Agendas for the Modern Queer

Live to old age.

Enjoy a nice snack.

Cuddle up with my cat.

Demand good healthcare.

Create a chosen family.

Soak in queer community.

Reject any need for cis approval.

Respect pronouns.

Breathe deep breaths.

Admire surgical scars.

Be kind.

Tell my friends that I love them.

Be endlessly creative.

T4T.

Watch the sunrise.

Persist.

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Some things I am, (mostly) in the order they occur to me, just for fun.

Autistic. Trans. Nonbinary. Cat lover. Mail artist. Film photographer. Ice cream soda enjoyer. Whale admirer. Probably nauseous. Cargo shorts wearer. Audiobook and podcast listener. Ponderer of Disability and Mad studies. Slowly and sporadically trying to learn to play the piano. Fidgeter. Hater of Bad textures. Documentary film watcher. Tetris player. College student. Poet. List maker. Mid-Atlantic USA dweller. On TikTok a lot. Zine maker. Abstract painter. Queer. Quite fond of my friends, but lonely sometimes. Freaked out by bugs. Former Softball player. Oddly skilled at memorizing digits of Pi despite despising math. Likely Dyscalculic. Tiny art collector. Hand flapper. Nervous about applying to graduate school. That person who takes their cat on walks in a stroller. Not entirely sure if I am compatible with life, but glad to be here anyway. Hoping for hope.

Devin S. Turk

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I created a (free) Substack Newsletter

…And here it is!

My plan for the whole Substack thing is for it to be a space for my longer-form writing pieces to hang out, and for you (whoever you are out there!) to enjoy them. You can subscribe if you want to stay tuned in with my work! I’ve set up the whole “paid subscription” option in case you have just won the lottery and are feeling especially generous, but I’m planning for all my pieces there to remain free to read.

So far, I have posted an essay, a suite of three creative micro essays of 50 words each, and my first edition of Up to Something, an occasional (semi-weekly?) segment of my newsletter where I share fun and inspiring reading/listening/watching recommendations of interest. (This week's Up to Something includes a bonus cozy poem I wrote over the weekend.)

Thanks for reading! See you soon!

-Devin S. Turk

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Blue raspberry soda. Flapping my hands when I’m happy. Best friends. Pen pal letters. Being shirtless on the beach and feeling the wind on my chest. Outer space. Street art. Roasting marshmallows. Spotting Mount Tahoma from the window of an airplane...

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My trans agenda is to live to old age.

My trans agenda requires queer community.

My trans agenda is to enjoy a nice snack.

My trans agenda demands good healthcare.

My trans agenda has nothing to do with cis approval.

Devin S. Turk

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50 Words at a Time: Bite-Sized Thoughts on Things That Matter by Devin S. Turk is a square, printed zine of 12 micro essays I have written, 50 words each.

Topics include but are not limited to: Love. The future. Sensitivity. A game of Computer Chess. Trans rage. Home(s). A Beloved Soviet space dog. Faith(?). Queer Utopia.

The finished product measures 4.75 by 4.75 inches.

This physical zine is available in my Etsy shop. And here's the Etsy listing for the digital PDF.

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Tahoma, also known as Mount Rainier, from above.

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Mad Thought: Psychiatry, Tell me the Truth

I find hypotheses about faulty neurotransmitters and genetic biochemistry and to be dreadfully uninteresting.  Psychiatry, tell me the truth.  I am waiting for you to say what I already know:  That help is so intertwined with harm.  That your pills can’t patch these wounds.  That my pain is undyingly political.  

a 50-word micro essay by Devin S. Turk