SCND LIFE is a triannually-published community zine made by and for the trans community of Philadelphia, PA. Each issue of Second Life will focus on a different theme and will incorporate three main components; Community (interviews, reviews, third space mapping, community shoutouts, etc), Sensuality (dating, missed connections, sexuality, opinion pieces, etc), and Visual Art (paintings, comics, photographs, archival materials, etc). Folks will be able to submit their work pertaining to said theme, which will then go through a selection process with the goal of bringing individual voices together from our community to create a collective voice of trans life in Philadelphia.
As we continue to live through a time in which trans life has been thrust above ground and is consistently used, exploited, and misrepresented in the name of political control, it is of utmost importance that we have the opportunity to take some of this control back. Second Life aims to give the trans community autonomy over the narrative by centering a holistic trans perspective. This means that while we will create ample space for conversations and pieces surrounding the political, social, and medical realities of the trans experience, our perspective will not end at our suffering. We deserve for our joys, desires, relationships, opinions, and interests to be centered alongside our pain.
SCND LIFE challenges the notion that transness is a linear journey that has a distinct beginning and end, and instead highlights the ever-evolving worlds we have built & continue to build as trans people and as a trans community. We are always becoming, always responding to the world around us, and despite the fact that oppressive institutions dictate the suffering and policies we are up against, they do not and will never dictate who we are and how we choose to overcome.
This initiative attempts to put us in conversation with each other, with our shared histories, and with our shared visions of a trans future. Not only do we aim to do this by publishing a physical community zine, but we also plan to host in-person events such as co-working nights, book-binding nights, artist talks, and zine release parties. Together, we are a part of building the trans canon!
Our first issue is in parternship with William Way's Our Truly program.
-Editors in Chief, Persephone Ulysses and Clancey Schoenig