Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Legacy of a Black Trans Revolutionary
A radical memoir that cuts across the personal and the political to explore Miss Major's groundbreaking work in community organising and HIV/AIDS care
There is something to the argument that the best memoirs, unlike the best meals, should leave you wanting that little bit more. Miss Major Speaks: The Life and Legacy of a Black Trans Revolutionary cuts across the personal and the political to offer a slice of reflection derived from Major’s many years on the frontline of community organising and HIV/AIDS care work. But this is no rulebook: Chicago South Side-born Major has certainly lived a life that has served many lessons – on the preconditions of survival, on the folly of corporate endorsements and establishment co-signs, and on the promise of the commons – but here on the page, she rebuffs symmetry and simple answers for something less resolute and altogether richer.
This is not a memoir that holds its subject at a remove, however. The amusement parks of 1960s Chicago, the streets of 1970s New York City, the psychiatric wards of Bellevue Hospital and the solitary wing of Clinton Correctional Facility – the sites and scenes that raised Major, as well as the institutions that endeavoured to break her down – are all recollected vividly, albeit with some abbreviation. Ultimately, as has been the case throughout her life, Major’s pronouncements situate her as a relational figure. And when a figure such as Major speaks, you cannot help but eat each and every single word up.
