BlackLivesMatter✊🏾

As many of you know, today is Trans Day of Remembrance.

There are no words to express the utter loss our community has suffered this past year. Thirty nine of our siblings in struggle, many of whom were people of color, were killed in the U.S. since January 1 of this year. There may be others whose names we do not yet know. This is a time of mourning for the entire community, and we must hold each other close as we close out the year next month.

Take care of ourself today, and every day after this. Give yourself the time to feel, to experience, to love, to embrace as we remember these thirty nine names, faces, lives, people, and the ones who came before us.

We say their names - and remember their stories

Dustin Parker.

Neulisa Luciano Ruiz.

Yampi Méndez Arocho.

Scott(lynn) Devore.

Monika Diamond.

Lexi Sutton.

Johanna Metzger.

Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos.

Layla Pelaez Sánchez.

Penélope Díaz Ramírez.

Nina Pop.

Helle Jae O'Regan.

Tony McDade.

Dominique “Rem'mie” Fells.

Riah Milton.

Jayne Thompson.

Selena Reyes-Hernandez.

Brian “Egypt” Powers.

Brayla Stone.

Draya McCarty.

Tatiana Hall.

Merci Mack.

Shaki Peters.

Bree Black.

Summer Taylor.

Marilyn Cazares.

Dior H Ova.

Queasha D Hardy.

Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears.

Lea Rayshon Day.

Kee Sam.

Aerrion Burnett.

Mia Green.

Michelle Michellyn Ramos Vargas.

Felycya Harris.

Brooklyn Deshauna.

Sara Blackwood.

Angel Unique.

Yuni Carey.

We remember.

[ID 1: Dark blue background. White text lists the names of trans people killed in the U.S. in 2020, with dots between each name. A dark pink rectangle at the bottom frames white text reading “Trans Day of Remembrance.” The Trans Empowerment Project is in the bottom right corner.]

[ID 2: Square photos of seven of the trans people killed in the U.S. in 2020, framed in dark pink. There are two dark pink squares, one with white text reading “TDOR” in it and one with the TEP logo.]

Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Those are the countries. It will be drought-resistant species, mostly acacias. And this is a brilliant idea you have no idea oh my Christ

They fix nitrogen and improve soil quality.

And, to make things fun, the species they’re using practices “reverse leaf phenology.” The trees go dormant in the rainy season and then grow their leaves again in the dry season. This means you can plant crops under the trees, in that nitrogen-rich soil, and the trees don’t compete for light because they don’t have any leaves on.

And then in the dry season, you harvest the leaves and feed them to your cows.

Crops grown under acacia trees have better yield than those grown without them. Considerably better.

So, this isn’t just about stopping the advancement of the Sahara - it’s also about improving food security for the entire sub-Saharan belt and possibly reclaiming some of the desert as productive land.

Of course, before the “green revolution,” the farmers knew to plant acacia trees - it’s a traditional practice that they were convinced to abandon in favor of “more reliable” artificial fertilizers (that caused soil degradation, soil erosion, etc).

BLACK

History