None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary

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Well, when I was around three years old my mother took me to the doctor because I had not spoken my first word yet. She was worried. I was her second child and my older brother couldn’t shut up, making full sentences by the age of three … ” Both accounts also betray, albeit perhaps less intentionally, a father-shaped hole. Alabanza fondly recalls “Hangwolf”, a childhood-era German lodger who served as temporary father-figure, then later reflects on “the man who drove me to football because my own was too busy somewhere else”, and “how so many of us grow up with fathers playing hide and seek, so the wider community becomes our dads”. Being called “son”, for Alabanza, could thus feel “like both a punch and a hug”. The writing in this memoir is truly remarkable and life-changing. Travis gives us room to question the society we live in where gender has been so structured up to the point that it is difficult to navigate a safe and comfortable world if you don't identify as 'male' or 'female'. All upcoming public events are going ahead as planned and you can find more information on our events blog

Feels entitled. Expects unreasonable or special and favorable priority treatment. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or her expectations Flips the well thumbed script that casts oppressed people as lead in the tale of their mistreatment, boldly interrogating the faults of a society that allows such mistreatment to occur . . . Alabanza’s lyrical style and theatrical grounding is the book’s lifeblood’

This event took place on 28 July 2022

Firmly convinced that he or she is unique and, being special, can only be understood by,should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions) Praise for Travis Alabanza: Humane and heart-rending . . . Alabanza is sassy and witty * * Guardian * * I think of some of the people I have met who say 'My pronouns are she/they,' and when you ask which they prefer, they say, 'Always they, I actually only want they, I just want to be less difficult.'" But as I write this, nothing about the memory feels like a knowing. “Knowing” should feel like the remaining jigsaw piece, found after months and months of searching for it, slotting into place. No moment I can pinpoint reveals an innate knowing of my transness; rather, each is just another example of how I am responded to by the outside world. Still, I guess some women long to be men, and men who long to be woman, and others who just despair and want their despair known.

Absolutely stunning . . . Travis is one of the sharpest writers out there and everyone should read this book -- IONE GAMBLE TA: You could gather ten non-binary people walking down a street and they would all experience gendered violence differently depending on how they are presenting . So it’s not an effective way to talk about violence and support. I’ve also been getting frustrated with the way ‘non-binary’ is being turned into a third gender, and its cooption by the state and the media. Even fighting for a non-binary marker on a passport feels like another way to contain what was, for me, something that couldn’t be contained .is reviewed between 08.30 to 16.30 Monday to Friday. We're experiencing a high volume of enquiries so it may take us Travis Alabanza writes about gender and its possibilities with such generosity and ease even the most provocative suggestions start to seem obvious, despite their challenges to society at large. This anti-memoir, which is at times both profound and funny, will make anyone question the stories we tell about ourselves, how we tell them and even who the telling is for’ One may sympathise with this dilemma while wondering whether a measure of pragmatism might not be in everyone’s interests. After all, it’s hard to see how we can accommodate those who experience every form of social meaning as violent impingement, short of abolishing all social meaning. And a culture stripped of both social meanings and the ability to think is no culture at all. Voice of the Fish enacts the least worst version of this perspective: radical subjectivism as an art form. By contrast, None of the Above is probably a more accurate reflection of what a politics of radical ambiguity means in practice, among those less literate than Horn: woolly thinking and self-absorption. None of the Above explores the nuance of self-understanding in an honest, hilarious, and heartfelt way. It is a stunning intersectional interrogation of gender that reads like a conversation with a friend." —Blair Imani, author of Read This to Get Smarter: About Race, Class, Gender, Disability & More