Shawty in Translation: Interactive Installment 1

shawtygotskillz:

Shawty /ʃɒti/

(Noun) (slang)

a creator. a collaborator. anyone who helps creates space for pleasure, understanding, growth, or healing. an attractor of other shawties. my people.

While in the process of getting our Call for Shawties translated to Spanish, it was radical sex educator genius Latino Sexuality who lovingly provoked:

question though, some euphemimsis may not translate well (i.e. if you are down with get down) and may also be too regional (i.e. my caribbean spanish may not translate w/mexican or central american spanish) so do you want me to do a translation such as “if you can help us” or something similar? 

Also, terms such as “skillshare” and “zine” may not be translatable like “shawty”. Do you want to give me a description/definition of “skillshare” and “zine” for folks who need a clearer understanding of what that means and i can do an * for those terms w/the translation? (i.e. “a skillshare is a… and “a zine is a…”)?

What unfolded next was a poetic series of ponderings over email about language, translation and radical meaning making for the world we create now. Language is tricky and we are trickster poets. Translation is only part of what we seek to explore here. We’d like to have conversation with lot’s of people about doing radical work across time, space, culture, and language. We think we’ll come out with a better understanding of who we are, as Shawties and what our work is all about if we bounce our ideas off the universe of shawties and aligned folks out there. 

What’s a shawty to you? What’s a Shawty in your language? Submit your definition, question, story, comment.

We start with The AfroQueerized Beekeeper’s definition of a Shawty which they say is inspired by Audre Lorde’s reclamation of the word Zami.

We’ll reveal more of the conversation everyday. Stay tuned…

Love,

The Shawties