We Call Them Bandos

Abstract

This article explores the impact of the subprime foreclosure crisis on black transgender women in Baltimore, Maryland, by thinking with Project 42, a series of art installations curated by trans artist Molly Jae Vaughan that memorializes forty-two trans murder victims in the United States. Focusing on the project's memorialization of the late Tyra Trent, a black transgender woman who was murdered in a city-owned vacant property in the Central Park Heights neighborhood, the essay considers the textile design of Project 42’s “memorial garment” for Tyra Trent, which includes a pattern with the abstraction of the Google Earth imaging of the murder location, and black trans dance artist Aísha Noir's performance in the honorary dress as a collaborator with Vaughan for Project 42 installations. What follows is a political reflection at the intersection of black feminism, economic geography, and urban planning that demonstrates how black transfeminist worldmaking invites us to “revitalize” or replace traditional urban planning projects and challenge gendered racial capitalism.