Queer/Trans Guide to Hurricane Season

A storm guide for our queer, transgender, nonbinary, and two-spirit siblings.

In 2017 with a storm in the Gulf, we quickly threw together a “Queer Guide to Hurricane Season” specifically geared toward people who have moved to New Orleans and who may be experiencing their first storm. With the knowledge of multi-generational New Orleanians, hazard mitigation specialists, friends and neighbors, we created a Google document with all the tips and tricks to preparing for a hurricane.

By 2018, our organization formalized as Imagine Water Works, explicitly with trans leadership (shoutout to the Trans Justice Funding Project for IWW’s first grant ever), and expanded the guide to include information for our transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit siblings… renaming it the “Queer/Trans Hurricane Survival Guide”. We’ve since continued to add content, making it more useful and relevant each year. 

Dreams for the future…

In 2020, Klie dreamed up the “Storm Zine Project” and began fundraising to transform the guide into a zine, which would feature queer and transgender artists and would make the guide more accessible to youth and anyone without access to the internet.

In 2021, Déja and Klie worked together to create the “Queer Trans Guide to Storms” – the first zine in the “Storm Zine Project” series.

Throughout 2022, Déja took on the lead editorial role of the zine and worked on compiling pieces from over twenty queer and trans artists who had been through storms before, with Klie as supporting editor. Déja contributed cover art, and Klie contributed storm tips and a letter to our community.

On August 18 2023, we celebrated a zine launch and distributed over 100 printed copies of the zine at The Imagination Farm, our organizing hub and physical space in New Orleans. Later this month, we plan to make the zine available digitally and for purchase to cover printing costs.

Have tips or resources to add to the guide? Want to collaborate? Let us know!
Email deja@imaginewaterworks.org.