What do the Northern Lights have to do with Gender? 

When I started this project, I thought that its publications (books, zines, articles, etc) would follow a simple naming pattern, such as: All the Genders in Alaska, All the Genders in Seattle, All the Genders in Columbus, Ohio. Clean, consistent, easy, self-explanatory. 

But the deeper I got into this work, the more I realized that these stories aren’t only about gender. The way we experience gender is both individualistic while also being shaped by place. Sometimes that connection is explicit. Often, it’s not directly stated in the written essays that storytellers are sharing in this work. But when I ask people to take me somewhere meaningful for their portraits, the conversation shifts. Place becomes part of their story through reflection on community, chosen family, memory, safety, and even a history of fear. 

Storytellers sometimes reflect on revelatory moments in the place where I’m framing them through a camera lens. Sometimes it’s something more vague – like the sense of freedom from social constructs in nature. Sometimes it’s more specific, like being invited into a space as “one of the girls” after coming out as transgender. 

So, when it came time to name this book, I slowed down and asked the community; polled people on ideas I was floating around. It wasn’t going to be as simple as naming the book after the original project name. The overwhelming choice was Northern Lights, Northern Lives.

That title brought me back to my own experiences with the aurora; two quiet encounters on the road in Alaska and the Yukon. This poem is a sneak preview that kicks off the book:

Beyond What We See

The northern lights dance across the sky

in often imperceptible ways.

Sometimes, we only see them through a camera’s lens

our human eyes miss the show entirely.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

They exist… wildly, quietly, brilliantly,

beyond what one culture or language can fully explain.

Gender is like that.

We can’t always see every color,

but it exists all the same.

Sometimes it’s subtle, insignificant.

Sometimes it’s magnificently flamboyant.

And sometimes, it’s everything at once.

Gender is part of the human experience,

stretching across every culture on Earth.

The first time I saw the Northern Lights, it was almost imperceptible, but it stayed with me. A few days later, somewhere along a quiet Yukon road, this project idea took root. Now, three years in, I’m still thinking about all the ways in which something can connect us without demanding we experience it the same way. We’re living in a time where it’s easy to be divided by media, politics, religious nationalism, and fear.

This book moves in the opposite direction. It brings together stories shaped by place and grounded in shared humanity, while honoring how different each of us is.

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There are 40 days left until the Kickstarter launches.

Following the prelaunch page makes a real difference; it helps more people discover the project and ensures you’ll be notified when preorders open in June.

There will be signed books, prints, and stationery featuring the landscapes these stories come from. Thank you for being here and for taking a moment to reflect on your own connection to place.