Though Lucky Fusca didn’t grow up on Prince Edward Island, they are coming home to themselves as they connect with and build community on the Island. 

One of the first things they said during our conversation was, “the ocean feels like home to me.” There was a sense of knowing and peace that accompanied that statement. The sense of feeling at home was palpable as they spoke. “The ocean and community are my happy places.”

Lucky grew up in Ontario and attended a private Catholic high school. Since they were drawn to the ocean, they decided to move to the East Coast where they attended Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout all those formative educational experiences, Lucky was drawn to activism in its many forms. “I’ve always been a firecracker for injustice.”

When Lucky first moved to PEI, they worked in a variety of jobs, including in the resort and retail industries. One of their jobs in male-dominated spaces provided insight and awareness for them about where and how they spend their time and energy. “It often felt like I had to stifle who I am for the sake of safety, and that is not a sustainable way to live.”

During their time working in resorts and retail, Lucky was still looking for ways to connect with community and to contribute their skills, interests, talents and activisms for the communities in which they are a part. 

“PRIDE was looking for new board members and some of my friends encouraged me to put my name forward. I’m so glad I did! These experiences enhance my connection to community and support my own growth and healing.”

During difficult and dark times, we all need community-care alongside self-care. “Sometimes others see something in us before we can see it for ourselves. When we are surrounded by supportive people, they can help propel us into movement when we feel stuck and alone.”

Lucky continues to sit on the board for PRIDE and they are the Executive Director of the PEI Transgender Network (PEITN). They are also active in a variety of community-based and mutual-aid oriented activities on the Island. “I had the chance to move away from saviorism into working from my own advocacy and community at large.”

I was humbled by Lucky’s candid explanation of their experiences as they’ve come to know themselves in the way they do now. “I used to understand transgender as a binary construct, so I didn’t relate to or identify with that. I was out of alignment in many ways, including with my gender, so learning about terms like non-binary helped me deconstruct what gender means to and for me.”

Anyone on a healing journey knows that it can be a difficult and challenging path, and we are all responsible to find the ways that best support our unique and individual journey. “One of the most profound parts of my healing has been learning how to play together with my inner child.”

Lucky is a multi-talented creator who dabbles in the visual, written and musical arts. They are especially drawn to materials like watercolour and clay. “I can let go and allow the materials to do what they want to do, which is good for a recovering perfectionist like me.” Like many writers, Lucky says their “poetry often comes from a place of deep anger and challenge.”

Listening to and playing music is one of the ways that Lucky continues to connect to their creativity, through the full spectrum of emotions. 

During our entire conversation, Lucky eloquently and effortlessly weaved the theory and practice of community care and mutual aid, noting that both these collective endeavors can help combat loneliness and fear. “Activism and community care fills my heart.”

We’ve all heard that “knowledge is power,” and Lucky says that “once we know what’s happening around us, we can do something about it.” This personal, political and professional knowledge gave Lucky the tools and the time to dig deeper into themselves.

“I now felt safe enough to think about and feel through some of my childhood experiences from a gender and sexuality lens, as I began the trauma healing journey. Everything changed when I started engaging with my own growth and healing by approaching it with curiosity instead of judgement.”

When we work in spaces of activism and advocacy, particularly in places where our own personal identities intersect with the work, it can be heavy and hard. Without dismissing the real challenges that exist, Lucky had the same sense of knowing and peace that started our conversation when they said, “there’s a world of hurt, but there’s also a world of opportunity.”