Art Category: Black Liberation

“Our people often need to focus on making it through the obstacles each day lays in front of them, focusing on surviving in a world not built for those who defy gender roles. But here we are… existing as beautiful and powerful trans and nonbinary people. Let us indulge and let us find pleasure. We deserve it all.” —Amir Khadar

“I like making art that has starry skies because I associate starscapes with being extremely old but also with the future and everything undiscovered that we don’t yet know. I wanted this poster to be a reminder of the way that trans people are like that. No matter what happens, we’re part of nature, we’ve been here and we’ll continue to be here.” —Kah Yangni

“My goal while creating this piece was to express the complexity of our current struggles. The turmoil of our society reverberates and expresses itself as simultaneous turmoil in our environment. Literally and figuratively aflame. But as a response to that I wanted to focus not only on the act of resistance, or resilience, but on all of the stages that lead up to it. On the overflowing tears, the leaning on another’s shoulders and the deep breath before the first step. I created this piece to honor exhaustion. This year has been more than exhausting for so many of us and so many of us have been asked to give so much. I wanted to make it clear that even though trans people have been decades ahead of the curve in regards to abolition, mutual aid, radical care, environmental consciousness, and community organizing, that we are revolutionary even at our empty. Our existence is essential however that may show up and healing happens at every step along the way.” —Glori Tuitt

As artists — one of us a painter, the other a poet — our visions for trans liberation were united by our desire to center Blackness, and the challenge to imagine tangibly what a world post-incarceration might look, feel, taste like.

While Benji entered the project struck by and hoping to pay homage to the life of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco Xtravaganza — an Afro-Latina trans woman who died inside Rikers Island prison in June of 2019 — Glori was particularly interested in honoring Black, trans elders. She hoped to imagine aging-while-trans not as an anomaly but a right, and to capture the tension between Black trans intimacy and public defiance.

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With these areas of interest in mind, we began our first collaborative discussion looking for shared imagery around which we could build our respective pieces. What we landed on was doing hair, a site that captured the themes of Black intimacy, joy, and labor outside of capitalism, and which Glori envisioned as representing multiple generations of Black, trans, femme, and gender nonconforming bodies.

Even as Benji’s poem went through intense edits — ultimately landing as a revised version of the various bits of legislation ostensibly passed in Layleen’s name by the New York City Council—the image of Black trans elders having their hair braided/retwisted by chosen community members remained a central image of Black trans life beyond both interpersonal violence and prisons.

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At first, we came up with the idea to do something that connected the trans people that came before us and the free trans people we imagined existing in the future. It became important to us both to honor the path we were on, one that had been paved with so much of our history. Both of our processes took new shape as we began.

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As the writing process began, the project as a whole became harder to do — not because of the subject, but because of the societal differences happening so violently. It was so hard to imagine a world where we’ve won, given all the death we’ve come to know for his year. But Kemi’s guidance led Vita to the idea of exploring our present in relation to how far we’ve come.

So Vita’s piece became less about how we’ve “won,” but more about how we’re winning, and honoring what it took to make it here.

As Kah’s visual piece developed, it became more about the adventure and freedom and creativity that is already a part of being trans.

Our work has the feeling of “outside the box” dreaming that’s manifested itself in our present day, not forsaking the past as forgotten, but honoring it as tribute to the magick we’ve created.

“To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, I sought to honor a few of the trans women of color who were at the forefront of the rebellion. With Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, I find strength in knowing that I have ancestors who paved the way for who I am; with Miss Major, I find comfort in how she’s still here, still actively fighting for queer and marginalized communities. Reclaiming Pride means recognizing the strides we’ve made while acknowledging how far we have to go.” —Colin Laurel