Steven Watson is a founder and President of Artifacts, an online platform dedicated to preserving pioneering queer, avant-garde, and Downtown voices. Interviews with Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Holly Woodlawn, and Quentin Crisp are part of this archive. It is a culmination of many years working as a cultural historian and documentary filmmaker, dealing with the dynamics of the twentieth century American avant-garde. After studying English at Stanford University and getting a Ph.D, in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he worked for 20 years as the staff psychologist of a community mental health clinic. He simultaneously began writing books about key circles of cultural pioneers of the twentieth century, from New York Dada and Greenwich Village Bohemia to the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat Generation and Andy Warhol’s Factory. In connection to his writings, Watson organized two exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery. He also published a collaborative artists portfolio, Artifacts at the End of a Decade, which is in the collections of the world’s leading museums, and directed a documentary film about the opera, Four Saints in Three Acts, broadcast on PBS. In all his work, he is interested in the overlapping circles that move American culture forward, and the prominent role played by queer pioneers.

A Guggenheim Fellow and TIME100 Honoree, Tourmaline is an artist, filmmaker, and national bestselling author whose work spans high art and pop culture. Tourmaline’s art is in the permanent collections of The Met, MoMA, Tate, and the Whitney, among other museums. Her influence in contemporary art has also been showcased in both the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. Tourmaline’s award-winning films — including the critically acclaimed Happy Birthday, Marsha!; Salacia; Atlantic is a Sea of Bones; and Mary of Ill Fame — have been widely recognized for their unique blend of historical narrative and speculative futurism. Tourmaline’s book Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson is the first definitive biography of the revolutionary Black trans activist Marsha P. Johnson. It was named a National Bestseller, received a Starred Review by Publishers Weekly, and was selected by The New York Times for inclusion in the Nonfiction Spring Book Preview. Her children’s book One Day in June, also inspired by Marsha P. Johnson’s life and activism, received a Starred Review by Publishers Weekly. A former leader of the Trans Health Campaign at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Tourmaline has built a career rooted in community organizing and trans liberation, and is a transformative voice in movements for racial, economic, and gender justice.