Archive
queer
Freedom Dreaming and Worldmaking: Tourmaline and Hope Dector on Marsha P. Johnson’s Inspiring Life
Oct 20, 2025
Award-winning artist, filmmaker, writer, and activist Tourmaline has spent over two decades lovingly researching and preserving Marsha P. Johnson’s life. In two books published this past spring—MARSHA: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, the first comprehensive biography of Johnson, and a children’s book, One Day in June—Tourmaline provides a richly textured story of […]
Read MoreThe Scholar and Feminist: Fifty Years of Meeting the Moment
For half of a century, The Scholar and Feminist Conference has provided a mutually activating space for scholars, activists, and artists to confront the most pressing issues at any given moment. Defining scholarship as for activism from the very beginning, the conference has with unflagging regularity “met the moment” with intersectional feminist knowledge and action to inspire and build a robust response to contemporary crises. In many ways, the conference has grown up alongside academic feminism itself, yet, rather than uncritically mirror this history, it has consistently pushed back against feminism’s institutionalization. The conference highlights provocations, controversies, foundational gaps, and struggles that both cement its field-forming position and trouble a feminist progress narrative.
Read MoreWe Will Not Be Erased: Queer Archives, Trans Histories
Steven Watson and Tourmaline
For over forty years, cultural historian Steven Watson has documented the stories and artwork at the leading edge of artistic and cultural movements, including the movement for queer and trans liberation. Working in collaboration with filmmaker William Markarian-Martin, Steven recently launched Artifacts, making his collection of rare, firsthand accounts from pioneers such as Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Holly Woodlawn, and many others accessible to students, researchers, and anyone interested in connecting to queer and trans history. Watson’s archival collection foregrounds the importance of engaging with and animating trans and queer histories in order to combat the present-day erasure of trans lives.
Read MoreMARSHA: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson
Tourmaline in conversation with C. Riley Snorton
For the Helen Pond McIntyre ‘48 Lecture, Tourmaline will join C. Riley Snorton for a discussion of her new biography of Marsha P. Johnson. They will explore finding creative guidance in the archive, the power of Johnson’s life as a blueprint for living today, and the continued struggle for queer and trans liberation.
Read MoreA quantum life: Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Audre Lorde
Mar 31, 2025
Last December, Margot Kotler sat down with Alexis Pauline Gumbs to discuss her most recent book, Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. They talked about the breadth of Lorde’s life and the need to think on a planetary scale, the collective work of autobiography, and the work of a poet in […]
Read MoreBlack, Queer & Trans: Mobilizing in the Caribbean and Beyond
Amanda Taylor BC '22 in conversation with Kymm Foster, Emani Edwards, and Chaday Emmanuel
Live transcription is available here. Embracing the spirit of the recent publication, Beyond Homophobia: Centering LGBTQ experiences in the Anglophone Caribbean (2020), activist photographer Amanda Taylor, BC ’22 will be in conversation with leading LGBTQ+ mobilizers who are creating networks of visibility and support for queer and trans life in Jamaica and beyond. Speakers include: Kymm […]
Read MoreTrans*Revolutions Virtual Symposium
Elliot Montague, Emma Frankland, Texas Isaiah, Tourmaline, and Vick Quezada
#TransRevolutions Live captioning is available here. During the event, you can send questions for the Q&A by emailing bcrw@barnard.edu or via Twitter @bcrwtweets #TransRevolutions Trans*Revolutions is a virtual symposium featuring artist-activists whose work is inspired by and engaged in imagining trans* and genderqueer histories, performances, identities, and aesthetics. Elliot Montague (film), Emma Frankland (performance), Texas Isaiah […]
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