Marsha
The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson
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- USD 4.99
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- USD 4.99
Descripción editorial
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • STONEWALL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION FINALIST • LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST • PUBLISHING TRIANGLE BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY STONE BOOK AWARD FINALIST
Praised as “a marvel” by Elliot Page and “a must-read” by Janet Mock, Black transgender luminary Tourmaline’s definitive biography brings to life the revolutionary LGBTQIA+ activist Marsha P. Johnson
“Thank god the revolution has begun, honey.” Rumor has it that after Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, she picked up a shard of broken mirror to fix her makeup. She was a legendary Black transgender activist, drag queen, fashion icon, and muse to countless artists from Andy Warhol to the band Earth, Wind & Fire—in all, Marsha embodied both the beauty and the struggle of the early gay rights movement.
Written with sparkling prose, Tourmaline’s Marsha shares the essential stories of the activist and artist. Marsha didn’t wait to be freed; she declared herself free and told the world to catch up. Her story promises to inspire readers to live as their most liberated, unruly, vibrant, and whole selves.
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Artist and filmmaker Tourmaline debuts with an illuminating biography of Marsha P. Johnson, a central force in the Stonewall uprising and nascent LGBTQ+ rights movement. Tourmaline recreates Johnson's lesser-known early years, from her childhood in racially segregated Elizabeth, N.J., with a "revered" mother who still wouldn't let her "wear girls' clothes" to her youth spent hustling in Times Square, "where trans people came to survive and thrive together." Tourmaline depicts the 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn with cinematic intensity, portraying Johnson as akin to "a woman fighting the British in the Revolutionary War." The uprising galvanized Johnson's activism, leading to her participation in other protests, her caregiving for those with AIDS, and her cofounding of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). The book masters the complex balance of "joy alternating with... profound sadness" inherent in Johnson's life, which, despite the defiant resilience of her own statements ("I'm like a cat... I've been almost killed a million times now"), was rife with struggles with housing, medical care, disability, loss, and violence. Her still-unresolved death—Johnson was found in the Hudson River in July 1992 and her death was quickly ruled a suicide—was "emblematic of the way... trans lives have been seen as disposable by the state," Tourmaline sharply observes. It's a poignant portrait of a figure whose "greater sense of freedom" still inspires.
