Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson is best known for being a mother to many Black and brown queer and gay youth. She was an unapologetic activist who worked to care for queer community at the onset of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic. Although many people have credited her with throwing the first brick or shot glass that started the Stonewall Riots back on June 28th 1969, she reported that the riots were already happening when she arrived. Nonetheless, her presence on the front lines helped empower other young trans women to stand up to years of criminalization of queer and trans people and routine police brutality. Marsha co-founded STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionarires), which served as a Housing project in NYC for trans youth, alongside Silvia Rivera. Marsha’s defiant and unashamed attitude continues to inspire trans people and embodies a pillar in TENT’s values.

By

Manmade

By Isabel Torres (Ryan Giff)

i was ripped from the earth, made of clay, dust, and stone. i cover myself with leaves and shame and grow a new skin of patchwork fabric.

i am whatever and whoever you want me to be, always searching for myself but never finding. i fit where i need to, stand out where i don’t. my form is malleable, square peg and round hole. a girl’s body on a boys’ football team.

i am textile, synthetic and manufactured by hands not my own. he is raw and pure, earthborn, sculpted from marble. metamorphic rock put under pressure until it blooms. i want to bloom, but i am not ready yet. i want to be him, but i don’t know his name.

Above Background: “self/image” by River M. (he/him/they)

“Self Portrait” by Evan Anderson , (he/