Artist Chitra Ganesh Queer Power! coloring book encourages us to work mindfully and remember who we love, who we’ve lost and who we can turn to for guidance during this legislative siege that undermines trans and women’s rights with each passing day . Using black and white illustrations, Ganesh manifests queer futurities through an examination of resistance, activism and connectedness within marginalized communities in New York and beyond.
Queer Power! originated from the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLM) Annual Lecture QUEERPOWER Installation Committee hosted by Riya Lerner in October 2020. Ganesh installed illustrative panels in the windows of the museum’s facade that celebrated New York’s queer histories and honored the indigenous stewards of Lenapehoking (now the largest tri-state area, spilling into Delaware and Connecticut) as well as the 19th century black settlement of Seneca Village (now Central Park). The research-based installation was curated when people were still avoiding museums and other indoor venues due to COVID-19. Therefore, Ganesh and LLM staff chose to activate the exterior of the museum with historical and political context and supplemented the window panels with audio interviews of the historical figures and contemporary activists depicted in the project.
“The coloring book was born out of a desire to share this work – this historical information and research that inspired the installation – with a wider audience, including an audience of young gay men who may or may not be interested and at the same time. comfortable to go or have easy access to museums,” Ganesh explained to Hyperallergic in an interview.
“It was really important to me to include characters that were both iconic but also anonymous, some who were remembered better than others,” Ganesh continued. “So in some scenes you’ll see recognizable characters, politicians, icons for activists, but there are also other people who have been iconic in their participation who may not be publicly recognizable. That was a way to mix that and mix my intimate queer family with and connect them to social movements or broader cultural moments.
Scrolling through the coloring book, one can expect to see portrait illustrations of well-known personalities such as Marsha P. Johnson, Stormé De Larverie and Ruth Bader Ginsburg interspersed with images of local activists and community members like Ronica Mukerjee, Javid Syed and Saul Silva, whose contributions are listed in the index. Ganesh also honors several transgender people, mostly trans women of color, who have been murdered between 2020 and 2021 including Dominique Rem’mie Fells, Brayla Stone, Chae’Meshia Simms, Lexi “Ebony” Sutton, and unfortunately many more.
“I thought about how important it was to consider material inequality and state-sanctioned racial violence as the pandemic spreads,” Ganesh said. “And thinking about how one of the shadow narratives of this pandemic crime of the year, the increase in known and documented murders of trans women and how some queer bodies have more access to freedom , autonomy and security than others.”
Queer Power! is dedicated to resisting erasure by connecting the dots between different stories at their points of intersection. Beyond dedicated portraits of activists and community members, Ganesh has filled the book with holistic pictures of the past, present and future, using motifs from local flora and fauna, characters intentionally anonymized and references to personal experiences and research.
Ganesh also intentionally left several pages blank, inviting viewers to become authors and contribute to the book as a living document, expanding common knowledge and bringing more attention to queer activists and allies who may have been overlooked or not recognized in the public eye for their advocacy. With a preview by Erica Cardwell and essays by Jeannine Tang and Riya Lerner, Queer Power! is available for purchase at Ganesha’s website.
