LEARNING HOW TO LIVE: A CONVERSATION IN HONOR OF JUNETEENTH
Sharing the journey behind making the photographic commission/project, A DEAD NAME THAT LEARNED HOW TO LIVE in response to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s collection, this night of spoken word performance and open dialogue at the ISGM features Boston-based organizers and artists bashezo, Julissa Emile, Simone John, Zenaida Peterson, Kamaria Weemz and Neighborhood Salon Luminary Artist Golden.
This this living room-style discussion & performance in honor of Juneteenth, provides collaborators open space to discuss what Black queer community means, how chosen and blood family connections relate to their creative practices, as well as what it means to build towards a present where Black trans and queer people are free. (Photos by Carlie Febo)
A DEAD NAME THAT LEARNED HOW TO LIVE
A DEAD NAME THAT LEARNED HOW TO LIVE, a Juneteenth commission for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in response to Thomas McKeller’s Boston’s Apollo as well as Sir Zanele Muholi’s Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance, showcases the intimacy of Black queer & trans family. In collaboration with chosen & birth family, Golden re-purposes the Museum’s collection as backdrops to portraits that interrogate the complicated histories behind Museum archives and their intersections between history & colonialism, land & legacy, village & voyeurism, future & freedom. Placing Black queer life into the Museum's space, in the forefront of its art objects, this commission asks: What does freedom mean within & to a museum? Where does access begin to collide, converge, & conflict surrounding Black people & our histories within archives? What is possible when Black queer & trans folk are allowed to bridge, beacon, & be?* (Photos by Golden)
WE BEEN HERE
WE BEEN HERE, a panel & artist-talk series that provides space where trans, nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender nonconforming individuals can share their stories, discuss their craft & work, & be. Through virtual and in-person programming supported by the Collective Futures Fund, the City of Boston, New England Foundation for the Arts, a more this programming series under the managing direction of Golden has secured over $15,000 to expand public art & public programming for BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ communities in the Greater Boston area and beyond.
CITY OF BOSTON TRANSGENDER AND NON-BINARY TOWN HALL
City of Boston Artist-In-Residence, Golden, and Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam (FEMS) Founding Director, Zenaida Peterson, will co-host a virtual Town Hall on October 7th from 4:00pm-6:00pm EST in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture to discuss the representation of transgender & nonbinary individuals in the City of Boston’s policies & processes, with a focus on naming ways the City can better support transgender and nonbinary Bostonians.
This town hall will collect written and oral testimony specifically from trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender-expansive individuals currently living in the Greater Boston area.
You can find the podcast link here.