Revolution Is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation (Aperture, 2022)
Revolution Is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation is the powerful and celebratory visual record of a contemporary activist movement in New York City, and a moving testament to the enduring power of photography in activism, advocacy, and community.
In June 2020, after a Black trans woman in Missouri and a Black trans man in Florida were killed just weeks apart, activists Qween Jean and Joela Rivera returned to the historic Stonewall Inn—site of the 1969 riots that launched the modern gay rights movement—where they initiated weekly actions known thereafter as the Stonewall Protests. Brought together by the urgent need to center Black trans and queer lives within the racial justice movement, a vibrant and radical community emerged. Over the following year, the Stonewall Protests brought together thousands of people across communities and social movements to gather in solidarity, resistance, and communion. Each Thursday was an invitation for protests, healing, and celebration—whether through marches, voguing balls, or vigil—and a living testament to love in revolution.
Revolution Is Love gathers twenty-four photographers (including Carlos) who participated in these actions to share images and words on the demonstrations and their community at large, preserving this legacy as it unfolded. Through photographs, interviews, and text, it celebrates the power of shared joy and struggle in trans community and liberation. The book features thirteen images of Carlos’ “Souls of a Movement” series and photos by Ryan McGinley (a renowned American photographer/activist and the youngest artist to present a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art).
“Souls of a Movement” is an ongoing photo-documentary project on the protagonists of various social protests that have intermittently erupted in New York, London, Buenos Aires and other cities, around racial justice, bodily autonomy and medical freedom, gender identity, freedom of speech, war/peace, mass surveillance, and other human rights issues.
