MARSHA: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson

For the Helen Pond McIntyre ‘48 Lecture, Tourmaline will join C. Riley Snorton (English and Comparative Literature and ISSG, Columbia) for a discussion of her new biography of Marsha P. Johnson. They will explore finding creative guidance in the archive, the power of Johnson’s life as a blueprint for living today, and the continued struggle for queer and trans liberation.

Tourmaline’s new book, MARSHA: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson (Penguin Random House, 2025), is the first definitive biography of the Black trans activist and icon. Richly researched and vividly written, and with extensive access to Marsha’s friends and family, this book brings to light her legacy, and unwavering commitment to the fight for queer and trans liberation. Tourmaline is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, writer, and activist who has spent two decades studying, preserving, and celebrating Johnson’s life.

This event is part of a series, “We Will Not Be Erased: Queer Archives, Trans Histories,” that will continue with a conversation between Tourmaline and Steven Watson—creator of Artifacts, a platform dedicated to preserving rare archival footage of queer and trans cultural pioneers—on November 19.

For additional information, visit the event page here.

Accessibility

This event is free and open to the public. Live ASL interpretation will be provided. Registration is required.

We encourage attendees to wear masks when not speaking or eating. We will provide masks to any who need them.

Speakers

A Guggenheim Fellow and TIME100 Honoree, Tourmaline is an artist, filmmaker, and national bestselling author whose work spans high art and pop culture. Tourmaline’s art is in the permanent collections of The Met, MoMA, Tate, and the Whitney, among other museums. Her influence in contemporary art has also been showcased in both the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. Tourmaline’s award-winning films — including the critically acclaimed Happy Birthday, Marsha!; Salacia; Atlantic is a Sea of Bones; and Mary of Ill Fame — have been widely recognized for their unique blend of historical narrative and speculative futurism. Tourmaline’s commercial film projects have premiered at the MTV Video Music Awards, and she has led the creative for brand campaigns with Fortune 500 companies, such as a film series presented by Unilever on the topic of LGBTQ+ communities in rural America.

Tourmaline’s portfolio also extends to fashion: her trans-inclusive swimwear line with Chromat debuted at New York Fashion Week with glowing praise from Vogue. The latest collection launched in April 2025. Tourmaline’s new book MARSHA (May 2025) is the first definitive biography of the revolutionary Black trans activist Marsha P. Johnson. It was named a National Bestseller, received a Starred Review by Publishers Weekly, and was selected by The New York Times for inclusion in the Nonfiction Spring Book Preview. Her children’s book ONE DAY IN JUNE (May 2025), also inspired by Marsha P. Johnson’s life and activism, received a Starred Review by Publishers Weekly.

The recipient of the BlackStar Luminary Award, Stonewall Visionary Award, HBO Queer Art Prize, and the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel, Tourmaline crafts worlds across a variety of media that center pleasure, possibility, and transformation. She is a sought-after speaker at institutions like Princeton, Yale, MoMA, The Met, UC Berkeley, Smith College, and Outfest, and has been frequently featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Artforum, and TIME Magazine. A former leader of the Trans Health Campaign at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Tourmaline has built a career rooted in community organizing and trans liberation, and is a transformative voice in movements for racial, economic, and gender justice.

Tourmaline is a graduate of Columbia University and lives in Miami with her partner Cameron and their cat Jean.

C. Riley Snorton is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and jointly appointed with the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University. As a cultural theorist, his work focuses on racial, sexual, and transgender histories and cultural productions. He is the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), winner of the John Boswell Prize from the American Historical Association, the William Sanders Scarborough Prize from the Modern Language Association, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, and an honorable mention from the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award Committee. Snorton is a co-editor of Saturation: Race, Art and the Circulation of Value (MIT Press/New Museum, 2020).

Since 2020, he has been a co-editor of GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies (Duke University Press). Snorton’s next monograph, tentatively titled Mud: Ecologies of Racial Meaning examines the constitutive presence of swamps to racial practices and formations in the Americas. Currently, he is co-authoring A Black Queer History of the United States (Beacon Press) and co-editing The Flesh of the Matter: A Hortense Spillers Reader (Vanderbilt University Press).

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Host or Publisher Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW)