A bold Black future
As Black History Month comes to a close, we’re looking ahead to a brilliant Black future! Recently, the Black Futures Fund at Stonewall awarded a grant to pioneering artist, activist, and author, Tourmaline, to help fund her upcoming book project, the first-ever major biography of one of the mothers of our Movement, Marsha P. Johnson. The Black Futures Fund elevates and further institutionalizes Stonewall’s decades-long investments in the development of Black LGBTQ+ leadership and advances racial equity by providing grants to Black LGBTQ+ leaders who engage in multiple change strategies, from community organizing and advocacy to art and service provision.
Tourmaline has been a friend of Stonewall for years, and was even an honoree at our 2019 Vision Awards, and we are honored to make the first-ever grant from the Black Futures Fund to support her work in telling the story of Marsha P. Johnson’s storied life and powerful legacy. In Tourmaline’s own words, “it is the first-ever biography of Marsha, which Penguin Random House/Tiny Reparations will be publishing, and centers on the life of Marsha as a Black trans disabled artist who had a dramatic effect on our cultural landscape.”
Why fund a biography about a historical figure from the Black Futures Fund? Well, we can’t know where we’re going unless we understand where we’ve come from and how we got here. We recognize the power of uplifting Marsha’s memory alongside Tourmaline’s leadership in mining and sharing that treasure with the world. Throughout her career, Tourmaline has worked to preserve queer history, while also imagining and building a thriving, joyful future for Black queer and trans folks everywhere.
This grant will help Tourmaline and her team cover legal fees, travel for interviews, writing and research support, an educational book tour, and more. We're beyond proud to support Tourmaline’s work, and that of other Black queer leaders who are changing the game like her.
Learn more about the Black Futures Fund here, and follow Tourmaline on Instagram here.