The Center is proud to welcome Jesse Pallotta’s sculpture “A Love Letter to Marsha.” This sculpture is of transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson.
On view May 25 – August 24, 2022
The Center’s Lobby
Marsha P. Johnson was a revolutionary Black transgender sex worker and activist. She is known for playing an integral role in the Stonewall Riots of 1969, and was known throughout the queer community as a “drag mother” who supported the struggling youth of New York City’s West Village, including through Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which she founded with Sylvia Rivera. She helped lay the foundation for the modern LGBTQ+ movement.
In the following decades, Marsha toured America and Europe as a member of the “avant-drag” performance troupe Hot Peaches, performing drag and reading poetry. When she was home in NYC she could frequently be found in the West Village chatting with the locals adorned in a crown of flowers. Known as the Mayor of Christopher Street, Marsha warmed many hearts with her contagious smile and generous personality.
During her lifetime the gay liberation movement often outcast people like Marsha in favor of white, cisgender icons. Today, much work has been done to correct this narrative and recognize Marsha as a key figure. You can see how her work and legacy lives on through organizations like the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and Strategic Transgender Alliance for Radical Reform (STARR).
1. Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries at the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1973. Photo by Leonard Fink. Center Archive.
2. Marsha P. Johnson at the Second Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1972. Photo by Leonard Fink. Center Archive.
3. Marsha P. Johnson at the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1973 (Sylvia Rivera in the background on left). Photo by Leonard Fink. Center Archive.
4. Marsha P. Johnson at the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, 1974. Photo by Leonard Fink. Center Archive.
Over a nine-month period, Jesse Pallotta designed, sculpted, molded, and bronzed the bust. In order to craft Marsha’s likeness, they created a variety of sketches drawn from hundreds of archival photos. Pallotta gravitated towards the images of Marsha at protests, where she looked powerful and calm. They sculpted the bust out of water-based clay, and then created a silicone mold which was used to make a plaster cast, subsequently bronzed and weather-proofed for the park. Additional help was provided by artist and filmmaker Tourmaline, whose hundreds of archived photos gave Pallotta a deeper understanding of her features.
After extensive news coverage of the project, the sculpture was granted a temporary permit to stay in Christopher Park until November 2021. The grassroots group Black Trans Nation then decided that Marsha should move to The Center. The statue was designed to be interactive. Visitors are invited to interact, place flowers in her hair, and leave flowers near the podium. The statue will be on display here until August 24, 2022, and the artist hopes to continue working in partnership with community members and organizations to plan for the future of the sculpture.
Sculptor:
Jesse Pallotta studied at The Evergreen State College and received a degree in fine art, aesthetics philosophy, and art history. He is a trans sex-worker and active tenant organizer in Brooklyn. His art practice has a strong focus on figuaration and naturalism, through which he seeks to explore the intersection of Beauty, politics, and public spaces. He is the co-founder of QT Art Camp which seeks to bring art workshops to trans youth.
Community Liaison:
TS Candii founded Black Trans Nation (BTN), a national organization, committed to uplifting the living experience of black and brown trans people and GNCP. On February 2, 2021 TS Candii was one of the leading organizers, along with many others, who defected the current stop policing practice of Walking While Trans.
Documentary Photographer/Videographer:
Brandon English is a New York based visual artist interested in contemporary abolitionist practices and how they intersect with vestiges of vernacular image making. Through the lens of democratized imaging technologies (cellphones, DSLRs, surveillance cameras etc.), he aims to render issues of race, identity, and political/social discourse with an exactitude concentrated on his proprietary experiences/traumas rather than image fidelity.
Project Model/Consultant:
Angel Glasby is an Afro-Caribbean artist based in Brooklyn, NY, whose current body of work tackles the significance of the queer identity within marginalized bodies. They are the co-founder of QT Art Camp which seeks to bring art workshops to trans youth.
Press Coordinator:
Eli Erlick is a writer, activist, and PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the co-founder of Trans Student Educational Resources, the only national organization led by trans youth.
Sculptor Consultant:
Heather Personett (b. 1988) is a figurative sculptor living in Brooklyn, NY. Her clay sculptural work is primarily centered on emotional representations of creature and human relationships shared across the natural world, as well as specialization in portraiture. She is a teacher and sculptor at Grand Central Atelier, New York Academy of Art and SUNY FIT.
Christopher Park Installation Crew:
Joey Bradley, Luc Marraffa
Project Volunteers:
Norah Littleton, Lara Americo, Ryan Fazio, Lee Frantz, Erika Demetriou, Mackenzie Swenson, Koi King