Black Feminist Book Club #19: Marsha by Tourmaline

Book Summary:

Biographical texts are often written by historians and researchers whose lives do not directly intermingle or entwine with the folks at the center of their work. While those scholars and thinkers write brilliant texts that reach broad audiences, they do not always capture the full depth and color of their subjects’ lives. In Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, author, activist, and documentarian Tourmaline embodies what it means to be of and from the community that you lift up. Not only that, she models a form of generous critique and admiration that seeks to tell fuller and truer stories about LGBTQIA+ people in a time when we are aggressively overlooked, erased, and diminished in broader media and society.

The book is broken into chapters which take on their own narrative frames, honing in on specific time periods and contexts in Marsha P. Johnson’s life. What I appreciated most about Tourmaline’s writing (and narration in the audiobook) was her keen attention to detail. For example, when discussing Marsha’s childhood life, she made sure to add texture to the relationships Marsha shared with her mother and broader family. This is important because trans folks are often isolated and separated from their biological families in violent and harmful ways that result in lifelong struggles with stability and personal security. In this text, Tourmaline was careful to explain how Marsha’s complex relationships with siblings and parents both empowered and disempowered her along her journey.

Growing up as a queer and feminine child, Marsha took to trades like sewing and community care early on in her life. That was tough living in Elizabeth, New Jersey. So, Marsha set her sights on New York City, where she could be free to dress and express herself on her own terms. Throughout the book, Tourmaline is careful to humanize Marsha’s choices even though polite society does not often make room for the unrespectable, self-assured womanhood that Marsha worked to define for herself.

While public narratives have often left out the critical details of Marsha’ s life and community, Tourmaline takes great care to bring them in here. For example, I learned in this text that Marsha was deeply loved both romantically and platonically as she worked to locate herself in the trans and queer community in NYC. She was once engaged and found a deep and enduring love with a man who she had hoped to spend her life with. Unfortunately, Marsha’s life was marked with tragedy as she not only lost lovers, she also lost whole communities of friends and chosen family to a precarity and uncertainty of life living on the streets in the city that never sleeps.

What was most profound to me throughout this book was how loving and generous Marsha was even when she didn’t have much to give. While it is well-known that Marsha and Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to support working queer and trans girls who needed shelter and community, less is known about the informal ways she showed up for those she loved. She would travel to care for friends who were dying from AIDS. She made and donated clothing for folks who needed it. Marsha would literally give the clothes off of her back to a sister in need.

I found myself profoundly impacted by this work. I know that I will come back to it again and again.

Our next book is The Source of Self-Regard, by Toni Morrison.

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