QUEERBOOK
An urgent printed exploration of queers & community in the era of COVID-19 & The U.S.’s racial reckoning. Created by sloan leo, during their September 2020 Queer.Archive.Work Residency
*image courtesy of Julia Parris
QUEERBOOK was created over the course of 12 days and contains musings, inspiration and insights from 50 queers from around the country. It is a nonlinary journey, as community finding often is.
Over the course of the residency, Sloan Leo took photos of all the protest signs that they saw on their walk to the studio. They were struck by the density of #blacklivesmatter posters in the white neighborhood.
Cowans work is fueled by the work of queer black feminist scholars - such as Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith. During the quarantine, they re-read bell hooks essay, Theory as Liberatory practice again and again. To ground. To heal. And to center.
“This residency gave me space to engage with my rage and fear around being queer and black in America by producing a community time-capsule of sorts. A time-capsule that holds complexity, grief and also joy and healing.”
— sloan leo, Q.A.W. Artist-in-Residence
15 Editions
15 editions of QUEERBOOK along with of other artifacts from the production and performance of this project were created.
Informed by the legacy of black radical printing, a source of great inspiration and comfort for them. In 2020 and now, Cowan believes we need to be crafting and distributing our own information. We need to ensure our narratives and dialogues are recorded. There is a history to build on.
(image) “PRINT AS PROTEST” Riso Collage, sloan leo, 09.10.20
