Celebrating Pride 2021 - Black Trans Canadian Artists You should be Following | Victoria BC Outdoor Boudoir Photography
As a late-to-the-coming-out-party-bisexual I’ve had a mixed relationship with Pride. It wasn’t until 2019 that I went to my first pride festival, still feeling more like an Ally than the B in LGBTQIA+. Through the pandemic as I settled more into my queer identity and feeling comfortable enough to even claim the word queer, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on the important of Pride.
Pride feels like a giant party to us now - full of glitter, rainbows, dance parties, singing, and general tomfoolery and magical displays of authentic queerness. But Pride started as a protest, as a riot, and we can never forget that. [If you aren’t versed in the origins of Pride, research the Stonewall Riots].
We have Pride as we know it today because of Black Trans Activists + Lesbians, primarily sex-workers. While we celebrate Pride month and how far we have come, it’s also to remember how much further we still need to go. That we still need to actively work and fight for our friends and family who exist on various intersections and experience discrimination at an elevated percentage. Let’s celebrate our history, while continuing to fight for a better future.
And to celebrate this liberation made possible by Black Trans Activists, here are some amazing Black Trans Artists doing AMAZING work that you got to check out!
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Seagirl Abuson | The beautiful human featured in the images and photoshoot accompanying this blog post! An amazing woman doing incredible work for the LGBTQIA+ refugee committee. “Seagirl Abuson came to Canada as a refugee last year. She spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya after fleeing homophobia and transphobia in her home country of Uganda.” - to support her cause, visit this link.
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Syrus Marcus Ware | As a visual artist, Syrus works within the mediums of painting, installation and performance to challenge systemic oppression. Syrus’ work explores the spaces between and around identities; acting as provocations to our understandings of gender, sexuality and race. His work has been exhibited at the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019), the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Gladstone Hotel, ASpace Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, SPIN Gallery and other galleries across Canada. His work has been reproduced in FUSE Magazine, The Globe and Mail, THIS Magazine, and Blackness and Sexualities, amongst others. His work has also been included in several academic journals including Small Axe and Women and Environment International.
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Backxwash | A trans artist creating an incredibly unique blend of metal and rap - in 2020 she was the first Trans artist to win the Polaris Music Prize, which is known to celebrate diversity and to support up-and-coming Canadian artists.
Backxwash is the stage name adopted by Ashanti Mutinta. Growing up in a religious family in Zambia, she started making hip hop beats as a teenager before moving to Canada in her late teens to live with her siblings. She studied computer science before exploring Montreal’s live music scene and going back to expressing herself through music. [source]
