A children’s picture book biography about Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson

We have a few copies of the paperback version of our new picture book left. Order yours today or pre-order the hardcover.

“A beautiful story of friendship, bravery, and the courage
to stand up to be yourself and do what is right.”
Tatiana Quiroga, Director of Family Equity & Diversity, Family Equality

“When we share books like this with young people…we can begin to set them on a path of acceptance and understanding.”
Mike Rawls, children’s librarian and blogger at thebookwrangler.com

“[A] beautiful, resourceful, informative and important addition to trans history.”
Dr. Wenn B. Lawson (PhD) CPsychol AFBsS

Through lush illustrations and sizzling prose, Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! tells the story of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, two trans women of color who sparked the modern LGBTQIA2 movement.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson meet in 1969 as homeless transgender girls of color.  Sylvia longs for change, saying, “Someday we’ll be able to wear whatever we want.  People will call us by our chosen names and we’ll never go hungry.”  Together, they make history during the Stonewall Rebellion, kick-starting the movement for acceptance of queer and trans youth.  Sylvia and Marsha help transgender girls by sharing what they have in abundance: friendship. Today, they are still remembered, showing that best friends can change the world.

Watch the book trailer for Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution!

Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution!  is a picture book perfect for children, their parents, and any trans person who didn’t get to see themselves reflected in children’s literature. It’s not too late to read the stories you deserve and share them with the kids you love.

A Picture Book By and For Queer and Trans People

Joy Michael Ellison is a queer and non-binary trans writer, whose creative writing has appeared in Lunch Ticket, the Baltimore Review, Story Club Magazine, and many other places. They are also a PhD candidate researching transgender history and the recipient of a Yuyi Morales Merit Scholarship from the Children’s Picture Book Academy.  They are the creator of If We Knew Trans History, a public history blog through which they have been sharing information about Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson for years. Joy believes that telling the stories of our past is integral to  healing, transformation, resistance, and survival.

Teshika Silver is an illustrator whose vivid, intricate art work lovingly depicts the lives of people of color and the work of revolutionary movements. Tesh uses both traditional media and digital  programs to create pieces that are both captivating and magical.  She is a teaching artist at the Hyde Park Art Center where she works closely with youth. She strives to  create work that uplifts, heals and promotes the resilience of  marginalized people.

We care about representing our community with honesty, humor, respect and historical accuracy. Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! will help you have important conversations about gender, sexuality, and race with the children in your life.

Order Your Copy Now

Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! will be available in hardback from Jessica Kingsley Press in November 2020.  A limited number of paperback copies leftover from our Kickstarter are available for order now.

Invite Us

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working hard to promote this title. We are available for online readings, digital library visits, virtual book signings, and guest blogging, as well as live workshops for kids and parents. Please contact us and we’ll create an event together.

Resources for Parents and Teachers

Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! is the perfect way to start a conversation with kid about important topics like gender, activism, police, and social justice. We have created resources that will help you talk to the children you love, even if you don’t know much about Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.

 

I never expected the best new queer film I’ve watched this year to be about Emily Dickinson, but Wild Nights with Emily was a balm for my heart.

Directed by Madeline Olnek and starring Molly Shannon, Wild Nights with Emily busts every myth about the great American poet. In this film, Emily Dickinson is no modest and maudlin recluse. Instead, it draws on a rich cache of primary evidence to depict Dickinson as she was: an ambitious queer woman with a biting wit.

Wild Nights upends the trope of the isolated, cruel genius, which has plagued other recent biopics about queer historical figures. Instead, Wild Nights depicts Dickinson’s lifelong love for her sister-in-law Susan Ziegler. Ziegler played the role of friend, lover, editor, inspiration, and intellectual equal for Dickinson. By showing how Zeigler was quite literally erased from Dickinson’s writing, Wild Nights skillfully reveals the homophobia inherent in depictions of queer historical figures as loveless and tragic.

I loved Wild Nights in part because it filled with me with the same giddy joy I felt as a college student when I discovered that there were plenty of queer people in the literary cannon; Walt Whitman, Truman Capote, and James Baldwin just couldn’t be out in my high school any more than I could. Wild Nights, however, also provided enough surprises and substance to hold my intellectual interest.

Thanks to Shannon’s performance and Olnek’s writing, Wild Nights is hilarious in a way that not only honors Dickinson, but also breathes new life into the lesbian costume drama genre. If you like movies about queer women, you may have watched many a frock flick. From recent films like Carol to older dramas like Tipping the Velvet, most of these films are charming, but they can also be predictable, twee, and one dimensional. At their worst, costume dramas about queer women get their emotional power from dramatic descriptions of homophobia that may be somewhat historically accurate, but certainly aren’t affirming. Wild Nights, instead, manages to make its characters feel contemporary while remaining true to the complicated situations they negotiated.

Wild Nights with Emily is a remarkable, groundbreaking film that never had a shot at getting its due. It played at Columbus’ Gateway Film Center for a measly 10 days. Nonetheless, I’m certain this film will live on like so many queer women’s movies before it. Stuffed onto library shelves and the recesses of streaming platforms, surely nerdy queer teens will find Wild Nights. I imagine them singing “Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me” to the tune of Amazing Grace, just like we once did.  Their laughter will be all the more gleeful for knowing the truth about Dickinson.

I wrote a lot in 2018!

How to Brew Tea for a Funeral

Disability, Intersex Identity, and Transgender Identity in The Orville’s About a Girl, The Geeky Gimp

On the Body: What Transgender History Can Teach Us About Censorship, American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Blog

4 Activists who make me Proud to be Disabled and Transgender, Rooted in Rights

Neville Longbottom and Anti-Racist Disabled Solidarity, The Geeky Gimp

Tomatoes, Heritage or Hate, Ruminate

“Bad Penny: Trauma, War, and Trans Identity,” Headcase: LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Illness

 

Columbus Alive:

Incarceration is an LGBT Issue and Now is the Time to Act

Families, all families, Belong Free

Stop Lecturing Millennials and Start Supporting our Movements”

Trick or treat your way through Queer and Trans history

Transgender liberation requires audacious dreams

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ proves nothing can ruin Queen

#MeToo: Why I’m still fighting losing battles

Can the queer and transgender community reconcile?

New Year’s resolution reading recommendations

 

If We Knew Trans History:

White Queer People Yelling at Trans Women of Color during Pride Celebrations: An Incomplete History

Trans Love, part one: Sylvia Rivera and Julia Murray

Homoplace: Livable Worlds in The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye

Book Review: Black on Both Sides by C. Riley Snorton

Even without ScarJo, I am skipping Rub and Tug. Instead, I want to see Dominique Jackson play Lucy Hicks Anderson

Music by Trans Artists to Get Us Through These Tough Times

Trans Boys and Girls: Prince’s Under the Cherry Moon in the Context of Minneapolis Transgender History

Ru, Please! Trans women have been a part of drag for DECADES