Intersectionality is the Heartbeat of My Work
An Interview with Golden, photographer, poet, & community organizer
This August, Grantmakers in the Arts asks that cultural grantmakers look inward and listen outward, to invest in Black artists and communities, commit to listen, learn, and implement anti-racist practices, more widely amplify voices for change, and connect our work with the racial justice organizing. Throughout the month, GIA will share questions and proposals from our members on how cultural grantmaking can interrupt institutional and structural racism while building a more just funding ecosystem that prioritizes Black communities, organizations, and artists.
For our 2023 series, we invited Black philanthropists and creatives to offer a reflection and a call to action, responding to the expanded question: How can cultural grantmaking develop sustainable anti-racist practices while building a more just funding ecosystem that prioritizes Black communities, organizations, and artists? How do we encompass intersectionality to address the complex identities within Blackness?
What was the first grant or fellowship you applied for? What, if any, unexpected difficulties arose during the application process?
I am buzz light years away from language & a land name by Golden
The first professional grant I applied to, outside of local university grants, was the Queer Art 2020 Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists. I had just started my self-portraiture series On Learning How to Live, in partnership with the City of Boston during my Artist Residency. I didn’t have any difficulties with the application process but I wish I would’ve researched more closely what the grant application was looking for at the time. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about starting early in the application process, taking time to answer essay questions efficiently & directly, as well as tailoring my selection of works for each application based on what is specifically being asked.
Have you felt supported beyond just a monetary sense when you’ve received grant awards? If so, what has that looked like? If not, what kind of non-monetary aid would be helpful?
I have received a lot of support from organizations like Women Photograph & Queer Art over the years, even as a finalist for their Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists, to name a few. From connecting me with other artists through digital spaces & databases, setting up meetings with mentors & curators, offering opportunities to sell prints & be a part of public programming. I was even contracted to be in Women Photograph’s latest photobook What We See: Women & Nonbinary Perspectives Through the Lens, which was an amazing opportunity. It’s really important that artists, through grant programs, receive support that could elevate their career & platform, as well as bridge the gaps between actualizing their personal & career goals.
How do you feel intersectionality drives and challenges your art making?
Intersectionality is the heartbeat of my work! Not only as a Black trans queer artist, but it's palpable in the relationships within & surrounding my art practice. I’m always looking to center & honor my Black & POC blood & chosen family, Black queer & trans individuals who inspire me to continue making these photographs & visual poems. It’s a natural ethos of my life, my love, my art making.
Sometimes lifes a fantasy & sometimes Im alone in the wake of wondering what it could be like by Golden
If you could share one piece of feedback for grantmakers seeking to support Black queer and trans artists, what would it be?
Be sure to ask each artist what they need specifically at this moment in their career. Additionally, providing free applications, monetary support for finalists, recommending artists to other projects & collaborations even if they don’t win the grant, setting up meetings with curators & gallerists, providing free workshops for artists to learn best businesses practices (how to file taxes, track/record sales, build a website & portfolio) are things grantmakers can do to help artists today.
Where can we find your work? Any exciting projects coming up?
You can find my photography work on my website or on my Instagram (@goldenthem_). My latest photo & poetry book, A Dead Name That Learned How to Live can be purchased online or in select stores.
I’m excited to be launching my first-ever print sale this month, to raise funds for my first solo show debuting in October at the Brookline Arts Center’s Beacon Street Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. Outside of preparing for my exhibition, I’ll be working on edits for my forthcoming book, REPRISE, scheduled to be released in January 2025 by Haymarket Books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Golden (they/them) is a Black gender-nonconforming trans photographer, poet, & community organizer raised in Hampton, VA (Kikotan land), currently splitting their time between Brooklyn, NY (Lenapehoking land) and Boston, Massachusetts (Massachusett people land). They are the author of A Dead Name That Learned How to Live (2022), a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Transgender Poetry (2023), and the photographic series On Learning How to Live, an Arnold Newman Prize Finalist (2021), documenting Black trans life at the intersections of surviving & living in the United States. Their forthcoming hybrid poetry & photography book REPRISE will be released in 2025 with Haymarket Books.
Golden’s published & collaborative work can be found on Instagram (@goldenthem_) or through their website goldengoldengolden.com.
