Marsha P. Johnson Sculpture Goes Up Near Stonewall
Activists pay tribute to late LGBTQ icon after city delays monument plans
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Queer and transgender
activists took to Christopher
Park on August
24 in Manhattan to
erect a bust of the late LGBTQ icon
Marsha P. Johnson.
The sculpture, which was installed
on the activist’s 76th birthday,
was not approved by government
offi cials. In 2019, First Lady
Chirlane McCray and the city
turned to the She Built NYC program
— aimed at erecting statues
of women in history — to announce
plans to pay tribute to Johnson and
Sylvia Rivera with a monument at
Ruth Wittenberg Triangle at 421
Sixth Avenue at Christopher Street
and Greenwich Avenue. However,
that initiative and other plans for
monuments were placed on the
backburner during the COVID era,
according to the city.
The activists behind the new
sculpture include Eli Erlick, a
transgender advocate and cofounder
of Trans Students Educational
Resources, and sculptor
Jesse Pallotta, a sex worker who
said he used $6,000 of his own
funding to create the sculpture.
The activists accused the city of
dragging their feet to erect sculptures
honoring LGBTQ women
across the city.
“We decided to build the sculpture
because we do not believe
the city will fulfi ll its promise to
erect the statues of the women it
claims it will,” Erlick said in a written
statement to Gay City News. “If
they do, we’re certain it won’t be in
a timely manner. They did not construct
a single sculpture from their
$10 million dollar 2018 She Built
NYC campaign. Nor did they even
choose artists for most of their proposed
statues.”
She added, “This goes much
further than COVID delays to
fundamental disorganization surrounding
and apathy toward remembering
historical women. As
trans people, we knew we had to
take matters into our own hands
if we wanted to remember such a
profoundly impactful fi gure like
Activists stand next to a sculpture of LGBTQ icon Marsha P. Johnson.
Marsha.”
It is not clear whether the sculpture
— which sits in the middle of
the park — will remain in place
for the foreseeable future. The National
Parks Service could not immediately
be reached for comment
on August 27. Activists said they
reached out to the city to discuss
issuing a temporary permit.
In a statement, Mitch Schwartz,
a spokesperson for the mayor’s offi
ce, said the city is aware of the
new sculpture but has nothing to
do with it.
“This isn’t a city statue, although
the city has pledged to build them,”
Schwartz said in a written statement.
“The city-commissioned
statues are currently on hold;
COVID-19 has delayed monuments
and public art projects across the
board, as you’d probably imagine.
We’re still committed to seeing
these through for both Johnson
and Rivera. But this one appears
to have been put up by some activists,
and I don’t really have any
more details on it.”
Pallotta said he sought to honor
the contributions of Black and
Brown people in the fi ght for LGBTQ
rights.
“The initial spark to create a
monument of Marsha was due to
the city’s cancellation of the sculpture
and the historical pushback
of the George Segal ‘Gay Liberation
Monument,'” Pallotta said. “For
ELI ERLICK
many of LGBT+ folks, they are not
represented in the cis, normative
gay couples that Segal’s statue depicts.
Marsha is a representation
of all of the outcasts: trans people,
ACTIVISM
black and brown queers, sex workers,
drag queens, houseless folks,
those who have been impacted
by the incarceration system and
many more who have been historically
left out of the modern LGBT+
movement.”
TS Candii, a Black transgender
woman and founder of Black
Trans Nation, said she believes
more grassroots Black trans activists
should have been consulted or
involved in the project’s debut.
Activists who installed the
sculpture stressed they do so as
individuals and not as part of any
organizations.
“Although we hope the statue
will inspire viewers to support
groups like the Marsha P Johnson
Institute, we did not want to
put any organizations or individuals
at risk by partaking in
a risky activity,” Erlick said in a
statement.
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