I had a lovely conversation with the amazing performer and liberatory educator Crocodile Lightning yesterday.
Me: Hey my dear, I am making this book of my art. It will be a small print run, but a beautiful book, and full of beautiful folks.
I would love to include you, if you give enthusiastic consent.
And of course you are also welcome to say no!
Sun 8:22 PM
Crocodile Lightning ✨
Can you tell me a bit more about the book please? Your intention, vision, where it’s sold? Thank you for thinking of me.
Me: It is a book of my drawings, half San Francisco (2005-2015) and half Berlin (2015-2024).
It will be drawings from dungeons, play parties, burlesque shows, drag shows, street events like Folsom and Folsom Europe. Some nudity but no actual sex.
My intention and vision is to honor the people I have known and drawn in queer and kinky community, to show their courage, gender affirmation, passion and creativity. My idea is that since my documentary drawing has only ever been online, as online spaces become more censored, it will be disappeared, and so will these records of intimate human beauty and strength and tenderness.
I believe my work has value and my seeing of all these beautiful folx has value, and I want to know a little bit of it will survive in some places.
It will be called “Demimonde: the live drawing of Suzanne Forbes“.
it will be sold almost entirely on through the kickstarter, unless a few queer bookstores order a few. I don’t expect to sell or print more than 100 copies, if I am very lucky.
No publisher is interested in me and I am much too sick to pursue sending it out to publishers, so it is an entirely self published book.
The Kickstarter is to fund the printing and to pay the book designer/layout person, and my editor, Anuradha Vikram.
I’m not going to be paid or make any money from the book, I will actually lose a lot of money, but it’s really important to me.
This drawing of two butches at Midori‘s AIDS LifeCycle fundraiser at a SF dungeon in 2007 is a typical drawing I’m including.
I am so blessed to have known and drawn such incredible people. I am working hard and we are hoping to launch the kickstarter in September.
If you subscribe to the substack below, I’ll keep you posted on the book! So grateful to the 100+ folks who are following this newsletter and here for this message.
