Love & Lightning: A Collection of Queer & Feminist Manifestos

Its is a truly humbling honour to have our Radical Tenderness Manifesto included in this constellation of inspirational voices. I am deeply grateful for all the layers of labour from editors, writers, designers, and the lineages, friendships, and communities that have held and nourished these words into being. Pages are never born from individuals or even collectives alone. They are composted from mo(ve)ments, conversations, protests, heartbreaks, celebrations and more. The manifestos gathered here pulse with the collective metabolism of queer and (trans)feminist worldings carried across space-time. Gratitude to all who have tended some of this immensity into word-form, and to those who continue to move the rebel-rooted magic of (un)becoming in and through us! 💜⚡

READY FOR ORDERS!

Love & Lightning: A Collection of Queer and Feminist Manifestos gathers queer&feminist texts in forms that cross borders, styles and disciplines. Curated by Girls Like Us Magazine with Sarah van Binsbergen, the book spans classical activist calls and poetic, associative declarations that transcend binaries and surpass neoliberal logic. The book exposes the pervasiveness of themes such as sexism, racism, exploitation and patriarchal oppression. At the same time, it compellingly shows how ideological stances and values are shared between authors regardless of the different contexts from which the manifestos originate.

Love & Lightning presents manifestos from 1851 to today, contextualized across regions including Asia, Africa and Latin America. It does not pretend to be an exhaustive collection. Rather, it aims to show the myriad ways in which manifestos can be set up. During their research, the editors discovered that, in addition to the familiar form of a manifesto—loud, clear, imperative and graphically appealing—, there are many long,
rambling and nuanced manifestos that touch broader issues. What these texts share is a powerful sense of urgency.

Through accompanying texts by Sarah van Binsbergen, elaborating on earlier interweaving texts by Liz Allan, Love & Lightning not only gives new insights into the style and message of the manifesto, but it also encourages the reader to imagine their own revolution, whether big or small.

Manifestos include:

⚡ Ain’t I a Woman by Soujourner Truth;
⚡ Xenofeminist Manifesto by Laboria Cuboniks;
⚡ Work Will Not Save Us: An Asian American Crip Manifesto by Mel Y. Chen, Mimi Khúc en Jina B. Kim;
⚡ RADICAL TENDERNESS IS… by Dani d’Emilia en Daniel B. Chávez (aka Daniel B. Coleman);
⚡ The Empire Strikes Back by Sandy Stone;
⚡ Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey;
⚡ International Women’s Day Statement by The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees;
⚡ The Manukan Declaration of the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network;
⚡ Countersexual Manifesto by Paul B. Preciado;
⚡ W.I.T.C.H. Manifesto;
⚡ Killjoy Manifesto by Sara Ahmed;
⚡ SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas;
⚡ Refugia! Manifesto for Becoming Autonomous Zones by subRosa;
⚡ Feminist Data Manifest-No by the Feminist Data Studies Workshop;
⚡ Y’All Better Quiet Down by Sylvia Rivera;
⚡ The Mamaist Manifesto by The Toxic Titties;
⚡ 100 Anti-Thesis of Cyberfeminism by Old Boys Network,
and many more!

Love & Lightning – A Collection of Queer and Feminist Manifestos
Edited by Sarah van Binsbergen, Liz Allan, Jessica Gysel, Sara Kaaman
In collaboration with: Girls Like Us, http://www.girlslikeusmagazine.com / @girlslikeusmagazine
Design and visual contributions: Lotte Lara Schröder