Margin|Margin

Heather Raquel Phillips
Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Independent Creative Production Grant

A mature black male stands proud in nature wearing a white, short sleeved leather shirt and white leather pants. He is accessorized with a black leather western hat and a white studded thick wristband.

Sir Eli Rah, 2017, Digital Color Photograph.

Margin|Margin is a lens-based, multi-media project that focuses on the pleasure, pain and voices of Black and Indigenous People of Color in the LGBTQIA+ Leather community. Akin to most areas of our society, many BIPOC people fail to see themselves reflected in positive media images. The leather community historically limits representation to Gay white men. Artworks, advertising, contests & clubs seldom highlight the vibrant and abundant BIPOC community. The subjects of Margin/Margin offer a proud and sometimes challenging, visual & verbal account of their presence in community. From racism, tokenism & fetishization to desire and pleasure seeking, Margin|Margin seeks to balance erasure with representation. Phillips’ goal is to share this multidimensional project in several U.S. cities at atypical venues as a way to amplify the voices that have suffered from erasure, while also normalizing/demystifying BIPOC presence in kink communities.

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