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Purple Magazine
— The New York issue #39 S/S 2023

Tourmaline

BLACK TRANS ACTIVIST-

ARTIST TOURMALINE VISUALLY

DECOLONIZES AMERICA’S DARK HISTORY.

INTERVIEW BY BOBBI SALVÖR MENUEZ

PORTRAITS BY RICHIE SHAZAM

BOBBI SALVÖR MENUEZ — When did you first come to New York, and what brought you here?

TOURMALINE — The first time I came to New York, I was visiting. It was 1998, and it was the moment when hip-hop culture was spilling into the mainstream. The same way that I do art now, that music was my life. So much of that moment was moving through the city of New York, and I felt so alive. I just was like: “Wow. There’s so much happening in terms of Blackness and art and music.” I remember it feeling really generative. And so, my path of least resistance… I tried to go to high school here, and that didn’t really work out. And then, I went to college here. So, I moved…

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