St. Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992), born and also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Though some have mistakenly credited Johnson for starting the riots, Johnson was always forthcoming about having not been present when the riots began.
Johnson was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and co-founded the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera. Johnson was also a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene, modeling for Andy Warhol, and performing onstage with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches. Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street" due to being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. From 1987 through 1992, Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP.
excerpt from Wikipedia
Notes from the Artist
Marsha P. Johnson was widely known to adorn herself with flowers that she would often acquire from the floral district shops, who would give her discarded blooms that hadn’t sold that day. In fact, Johnson’s signature style became a strong inspiration for me to include flowers and plants in the halos of the queer saints. It reminded me a little of Kehinde Wiley’s paintings which often depict his subject surrounded by, even engulfed by a verdant botanical background. I thought crowning the saints with God’s natural creation would be a fitting way to honor these figures, reclaiming the inherent divinity denied to queer people by some religious leaders. In this illustration, I decided to adorn Marsha with white carnations to signify purity and good luck, and included cherry blossoms in her halo to represent her fleeting life, gone too soon.