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Our Work Is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance
Over the past ten years, we have witnessed the rise of queer and trans communities that have defied and challenged those who have historically opposed them. Through bold, symbolic imagery and surrealist, overlapping landscapes, queer illustrator and curator Syan Rose shines a light on the faces and voices of these diverse, amorphous, messy, real and imagined queer and trans communities.
In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and healthcare practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose's startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders' words to visual life.
Our Work Is Everywhere is a graphic nonfiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance.
Includes a foreword by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.
In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and healthcare practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose's startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders' words to visual life.
Our Work Is Everywhere is a graphic nonfiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance.
Includes a foreword by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.
96 pages, ebook
First published April 6, 2021
44 people are currently reading
2256 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
March 12, 2021
I'm struggling with how to rate this.
From the perspective of what the book is about and the interviews, essays, and poems it contains, this is everything you could ask for. I was a little surprised to see the use of "womxn" but I don't think what I will call am editorial oversight, detracts from the overall book.
Where I stumble is the presentation. The illustrations are gorgeous and the care and effort that was given to make each contributor's piece unique and stand out is evident. However, the choice to go with a handwritten font left a lot of the text difficult to read. I understand that this decision was likely made for aesthetic cohesion, but I often had to squint to make out words, which was further exacerbated by poor contrast on some pages.
Ultimately, it's obvious that this book is a true labour of love and also an important text for those looking to learn more about folks who are leading lights of queer and trans resistance.
From the perspective of what the book is about and the interviews, essays, and poems it contains, this is everything you could ask for. I was a little surprised to see the use of "womxn" but I don't think what I will call am editorial oversight, detracts from the overall book.
Where I stumble is the presentation. The illustrations are gorgeous and the care and effort that was given to make each contributor's piece unique and stand out is evident. However, the choice to go with a handwritten font left a lot of the text difficult to read. I understand that this decision was likely made for aesthetic cohesion, but I often had to squint to make out words, which was further exacerbated by poor contrast on some pages.
Ultimately, it's obvious that this book is a true labour of love and also an important text for those looking to learn more about folks who are leading lights of queer and trans resistance.
February 5, 2022
This book was such a good idea, but the execution was not so great. This is a 5 star collection with 1 star formatting.
Pros:
Cool art.
BIPOC voices highlighted
Look at past and current QTPOC projects.
Cons:
Formatting is rough: the text was done as art making is not low-vision or dyslexic friendly.
That's only one real con, but it's a big one. It took me so long to read this relatively short book because I kept going back and trying to make sure I understood the word on the page. I appreciated the ones that included alternative reading options (like signing), but in general the typography used was an inaccessible choice that hurt the book.
Titles like this are more than the voices (and these are critical voices); they are the media used to express and amplify them. A sans serif read along side version or guide would have helped this so much and allowed them to keep the style and shape of the word art flowing in to the pictures in tact.
Pros:
Cool art.
BIPOC voices highlighted
Look at past and current QTPOC projects.
Cons:
Formatting is rough: the text was done as art making is not low-vision or dyslexic friendly.
That's only one real con, but it's a big one. It took me so long to read this relatively short book because I kept going back and trying to make sure I understood the word on the page. I appreciated the ones that included alternative reading options (like signing), but in general the typography used was an inaccessible choice that hurt the book.
Titles like this are more than the voices (and these are critical voices); they are the media used to express and amplify them. A sans serif read along side version or guide would have helped this so much and allowed them to keep the style and shape of the word art flowing in to the pictures in tact.
April 2, 2021
this is such a gift. there are a few spots where i struggle with the content politically (the use of "womxn" for one, the majority focus on urban work minus one perfect rural mutual aid section for another) but i really think that's part of what makes this so important. the queer and trans "communities" are not singular - they are built up of many communities and many opinions and endless intersections of identity and proximity to power. thank you so much for this. i will keep coming back to it over and over.
March 21, 2023
This is my first read for the #transrightsreadathon🏳️⚧️ and I have no idea how to review this book. One the one hand, I recognize its importance and the introspection it is trying to encourage, but on the other, I don't know if I actually enjoyed this...
First, let's start with the positives:
This was a very raw experience - seeing people open up about their unique experiences.. I enjoyed that we were exposed to a multitude of different perspectives from people who are typically ostracized from society: trans and genderqueer people, fat people, sex workers, etc. I also loved the overarching emphasis on the importance of recognizing internalized biases and then working to overcome them.
Now for the negatives:
This was super dense and hard to read at times. For the majority of this book, I felt like I was reading a textbook. On top of that, my eyes soon became tired from the font, the colours and from how busy every page was. As much as I initially enjoyed the art style, it soon became too distracting for my brain to comfortably process the actual content of the book. The formatting of this book is not accessible at all!
Edit: 2 days later and the only thing I remember about this book is that it gave me a headache...
First, let's start with the positives:
This was a very raw experience - seeing people open up about their unique experiences.. I enjoyed that we were exposed to a multitude of different perspectives from people who are typically ostracized from society: trans and genderqueer people, fat people, sex workers, etc. I also loved the overarching emphasis on the importance of recognizing internalized biases and then working to overcome them.
Now for the negatives:
This was super dense and hard to read at times. For the majority of this book, I felt like I was reading a textbook. On top of that, my eyes soon became tired from the font, the colours and from how busy every page was. As much as I initially enjoyed the art style, it soon became too distracting for my brain to comfortably process the actual content of the book. The formatting of this book is not accessible at all!
Edit: 2 days later and the only thing I remember about this book is that it gave me a headache...
June 13, 2021
A collection of beautifully illustrated conversations with people on the topics of queer and trans resistance, in which 'resistance' is defined in the widest terms possible.
This is not an 'oral history' as the title says it is, you won't find a concise look at the history of queer and trans resistance. What you will find is diverse conversations with trans and queer people how they have handled living in a society that actively others them.
I'm a middle-aged cishet white guy, the bread and butter of this society, and one way I feel I can educate myself is by reading these alternative narratives, open my eyes (and ears) to the lives of trans and queer people. This book feels like a perfect starting point.
The illustrations are beautiful, and add so much emotionally to the stories told.
(Thanks to Arsenal Pulp Press for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)
This is not an 'oral history' as the title says it is, you won't find a concise look at the history of queer and trans resistance. What you will find is diverse conversations with trans and queer people how they have handled living in a society that actively others them.
I'm a middle-aged cishet white guy, the bread and butter of this society, and one way I feel I can educate myself is by reading these alternative narratives, open my eyes (and ears) to the lives of trans and queer people. This book feels like a perfect starting point.
The illustrations are beautiful, and add so much emotionally to the stories told.
(Thanks to Arsenal Pulp Press for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)
February 8, 2022
It's hard to rate this one. On the one hand, it's full of amazing interviews that are fascinating and need to be told. So many of the pieces make me hopeful for a better future, and make me want to get involved in mutual aid. Syan Rose's art, specifically their portraits, is beautiful and full of feeling, and perfectly adapted to the subject matter.
Unfortunately, the formatting, the handwritten nature of the texts, the lack of contrast and fighting patterns make this physically difficult to read. I spent so much energy concentrating on making sense of the letters and trying to guess words from context clues, that I could hardly spend any mental energy on the content itself.
Worth a read, but make sure your brain is 100% on and concentrated on the task of reading this book.
Unfortunately, the formatting, the handwritten nature of the texts, the lack of contrast and fighting patterns make this physically difficult to read. I spent so much energy concentrating on making sense of the letters and trying to guess words from context clues, that I could hardly spend any mental energy on the content itself.
Worth a read, but make sure your brain is 100% on and concentrated on the task of reading this book.
April 1, 2023
This book would have been a 4 star book if it had been more accessible. It had gorgeous artwork and fantastic accounts of real people but I missed hunks of stories due to inaccessibility. Normally with my low vision I can just make it larger and be fine, but this book was too distorted and since all the words were hand written there were segments the writing could have been more pristine.
I almost DNF’d it due to inaccessibility because it was bugging me, however I was enjoying the artwork and stories so I just did a few pages at a time very slowly.
If you’re low vision, or legally blind be prepared it might not be able to be read by you because magnifying the pages in ebook distorts them, and honestly would probably be an nightmare to read with dyslexia as well, but otherwise gorgeous artwork interesting stories and perspectives (with what I could read). The artwork is the only reason it’s not rated lower, but if you don’t have vision issues it’s a gorgeous book.
I almost DNF’d it due to inaccessibility because it was bugging me, however I was enjoying the artwork and stories so I just did a few pages at a time very slowly.
If you’re low vision, or legally blind be prepared it might not be able to be read by you because magnifying the pages in ebook distorts them, and honestly would probably be an nightmare to read with dyslexia as well, but otherwise gorgeous artwork interesting stories and perspectives (with what I could read). The artwork is the only reason it’s not rated lower, but if you don’t have vision issues it’s a gorgeous book.
January 19, 2022
Our Work is Everywhere is a multi-media, multi-author graphic novel. There are interviews with movement organizers, poetry, and personal reflections—all of which are accompanied by Syan Rose’s art. As an organizer, I really enjoyed reading about other organizers’ lived experiences both inside and outside of organizing spaces, and I also enjoyed reading about the various artists included in this book. I learned about a lot of mutual aid efforts that I wasn’t previously aware of, and I will be sure to follow some of these organizations’ work going forwards.
However, the formatting of this book was not my favorite. I continuously found myself turning each page, hoping to read more of one interview or another, but finding a completely different topic on the next page, which left me thinking “that’s the end?” The interviews seemed to be chopped up and shortened to the extreme, which left me wanting more, because I really cherished the portions of the interviews that were included in this book. I would’ve been just as content with reading these interviews in an article without any illustrations—especially if the article included the longer forms of these interviews. Further, it seemed that the prose was de-prioritized compared to the corresponding art pieces. I don’t want to minimize the effort that Syan put into this project, because it is evident that they are an incredibly talented artist, but the way in which the art and prose were incorporated together ended up hindering, rather than enhancing, my reading experience. I think that it is certainly possible to successfully blend the written word with visual art in a way that enhances the meaning of both, but I think that it would be better suited to other forms of prose instead of interviews. I also think that if the writing had been separated from the art pieces, rather than included in a hand-written and winding font, that might have made it easier to read.
However, the formatting of this book was not my favorite. I continuously found myself turning each page, hoping to read more of one interview or another, but finding a completely different topic on the next page, which left me thinking “that’s the end?” The interviews seemed to be chopped up and shortened to the extreme, which left me wanting more, because I really cherished the portions of the interviews that were included in this book. I would’ve been just as content with reading these interviews in an article without any illustrations—especially if the article included the longer forms of these interviews. Further, it seemed that the prose was de-prioritized compared to the corresponding art pieces. I don’t want to minimize the effort that Syan put into this project, because it is evident that they are an incredibly talented artist, but the way in which the art and prose were incorporated together ended up hindering, rather than enhancing, my reading experience. I think that it is certainly possible to successfully blend the written word with visual art in a way that enhances the meaning of both, but I think that it would be better suited to other forms of prose instead of interviews. I also think that if the writing had been separated from the art pieces, rather than included in a hand-written and winding font, that might have made it easier to read.
June 22, 2022
This is a beautiful book. Both the illustrations and writings are stunning. It shined some light on some great organizations and important topics and problems we have in our world. I just had such a hard time reading it. Though the art is gorgeous the font and the way the writing wraps around the pages can make it hard to understand. I had to reread some sentence just to understand what letters went with which words and what line to continue to. I didn't read it digitally so maybe that effected some of it but there were some pages that because of the font mixed with the colors of both the words and back drop it was difficult for my eyes to focus on it. It's still a wonderful and informative and inciteful book.
June 23, 2022
Some of the colors were very difficult to read. I had to get through this a few pages at a time. However, I love the inclusivity of this book and all of the perspectives are so valuable to read and be able to understand. I highly recommend this book. It's refreshing to see a work such as this being released outside of the traditional structures of text.
March 24, 2021
This was absolutely stunning. 88 pages of sheer brilliance. Check out my full review in my newsletter: https://booksandbakes.substack.com/p/...
November 9, 2024
This is a neat collection of short pieces and interviews with trans people doing many different kinds of work, especially that which goes unacknowledged as "real" work. It is really beautiful to see so many different kinds of trans people being passionate about what they do -- and seeing the diversity in what that can be. The art is really beautiful. While the choice to do the words in more handwriting slowed my reading down, I do think that was a benefit actually for me (but may be more difficult for folks who are dyslexic and the like). I think naming this an "oral history" may make this seem like a deeper scope than this actually is (like I said, these are pretty short pieces). But I really enjoyed this.
September 10, 2025
The stories and artwork were really beautiful, and I did enjoy the creative layouts of the pages… but the font choice was horrid.
September 15, 2022
I don't really want to rag on this book. I appreciate the value of its process and the effort to create it. The passion and the struggle comes through strongly. The varied visions for creating a life in response to the needs and barriers facing individuals and communities is inspiring. The artwork is affecting, it suits the stories well.
That being said, this work may have been stronger with a little more editing. Their goal was to create a showcase of the multiplicity of queer experiences not a distilled essence, but it felt like up to half of almost every story felt like the same ideas expressed in the same way. Some could read this as reinforcement or resonance, but for me it just felt homogeneous. It felt like that half was perhaps what the author most directly related to, and maybe was drawn to these contributors by.
The other thing that struck me was how much it felt like a single perspective, despite the many interviews, because the oral history format was not used to give multiple angles on the same events but rather separate accounts of non-intersecting events, and the various speakers talked about their separate experiences in such similar terms. The result of this is a book less about the actual work of living and fighting for queer people and more about what it feels like to do different kinds of work for different people within these communities. Which is a valid topic for a book. But as described, I was hoping for and expecting to hear a lot more about the wider scope and context of these projects, maybe any sense of projects that build on one another, and a more comprehensive sense of the history of queer resistance. It might more accurately be called: "Our Work Is Everywhere: Sketches from Lives in Queer and Trans Resistance". That feels like what this book is actually seeking to be. I would still give that book 3 stars though.
That being said, this work may have been stronger with a little more editing. Their goal was to create a showcase of the multiplicity of queer experiences not a distilled essence, but it felt like up to half of almost every story felt like the same ideas expressed in the same way. Some could read this as reinforcement or resonance, but for me it just felt homogeneous. It felt like that half was perhaps what the author most directly related to, and maybe was drawn to these contributors by.
The other thing that struck me was how much it felt like a single perspective, despite the many interviews, because the oral history format was not used to give multiple angles on the same events but rather separate accounts of non-intersecting events, and the various speakers talked about their separate experiences in such similar terms. The result of this is a book less about the actual work of living and fighting for queer people and more about what it feels like to do different kinds of work for different people within these communities. Which is a valid topic for a book. But as described, I was hoping for and expecting to hear a lot more about the wider scope and context of these projects, maybe any sense of projects that build on one another, and a more comprehensive sense of the history of queer resistance. It might more accurately be called: "Our Work Is Everywhere: Sketches from Lives in Queer and Trans Resistance". That feels like what this book is actually seeking to be. I would still give that book 3 stars though.
June 2, 2021
On the whole, this book covers some really important topics and is obviously a creation of love and passion. I really enjoyed the art style as well.
With that being said, the pieces/interviews seemed way too short and cramped. What the speaker was saying to the reader ended up getting lost a lot of the time in the art and in the haste (3-4 pages per person/interview) of the piece itself. I wanted to dive into this book but instead it felt like i was getting magazine headlines that led me nowhere because then the piece was over.
Overall; beautiful, important, but missed the mark for me just a little bit in its attempt to fit so much into so little.
EDIT:
I forgot i wanted to keep track of my favourite pieces and let you all know what they were if you decide to read this!
my favourites were:
“Queer Muslim Family”
“The Wild Hunt Ride”
“Martial Arts is the Most Fluent Asian Language I Speak”
“A Poem for my Ama”
also special mention to “Ita” for having a QR code for the ASL translation!
With that being said, the pieces/interviews seemed way too short and cramped. What the speaker was saying to the reader ended up getting lost a lot of the time in the art and in the haste (3-4 pages per person/interview) of the piece itself. I wanted to dive into this book but instead it felt like i was getting magazine headlines that led me nowhere because then the piece was over.
Overall; beautiful, important, but missed the mark for me just a little bit in its attempt to fit so much into so little.
EDIT:
I forgot i wanted to keep track of my favourite pieces and let you all know what they were if you decide to read this!
my favourites were:
“Queer Muslim Family”
“The Wild Hunt Ride”
“Martial Arts is the Most Fluent Asian Language I Speak”
“A Poem for my Ama”
also special mention to “Ita” for having a QR code for the ASL translation!
January 11, 2022
Overall this was a beautiful collection of people doing diverse and important work mostly in urban American settings. I really liked reading about organizations and people that might not be very publicized so I might never hear of it. It's definitely not an "oral history". I would treat it more as something you read 2-3 articles at a time over an extended period of time. It would also be a good stopping off point, to learn about different issues and movements that are happening then doing your own research to learn more. I would have really liked if they did a few less articles in more detail, there were some stories that were so unique and inspiring but I did not get to learn much about it. It also needs a more readable font style- the art was beautiful but some honestly gave me a headache to try and read some of it.
June 23, 2022
The illustrations are incredible and there are some lovely and poignant stories in this collection. Overall, though, I find it pretty inaccessible.
Firstly because the text is really difficult to read. It's hand-written, which could have been an effective way to personalize the content, but it's not formatted well. There's often no contrast, the punctuation is tiny, and the kerning is really weird at times.
Secondly, it's buzzword heavy and most of the time it offers no deeper explanation or meaning. That means for a person familiar with social justice theory and rhetoric, it adds nothing new; and for a person unfamiliar with these concepts, it's not understandable.
Firstly because the text is really difficult to read. It's hand-written, which could have been an effective way to personalize the content, but it's not formatted well. There's often no contrast, the punctuation is tiny, and the kerning is really weird at times.
Secondly, it's buzzword heavy and most of the time it offers no deeper explanation or meaning. That means for a person familiar with social justice theory and rhetoric, it adds nothing new; and for a person unfamiliar with these concepts, it's not understandable.
Read
June 4, 2024DNF @ 36%
I can't read it.
The concept is incredibly interesting but the whole book is done as drawings. The text is handwritten and part of the artwork which admittedly looks beautiful but it makes it very hard to read, and I sadly had to give up.
I saw another review that mentioned it would be great if there was a serif version in addition to the art version of the book, so you'd be able to read it properly.
Great and important concept, I liked the parts I read but I had to give up once I had too much trouble reading and got a headache.
I can't read it.
The concept is incredibly interesting but the whole book is done as drawings. The text is handwritten and part of the artwork which admittedly looks beautiful but it makes it very hard to read, and I sadly had to give up.
I saw another review that mentioned it would be great if there was a serif version in addition to the art version of the book, so you'd be able to read it properly.
Great and important concept, I liked the parts I read but I had to give up once I had too much trouble reading and got a headache.
September 4, 2021
This stunning graphic novel filled with personal histories (recorded from oral conversations) is a true work of art. It isn't something you just sit down and read all at once, but rather digest chapter by chapter. I dropped a star because some of the writing, which is done by hand, can be really small or messy which makes it occasionally difficult to read. Highly recommend!!
May 14, 2022
Wow! I was so captivated by this illustrated zine-esq book. I read about: plant medicine, queer muslim families, child-bearing, mutual aid, how cooking brings people together, different methods of care, queerness & astrology, fat performance pieces, mental health, sex worker rights. Reading Our Work is Everywhere, felt magical in the way that colors can make you feel. I wanted to take all of these drawings and put them on my walls, and remind myself of how there are so many ways of how to be, and how caring is such a multi-faceted part of queer existence and resistance. I feel like lately I've been reading books that made me feel more political, or want to be more political, or intentional, or whatever it is, and this was one of those books. I will be giving this book to friends who care about the world, and how we show up in it.
April 2, 2025
I liked this a lot and found the various voices featured to be fascinating. The art is compelling and beautiful and stylistically amazing.
However, much of the text was borderline unreadable and I found that to be frustrating. My poor eyes.
However, much of the text was borderline unreadable and I found that to be frustrating. My poor eyes.
May 14, 2022
This is a lovely and powerful illustrated collection of interviews with people in queer and trans communities working to build a better world for LGBTQIA+ communities.
November 7, 2022
Content warnings are listed at the end of my review!
I have incredibly mixed feelings about this because the perspectives highlighted are absolutely amazing, but, I wish I could have experienced it uninhibited by the inaccessible formatting and abruptly stopped interviews. Goodreads user Liz puts it well "This is a 5 star collection with 1 star formatting." Right as you'd get to know about the person interviewed, before we could get any further, you'd flip the page and start again with someone new. There's no digestion time or building on this, so it feels like previews running in place, rather than something to get a deep understanding of. It's nice to see the variety of people included, but it felt like only the "noteworthy" or "on-topic" parts of some initial conversation was taken out and the rest was abandoned. I think this could possibly tie into my next point, I'm hypothesizing this was decided to limit the amount of illustrated work that the final project would require.
The art is a MASSIVE double edged sword as the art is incredibly personal and expressive, but at the cost of functionality for sharing space and comprehensibility of the text of the book. I appreciate the stunning character the designs and illustrations give, but the handwritten, nonlinear, weaving, curved, color-changing, choppy, and separated treatment the text gets made it nearing impossible for me to read, losing the voices of those in the interviews this was made to give light to. Egregiously, there's even miniscule red text over mustard colored polka dots, a black speech bubble with transparent text so the text is randomly patterned, font covered by shapes that have an invert layer style making the letters all garbled, and poorly placed and sized shadowing that melts letters together that reads about as easily as a captcha test. This inaccessibility really hurts the work as a whole in a way that is overwhelmingly disappointing to me, I was fighting to discern words and sentence structures, wasting excessive energy just trying to understand what I was looking at, leaving me exhausted before I even began digesting the text. It comes off as performative to have only one story with translation in Spanish & ASL, especially when the rest of the book is a challenge to read, this choice being a MONUMENTAL and NOVICE misstep in creation.
These issues were so severe that it disjointed me from getting to take in these stories, coating the entire book in a sour aftertaste, but the interviews themselves, though only anecdotes, do get to show nice glimpses. Really, all we get is what contributes to the theme of unacknowledged queer labor, and there's not enough emphasis on who the people being interviewed are aside from how they fit into this leaving it all feeling poorly compiled. Amid this, we do see some small peeks of how intersections can compound onto this added labor and lack of acknowledgement, but I wish more time was spent to flesh this out before we move on and start over! Another final source of disappointment is the multiple uses the term womyn repeatedly and in a separate work wimmin is used repeatedly, story directly after that one uses womxn! These are trans-antagonizing terms, and this was known in 2021!
Summary:
Readability: ☆☆☆☆☆, No stars! I had to fight to see the text and struggle to piece sentences together- VISUALLY. The fact that so many reviews mentions this (as of 11/07/2022 I counted: 28 other reviews mentioning difficulty reading!) That's absolutely obscene!
Entertainment: ★★★☆☆, Fine idea, incredibly rough in execution. The stories are good, the art is good, and the design is good- together it becomes a big mess as these elements drown each other out.
Audience: Illustrators who want to make zines and graphic novels, I'd recommend this as a what not to do guide for formatting and accessibility, I think it'd actually make a good teaching tool in appropriate contrast and artistic spatial awareness. Otherwise, read it if you're inclined and are up to the challenge but I don't really recommend.
Content Warnings: ableism, abusive parents, acupuncture, AIDs, bombing, death, drug use, emotional abuse, fatphobia, food insecurity, holistic medicine, homophobia, hospitals, houselessness, needles, physical abuse, poverty, prison, racism, religious trauma, seeking asylum, sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, slurs, smoking, suicide, survival sex work, unemployment, unstable household
I have incredibly mixed feelings about this because the perspectives highlighted are absolutely amazing, but, I wish I could have experienced it uninhibited by the inaccessible formatting and abruptly stopped interviews. Goodreads user Liz puts it well "This is a 5 star collection with 1 star formatting." Right as you'd get to know about the person interviewed, before we could get any further, you'd flip the page and start again with someone new. There's no digestion time or building on this, so it feels like previews running in place, rather than something to get a deep understanding of. It's nice to see the variety of people included, but it felt like only the "noteworthy" or "on-topic" parts of some initial conversation was taken out and the rest was abandoned. I think this could possibly tie into my next point, I'm hypothesizing this was decided to limit the amount of illustrated work that the final project would require.
The art is a MASSIVE double edged sword as the art is incredibly personal and expressive, but at the cost of functionality for sharing space and comprehensibility of the text of the book. I appreciate the stunning character the designs and illustrations give, but the handwritten, nonlinear, weaving, curved, color-changing, choppy, and separated treatment the text gets made it nearing impossible for me to read, losing the voices of those in the interviews this was made to give light to. Egregiously, there's even miniscule red text over mustard colored polka dots, a black speech bubble with transparent text so the text is randomly patterned, font covered by shapes that have an invert layer style making the letters all garbled, and poorly placed and sized shadowing that melts letters together that reads about as easily as a captcha test. This inaccessibility really hurts the work as a whole in a way that is overwhelmingly disappointing to me, I was fighting to discern words and sentence structures, wasting excessive energy just trying to understand what I was looking at, leaving me exhausted before I even began digesting the text. It comes off as performative to have only one story with translation in Spanish & ASL, especially when the rest of the book is a challenge to read, this choice being a MONUMENTAL and NOVICE misstep in creation.
These issues were so severe that it disjointed me from getting to take in these stories, coating the entire book in a sour aftertaste, but the interviews themselves, though only anecdotes, do get to show nice glimpses. Really, all we get is what contributes to the theme of unacknowledged queer labor, and there's not enough emphasis on who the people being interviewed are aside from how they fit into this leaving it all feeling poorly compiled. Amid this, we do see some small peeks of how intersections can compound onto this added labor and lack of acknowledgement, but I wish more time was spent to flesh this out before we move on and start over! Another final source of disappointment is the multiple uses the term womyn repeatedly and in a separate work wimmin is used repeatedly, story directly after that one uses womxn! These are trans-antagonizing terms, and this was known in 2021!
Summary:
Readability: ☆☆☆☆☆, No stars! I had to fight to see the text and struggle to piece sentences together- VISUALLY. The fact that so many reviews mentions this (as of 11/07/2022 I counted: 28 other reviews mentioning difficulty reading!) That's absolutely obscene!
Entertainment: ★★★☆☆, Fine idea, incredibly rough in execution. The stories are good, the art is good, and the design is good- together it becomes a big mess as these elements drown each other out.
Audience: Illustrators who want to make zines and graphic novels, I'd recommend this as a what not to do guide for formatting and accessibility, I think it'd actually make a good teaching tool in appropriate contrast and artistic spatial awareness. Otherwise, read it if you're inclined and are up to the challenge but I don't really recommend.
Content Warnings: ableism, abusive parents, acupuncture, AIDs, bombing, death, drug use, emotional abuse, fatphobia, food insecurity, holistic medicine, homophobia, hospitals, houselessness, needles, physical abuse, poverty, prison, racism, religious trauma, seeking asylum, sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, slurs, smoking, suicide, survival sex work, unemployment, unstable household
June 30, 2022
I loved both the content and the artwork, but it’s worth noting that the way the text was incorporated into the artwork sometimes made it difficult to read.
July 14, 2021
Content-wise, everyone should read this (especially other white folks)!
The layout itself offers a creative read, but the colour contrast and style and text size make it difficult. My eyes could only take so much of the swirling patterns and bright pinks, yellows, and reds.
For future reference, having light green and blue text on an olive green background does not make for easy readability. This section has powerful content about food deserts and access, but at times I felt like the information didn’t sink in from concentrating on reading the words.
Pro: at least one piece included a QR code for an ASL translation. (Maybe include one for low contrast versions on the art if you make a new edition.)
The layout itself offers a creative read, but the colour contrast and style and text size make it difficult. My eyes could only take so much of the swirling patterns and bright pinks, yellows, and reds.
For future reference, having light green and blue text on an olive green background does not make for easy readability. This section has powerful content about food deserts and access, but at times I felt like the information didn’t sink in from concentrating on reading the words.
Pro: at least one piece included a QR code for an ASL translation. (Maybe include one for low contrast versions on the art if you make a new edition.)
August 29, 2021
I have been reading a lot more queer work since slowly coming out to more people in the past year. This book was great but I just had some difficulty with the formatting. I felt it could have used less illustrations or less words. Some of the interviews were very moving and I felt a kinship with some of the authors. Could be great for some people but this style was not for me and that’s ok.
September 1, 2021
Pretty sure this is the first graphic nonfiction I've read, really enjoyed a lot of the pieces but they did feel quite brief and would have loved to have more to read for many of them. I also struggled to actually physically read some of them due to how they'd been set out with the art work, may be partially down to my dyslexia but it took some work to get through some of them.
April 30, 2021
4.5 stars. A beautifully drawn collection of interviews with queer and trans activists. The art style is very unique - I did have some trouble navigating the text layout on occasion, not quite sure why, so I did have to back up and re-read some pages to get the flow right.
November 10, 2023
This is a collection of illustrated short stories about folks in a variety of situations from fat queer folks fighting body shaming to organizations finding funding to help keep trans youth safe. There are a number of unique perspectives here, and the book discusses a lot of the intersectionality of orientation, gender, culture, religion, prejudice, and even body type and ability.
I like the idea of this book, and there were a few quotes that really made me think. I love the way it brings in so many perspectives and offers frank discussion through different voices. Block-print style illustrations grace every page and add life and variety with their duochromatic color schemes and elegant references. However, I found it extremely hard to read the text. I'm always in favor of words and illustrations that work together to tell a story, but my brain couldn't always make out the handwritten style of the lettering, so I feel like I missed a lot of the important parts. Well, we tried.
I like the idea of this book, and there were a few quotes that really made me think. I love the way it brings in so many perspectives and offers frank discussion through different voices. Block-print style illustrations grace every page and add life and variety with their duochromatic color schemes and elegant references. However, I found it extremely hard to read the text. I'm always in favor of words and illustrations that work together to tell a story, but my brain couldn't always make out the handwritten style of the lettering, so I feel like I missed a lot of the important parts. Well, we tried.
June 10, 2025
4.5 stars rounded up
Our Work Is Everywhere explores the diversity of many communities, highlighting the voices, lives, and work of many queer or LGBTQIA+ identifying folks. The contributors are from all walks of life, and they share their life experiences in their own words, accompanied by Rose’s beautiful illustrations. The contributor bios at the end were great, and I wish I’d known to look for them from the beginning so I could have read each bio with that contributor’s section, to help give each piece some more context. I thought the illustrations were lovely, but I was surprised by how much I struggled with reading the text itself (something about the font and irregular formatting just did not work well for my brain). But this book was for sure a fascinating read and an important work that reminds us all of the beauty and necessity of all kinds of diversity, and the importance of understanding intersectionality!
Our Work Is Everywhere explores the diversity of many communities, highlighting the voices, lives, and work of many queer or LGBTQIA+ identifying folks. The contributors are from all walks of life, and they share their life experiences in their own words, accompanied by Rose’s beautiful illustrations. The contributor bios at the end were great, and I wish I’d known to look for them from the beginning so I could have read each bio with that contributor’s section, to help give each piece some more context. I thought the illustrations were lovely, but I was surprised by how much I struggled with reading the text itself (something about the font and irregular formatting just did not work well for my brain). But this book was for sure a fascinating read and an important work that reminds us all of the beauty and necessity of all kinds of diversity, and the importance of understanding intersectionality!
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