Fatima Jamal
Fatima Jamal | |
|---|---|
| Born | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | FatFemme |
| Alma mater | Morehouse College The New School |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, model, interdisciplinary artist |
| Known for | No Fats, No Femmes, Pose |
| Website | fatimajamal |
Fatima Jamal is an American filmmaker, model, writer, and interdisciplinary artist. A Black transgender woman who goes by the moniker "Fat Femme," Jamal is also an activist who speaks and makes art about social issues including racism, body positivity, and LGBTQ rights.[1]
Biography
[edit]Jamal was born in Atlanta, Georgia and attended Morehouse College.[2] She completed a graduate program at The New School, where she studied documentary filmmaking.[3] Jamal underwent her gender transition after finishing graduate school.[3] She credits her move from Atlanta to New York City as giving her the opportunity to thrive.[4]
Career
[edit]About her art, Jamal has said, "My art really focuses on a black, queer, femme experience because those are all things that I'm interested in. I will never grow tired of capturing black, queer, and trans people and excavating our histories."[4]
Acting and modeling
[edit]Jamal has modeled on runways at New York Fashion Week, is a fixture of the ballroom scene, and has appeared in the TV show Pose.[4] She was the first black trans model to walk the runway for a major menswear fashion house, for Stefano Pilati's unisex line in fall 2020.[5]
Jamal starred in Tourmaline's film Atlantic is a Sea Bones (2017), which takes its title from an eponymous poem by Lucille Clifton.[6] The film concerns black queer history in New York City.[7]
Directorial work
[edit]In 2020, Jamal began a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo to support a documentary, No Fats, No Femmes, that Jamal is writing and directing. According to her fundraising campaign, the film "examines and troubles how the gazes of others — particularly dominant white gazes — inform how we see ourselves and each other. In it, I center and am fascinated by my own Black, fat body as a site of criticism; and, an invitation inward, toward self — often, a self un-done, vulnerable, and terrifying." As of September 2020, the campaign had raised more than $55,000.[8] The project was featured in Artforum in July 2020.[9]
Legacy
[edit]Jamal has been cited as a source of inspiration by other contemporary artists.[10] Gabriel Garcia Román's “Queer Icons” series of paintings (started in 2011), which honors queer activists and artists, includes a portrait of Jamal.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ "Fatima Jamal, aka 'Fat Femme'; Artist, Author-Activist and Model". The Root. 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ^ Greenwood, Douglas (2019-02-11). "how to live a radical existence, with fatima jamal". i-D. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ^ a b Anderson, Tre'vell (2020-04-03). "With 'No Fats, No Femmes,' Fatima Jamal aims for more than just visibility and representation". Xtra. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ a b c Thompson, Tracy (2018-11-07). "Fatima Jamal Is Styling". Jezebel. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ Abad, Mario (2020-01-13). "Fatima Jamal (FatFemme) Made History on Florence Runway". PAPER. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ Casid, Jill H. (2019). "Doing things with being undone". Journal of Visual Culture. 18 (1): 38–42. doi:10.1177/1470412919825817. S2CID 194658508.
- ^ Muna, Mire (October 16, 2020). "Tourmaline Summons the Queer Past". Frieze. 214.
- ^ "No Fats, No Femmes". Indiegogo. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ "PROJECT: FATIMA JAMAL". Artforum. July/August 2020. July 2020.
- ^ "2020's MFA Grads on What It Means to Be an Artist Today". Artsy. 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
Java Jones: "While in the studio, I often refer to this question Fatima Jamal posed in an Xtra interview: "Representation and visibility is given to us by larger power structures, but what do we give ourselves?""
- ^ Durón, Maximilíano (2019-06-10). "Leslie-Lohman Museum Will Stage Procession of 'Queer Icons' During NYC Pride March". ARTNews. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
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