Beginning in January of 2024, I decided on my first garment of the spring semester. For Rebirth, I depicted the survival skill developed by all queer children at young ages: growing through the cracks. Despite the weight of assumptions placed on young LGBTQIA+ children, we must find a way to pervade all words, harms, and legislature. Existence is a wholehearted resistance, declaring that a queer life will no longer be maimed by the rules and regulations of colonization: two of which being the gender roles and sexuality persecution that target LGBTQIA+ individuals with precise aim.

Even if we are afforded the most nurturing, supportive parents possible (it feels important to note that my parents have supported me unconditionally and I recognize the privilege afforded to me as an openly queer person in this situation), there are still burdens living as a queer American that go unspoken. To heal from generational trauma, such as the AIDS crisis of the 80s, is integral to our collective liberation from dominating white-straight spaces.

Rebirth is a fiber composition that depicts the weight placed onto our bodies and beings and how we grow through it.

Unlocking the color behind each of our masks is the task assigned to adulthood.