Love and Lightning

A selection of queer-feminist manifestos from the last century showcasing the many forms the medium can take

This volume is a thematically ordered, inconclusive collection of queer, feminist and queer-feminist manifestos. Girls Like Us Magazine and author Sarah van Binsbergen have composed a publication showcasing the different forms a manifesto might take, from classical, activist formats to more poetic, associative texts. The manifestos highlighted in this book cross borders, forms and disciplines, refuse binary logics, transcend our concepts of time and space, and surpass neoliberal logic. Love and Lightning does not claim to be a complete index of all queer-feminist manifestos, but rather aims to show the myriad of ways in which such manifestos can be composed, and what their lasting legacy is. The book includes a selection of manifestos from 1913 until now, presented across 11 thematic chapters, introduced within their socio-historical and geographical contexts, with many from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Not only does this publication give new insight into the style of the manifesto, it also aims to emancipate the reader to propose their own revolution, whether big or small. Publications include: "Hydrofeminism," "There Have Always Been Great Black Women Artists," Feminist Manifesto, Dialectic of Sex, The Combahee River Collective Statement, SCUM Manifesto, "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," Manifesto di Rivolta Femminile, Trans Woman Manifesto, A Lesbian Aesthetics, Rest is Resistance, Freedom or Death, W.I.T.C.H. Manifesto.

This book was published in association with Plural Series; Girls Like Us Magazine.