Reading Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson felt a bit like sitting at the feet of a guardian, a friend, a legend. Tourmaline brings Marsha P. Johnson’s story alive in rich color and deep texture — not just as a symbol of resistance, but as a flawed, loving, complex person who insisted on her right to exist exactly as herself. There’s a vivid thread tying together Marsha’s grassroots activism, her wild, generous spirit, and her ability to illuminate a path forward for a movement that tried — again and again — to erase her.

The book traces Marsha’s journey from growing up Black and transgender in a racist, transphobic society, to making her way to NYC with only $15 in her pocket, to organizing alongside Sylvia Rivera, founding STAR, and putting her whole soul into the struggles for trans liberation, sex workers’ rights, and AIDS care. Tourmaline highlights not just Marsha’s role in the Stonewall Riots, but her ongoing organizing — from securing housing for unhoused trans people, to providing a communal safety net when institutions failed, to insisting on her own visibility against police violence and societal neglect.

What resonates most is how Marsha lived resistance through her very existence. She made herself a home in a world that tried to destroy her and, in doing so, opened doors for future generations to follow. The book underscores her roles as a mother, a friend, a caregiver, a lover — a person made powerful by her ability to care, to connect, and to resist. Marsha’s story is a testament to the necessity of solidarity, of honoring those who paved the way, and of choosing love and liberation, again and again, in the face of unimaginable odds.

For anyone who wants to remember — or learn — what it means to fight for a world where everyone can live their fullest, truest lives, Marsha is a rich, raw, and deeply necessary read.

📖 Read this if you love: Black trans resistance, stories of community care and solidarity, rich historical narratives from the margins, and the legacy of Stonewall.

🔑 Key Themes: Trans liberation and activism, sex workers’ rights and survival, racism and policing, chosen family and community organizing, honoring ancestors and honoring oneself.