2019-2020 Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow María José Maldonado (right) with Mentor Charles Rice-González (left) for the 2019 Community Portrait Project. Photo by Lola Flash.
María José Maldonado (they/she) is a Salvadoran-Ecuadorian queer writer, creator, performer and comedian from Queens, NY. Maldonado has been working with Mentor, writer Charles Rice-González (he/him) on the novella “The Last Men On Earth”, which explores the deconstruction and implosion of gender and identity in a future where cisgender boys and men have begun to menstruate due to the dwindling human population caused by climate change.
When I started my QAM Fellowship in October 2019, I never imagined that five short months later we’d be living in a sci-fi shitshow, and I write sci-fi. With the Coronavirus pandemic, came what many BIPOC already knew: that racism compounds disease and that white supremacy is America’s original pandemic. As a scared queer and an emerging artist struggling to keep creating in these times of state violence and Corona, I found community within the QAM Fellowship. As a Fellow, I felt like I was part of something bigger: a growing group of queer artists creating art, activating and politically organizing. And QAM gave me a mentor, Charles Rice-González, who is an artist-activist I deeply admire and, even though he doesn’t know it yet and I’m not Catholic anymore, I will probably ask Charles to be my future baby’s godparent. I’ll even have the baptism in the Bronx, Charles!
Charles is the out gay uncle I always wanted. He wrote the seminal novel “Chulito” which was the first published novel about a gay Puerto Rican experience in New York City. I knew Charles and I would get along for sure when I read the first line of the novel where Chulito greets his morning boner with the words, “Hola, papito.” Not only is Charles a writer and activist, he’s also the co-founder and Executive Director of BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance and teaches writing at Hostos Community College. Clearly, he’s an earth sign. I am an air sign. Charles’ guidance and friendship has pushed me to keep writing and finish my novel page by page in this hellfire of a year. Pre-COVID, Charles invited me to gallery openings, dance shows, BAAD! events where I got to meet his family, he invited me into his home and we even spent a few days together at his friend’s house in Hudson, NY. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor or experience as a QAM Fellow. Charles’ friendship and investment in me as a writer has been a bright constellation for me during these fascist times.
My Queer|Art co-Fellows and the QAM staff have also been a bright constellation for me this past year. I always joke that QAM is like a family, except a functional family. We talk out our issues, concerns and give space for honest conversations and of course, share in each other’s joy. ARCANUM—exhibits and programming showcasing the current Fellows and curated by Fellow Anthony Rosado—is a celebration of our talents, mutual love and growth as artists during our year at QAM. I am so honored and excited to share ARCANUM with the world.
There is so much love, ambition and accountability in this program. Accountability to our art, our communities and to our growing QAM family. As Fellows, we asked QAM for discussions on artist ethics and accountability and as a result, we dedicated time during our monthly Fellow meetings to investigate the artistic goals, biases and privileges each of us has, plus what resources and questions we need to explore to make sure we are being ethical, non-exploitative and integrous artists. Rio and Matice have been instrumental to my QAM experience and I am grateful for the love and attention they give each of the Fellows. The trust I have in QAM grows and grows while my faith in so many other white-led organizations has further decayed.
When other white-led organizations and institutions were fumbling, fucking up or paying thin-lipped service to Black Lives Matter and claiming to care about Black people, QAM has actually centered Black lives and included the QAM community and our input along the way. In June, QAM staff held a Town Hall meeting with the QAM family to get feedback on QAM’s drafted statement “A Call To Action and Accountability from Queer|Art” which addressed police brutality against Black people and the concrete ways QAM plans to show up for Black artists, especially Black trans artists. During that Town Hall meeting we collectively took a red pen to QAM’s draft statement and never once did Travis or staff get defensive, and our feedback was included in the final statement that QAM released. Since then, Queer|Art committed $15,000 to a Black-led group for resource-mapping for Black LGBTQ+ artists in QAM, organized and fundraised for our Black trans family, started a mutual aid network and giving circle, and the list of QAM’s beautiful actions goes on and on. In short, QAM is an organization that isn’t afraid to be held accountable and concretely invests in its artists and communities. Coño, I am so proud to be part of the QAM BAM FAM. This, like queer art, is a forever thing <3