Manifest Station

At a fundraiser for PJ Starr's upcoming documentary on Monica Jones, I am thrown back to my hometown. What does it mean to "manifest"? The law under which Monica Jones was convicted in Phoenix, suggests that to walk in particular neighborhoods is to do so as a prostitute. Walking trans in one's own neighborhood is not prostitution. But what does Monica Jones manifest? When does manifestation become a call to arms? The French already call their protests a manifestation. To manifest then is not just protest, it is declaration. The case of Monica Jones forces me to confront the invisibility of an entire population in the 1960s and 1970 hidden behind what was then and continues to be called "the other side of the tracks". Making every line visible is crucial to challenging the politics of race and class as they make themselves manifest in American. (December 18, 2017)