While on last year's American Dream tour with LCD Soundsystem, the band's synth expert Gavin Rayna Russom made a point to connect with fellow trans and femme artists in each city they stopped. She publicly announced her gender identity in 2017, and has since used her platform to advocate for people in her community and continue important conversations about womanhood in music. While in Chicago, Russom collaborated with a group of trans and femme creatives to produce her very first independent studio portraits since coming out. She has also begun to write original poetry, handwriting her words with intimate embellishments that will later be compiled into a zine. Check out Russom's portraits and three working poems exclusively on PAPER, below.
Courtesy of Gavin Rayna Russom
The most beautiful flower
is opening inside me
bursting joy fully towards
the sun and the sky and
finally at long last after
pushing against rocky barren
soil
Its roots are smoothly gliding
into wet rich earth
full of energetic resources
and the nurturing
intensity
of a thousand dreams
I thought had died
Courtesy of Gavin Rayna Russom
Sometimes I put my finger
through the lace
tearing it, of course
Because
if I am honest I am
inexperienced
and afraid
also excited
and often in too much
of a rush
Courtesy of Gavin Rayna Russom
Don't call it a transformation
I've always been this
girl
dream
ever growing radical
sweet thing
Becoming
through wax and wane
Don't call it a transformation
no body
stays the same we are
eternally
trans-for-maing
Don't call it a transformation
while I'm opening finally
comfortable sharing with you
a
little
more
Ladylike
Don't call it a transformation
winter yields to spring
and I am
in full swing
revealing
my everything
Don't call it a transformation
Music to my ears
as the fog clears
and the static disappears
and there's a strong
signal
signalling the way home
Lady LOVE
Don't call it a transformation
Been here
Been beautiful
Been sweet
Been alive and full figured
Been passionate
BEEN a transformer, lady.
Photography: Colectivo Multipolar
Beauty: Kat Sass
Stylist: Agga B