July, 2024 - I love political art and artists who serve as activists. The passion for their beliefs pours out of the work into your soul because what they are creating is felt so deeply that they cannot contain it within themselves. They use their gifts to create works that express these strong feelings and when it is successful the pieces become indelible in art history.

After watching the first presidential debate and rulings that have been set by the Supreme Court in the last few weeks, Zoe Leonard has been on my mind. When I sat down to read her words again this morning they brought tears to my eyes and they are welling and stinging again as I’m writing this.

This poem, I want a president… by Zoe Leonard, written in 1992 is an expression of the desire to have a leader who is more representative of the lay people, someone who has experienced hardship and knows what it means to strive in America. She is calling for authenticity in those who represent us. When Leonard says she wants a candidate who isn’t the lesser of two evils the same sentiment screams within my own head. I am sick of that being the only option we have had for decades. It’s something I have heard echoed by my peers for years. Written during the height of the AIDS crisis when patients were being blamed by the government and suffering without good care, as an artist activist, Leonard felt exhausted by the choices at the ballot box.  The piece went unpublished but was circulated within her creative community after Leonard made a stack of xerox copies.  In October of 2016 the piece resurfaced larger than life installed on a 25 foot wall on The Highline in New York City.

Would Leonard’s ideal president be someone who could be elected? Our elected officials are held to out-dated standards when it comes to life choices. Anyone who is considered OTHER (non-white, immigrant, LGTBTQ+, an outlier), someone who comes from nothing, has had to be down and out and made mistakes has an unlikely chance of surviving the negative press and attacks of the opposition. WHY IS IT THAT EN MASSE WE CAN’T SUPPORT THOSE WHOSE LIVES LOOK DIFFERENT? Leonard asks near the end of her piece, why isn’t it possible to have what she wants? Closing with, “I want to know why we started learning somewhere down the line that a president is always a clown: always a john and never a hooker. Always a boss and never a worker, always a liar, always a thief and never caught.” This last line hits hard today.

Can you answer her question? What do you think about who Leonard wants for president? Do you want someone who is less privelged in power? What does the poem bring up for you?