Book edition
TAKE PRIDE IN A GOOD BOOK: Dallas Public Library. Photo: Ray Sablack, North Oak Cliff Branch.
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COVERGIRL: Grammy-winning Texas songstress Michelle Shocked.
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BADASS BEST-SELLER: Author Jen Sincero says,"I can't think of a better send-off to sea than receiving a book in the mail chock full of Dallas' transgender elite immortalized by the one and only Daniel Kusner. 214 TRANS4M is a thing of great beauty! Thanks for glamming up my day, sugar! xo"
NICE NOTE: Simon Doonan, left, and Jonathan Adler wrote, "LOVING THE TRANS BOOK!!!! Especially the Beale moment. Our pal Liz is renting Grey Gardens this Summer. So that had special resonance. love you. SD + JA."
Reviews
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BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, THIS FUN PHOTO book raises fascinating questions, like...
Is Dallas true to its conservative stereotypes? Can lovingly recreated photo shoots with larger-than-life drag artistes shed new light on Big D’s many historical landmarks? And the most important question of all: How easy is it to pass as a woman at the Triple Underpass? These eye-popping pics may have resulted in a triple bypass surgery for many driving past the photo sessions. But Dallas isn’t just about campy Southern women with big hair. This fascinating new volume offers concrete proof that Dallas “women” also have big hands, big feet, big Adam’s apples and lord knows what else. They don’t call it Big D for nothing! Kusner and Amann clearly have a deep love for their home, and they throw in off-beat tidbits of the city’s rich history along with loads of guaranteed giggles. — LADY BUNNY, founder of Wigstock.
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Kusner, left, and Lady Bunny at S4 on Cedar Springs Road. Photographed by Facio.
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“214 TRANS4M” IS JOY RIDE THROUGH DALLAS WITH some of the city’s most glamorous transgender gems at the helm.
The writing is every bit as compelling as the photographs — showing Big D in a perception-bending light that left me screaming for more. At once provocative, educating, hilarious and gutsy, it’s a civic-minded fashion parade that I wish would last forever. I want to live in this book — or at least go shoe shopping with it. — JEN SINCERO, author of “You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life.”
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Kusner and Jen Sincero.
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POSING TRANSGENDER MODELS AS DALLAS institutions such as Mary Kay Ash and Marina Oswald, along with legendary visitors to the city — Maria Callas, Jacqueline Kennedy, Tina Turner — Kusner and Amann’s “214 Trans4m” turns stereotypes upside down.
Call it “the carnivalization of Big D.” Their photographs range from the eccentric to the emotionally riveting.... For instance, their unforgettable images of “Jacqueline Kennedy” (Aaron Ballinger) in a cascade of right-wing leaflets “welcoming” her husband to Dallas in November 1963. The leaflets are real, like the venom that produced them, but this Mrs. Kennedy is a postmodern myth who stands as tall on the 21st century landscape as any creation by that other mythmaker, Cindy Sherman. — SAM STAGGS, author of “All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made!”
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Sam Staggs, photographed by Bryan Amann.
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I LOVE THIS BOOK’S BEAUTIFUL AND CREATIVE TWIST — juxtaposing transgender models at Dallas landmarks to show iconic locations in the city and the roles they have played in American history.
Well done! “214 Trans4m” is proudly going on my coffee table.” — BUCK ANGEL, Transsexual Performer of the Year,
AVN Awards, 2007. |
Buck Angel, photographed by Daniel Kusner.
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KUSNER AND AMANN RECLAIM TEXAS FOR WHAT IT always was, home of the wanted poster of outlaws, artists and renegades — often answering to the same name.
With sly humor and startling visuals, the creators peel back layers of the sacred and the profane until you realize they were always joined at the hip. And “214 Trans4m” is the hippest in all of Texas! — LAURA ALBERT, a.k.a. JT LEROY, author of “Sarah,” “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” and “Harold’s End.”
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Kusner and Laura Albert.
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Libraries
Oak Lawn Branch, Dallas Public Library.
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North Oak Cliff Branch, Dallas Public Library.
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New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
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Architecture and Planning Library, The University of Texas at Austin.
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Perry-Castañeda Library, The University of Texas at Austin.
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North Lake Library, Dallas Community College, Irving, Texas.
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Willis Library, The University of North Texas, Denton.
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Architecture Library, Texas Tech, Lubbock.
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The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Lower Manhattan.
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Amazon
AMAZON: $25
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LIT + PORN + DRAG: In S.F., I snapped Lady Bunny and Buck Angel chatting up Armistead at the gay-porn Oscars. Then Bunny + Buck advance-blurbed "214 Trans4m."
