Love and Lightning: A Collection of Queer-Feminist Manifestos

This volume is a thematically ordered, inconclusive collection of queer, feminist and queer-feminist manifestos. Girls Like Us Magazine and author Sarah van Binsbergen have composed a publication showcasing the different forms a manifesto might take, from classical, activist formats to more poetic, associative texts. The manifestos highlighted in this book cross borders, forms and disciplines, refuse binary logics, transcend our concepts of time and space, and surpass neoliberal logic. Love and Lightning does not claim to be a complete index of all queer-feminist manifestos, but rather aims to show the myriad of ways in which such manifestos can be composed, and what their lasting legacy is. The book includes a selection of manifestos from 1913 until now, presented across 11 thematic chapters, introduced within their socio-historical and geographical contexts, with many from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Not only does this publication give new insight into the style of the manifesto, it also aims to emancipate the reader to propose their own revolution, whether big or small. Manifestos include: Ain’t I a Woman by Soujourner Truth; Work Will Not Save Us: An Asian American Crip Manifesto ; Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey; The Manukan Declaration of the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network; W.I.T.C.H. Manifesto ; Fag Hags Fight Back!!! ; Manifesto for Maintenance Art by Mierle Laderman-Ukeles; Dyke Manifesto from the Lesbian Avengers; Killjoy Manifesto by Sara Ahmed; Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation by Laboria Cuboniks; The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto from Sandy Stone; Refugia! Manifesto for Becoming Autonomous Zones by subRosa; Countersexual Manifesto from Paul B. Preciado; and many, many more. Texts by Sarah van Binsbergen and Liz Allan Illustrations and design by Lotte Lara Schröder Edited by Sarah van Binsbergen, Jessica Gysel, Sara Kaaman, and Liz Allan Published by Valiz and Girls Like Us Magazine, 2026 ISBN: 978-9-49-324647-8