Chloe Dzubilo (December 5, 1960 – February 18, 2011) was an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

activist. She was born in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. Dzubilo was a fixture of the 1980s and 1990s New York City club and art scene: she briefly worked at

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served ...

, was an editor at the East Village Eye, worked with Blacklips Performance Cult at the

Pyramid Club Pyramid Club may refer to the following night clubs: * Pyramid Club (New York City) The Pyramid Club was a nightclub in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. After opening in 1979, the Pyramid helped define the East Village drag queen, ...

, and she was the lead singer and songwriter of the punk band Transisters, who performed at

CBGB's CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Country, Bluegrass, Blue ...

. Filmmaker

Kembra Pfahler Kembra Pfahler (born August 4, 1961) is an American interdisciplinary artist and rock musician. Her film work is associated with the movement known as the Cinema of Transgression. As a musician, she leads the band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen ...

said of Dzubilo's band, "Transisters was one of the only bands that addressed issues around AIDS and had the courage to sing about their anger. And to alchemically transform all of the hatred and stigma around the disease itself." Dzubilo's artwork took many forms, and she often worked in ink on paper as her medium. Chloe studied art at

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

and received an associate degree in Gender Studies from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1999. She became an influence of fashion designers including

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...

and

Patricia Field Patricia Field (born February 12, 1942) is an American costume designer, stylist, and fashion designer working in New York City. Early life Field was born in New York City to an Armenian father and a Greek mother, who emigrated from Plomari, L ...

Activism

Dzubilo was a longtime transgender activist with the Gender Identity Project at the New York City LGBT Community Center, and after her HIV diagnosis in 1987 became involved in

AIDS activism Socio-political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as well as to advance the effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs) has taken place in multiple locations since the 1980s. The evolution of the disease's progress into w ...

. She joined the political group Transgender Menace and was the founder of the Equi-Aid Project, a horse-riding program for AIDS-affected and at-risk youth. Additionally she participated in SpeakOUT events as a panelist where she talked about issues of substance abuse recovery along with activists like Alison Terson. She was appointed to the HIV and Human Service Planning Council of New York in 2003.

Legacy and archive

When asked by the magazine ''

HIV Plus LPI Media (formerly Liberation Publications Inc.) was the largest gay and lesbian publisher in the United States. The company targeted LGBTQ communities and published such magazines, books, and websites, with its magazines alone having more than ...

'' in 1998 what advice she would give, she said, "Buy a lot of glitter and pat it on your eyes first thing in the morning - it's good for your endorphins. Empower yourself with the word ''tacky''. And sing. All day. That's what I do." Her funeral was held on March 12, 2011, at

Judson Memorial Church The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhatt ...

. Fellow artists, activists, and friends who attended include

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama '' Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include '' He Got Game'' (1998), '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in B ...

Anohni Anohni Hegarty (formerly Antony Hegarty), styled as ANOHNI, is an American singer, songwriter, and visual artist. She has presented solo work and as the lead singer of the band Anohni and the Johnsons, formerly known as Antony and the Johnsons. ...

Justin Bond Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor, who is transgender. Described as "the best cabaret artist of heir!-- MOS:GENDERID --> generation" and a "tornado of art and activism", they first achieved prominen ...

, and

Katrina Del Mar Katrina del Mar is a New York–based American photographer, video artist, writer and award-winning filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Video, an ...

. In 2011, the Chloe Awards were established to celebrate people whose work embodies the spirit of Marsha P. Johnson,

Sylvia Rivera Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender activism, transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in LGBT history in New Yo ...

, and Chloe Dzubilo. The Chloe Faith Dzubilo Papers are held in the Fales Library and Special Collections at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. In 2017, her work was featured in the exhibition "AIDS at Home" at the

Museum of the City of New York The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923Beard, Rick. "Museum of the City of New York" in to preserve and present the history ...

References

External links

Chloe Faith Dzubilo Papers
at the Fales Library & Special Collections,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dzubilo, Chloe 1960 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers American women rock singers City College of New York alumni American HIV/AIDS activists American transgender artists American transgender musicians American LGBTQ singers Transgender women artists Women in punk Parsons School of Design alumni LGBTQ people from Connecticut Transgender women singers