Fatima Jamal
{{short description|American artist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Fatima Jamal
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
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| nationality = American
| other_names = FatFemme
| occupation = Filmmaker, model, interdisciplinary artist
| alma_mater = Morehouse College
The New School
| years_active =
| known_for = No Fats, No Femmes, Pose
| notable_works =
| website = {{URL|http://fatimajamal.com/}}
}}
Fatima Jamal is an American filmmaker, model, writer, and interdisciplinary artist. A Black transgender woman who goes by the moniker "Fat Femme," Jamal is also an activist who speaks and makes art about social issues including racism, body positivity, and LGBTQ rights.{{cite news |date=16 March 2020 |title=The Glow Up 50's Image: Fatima Jamal, aka 'Fat Femme'; Artist, Author-Activist and Model |url=https://theglowup.theroot.com/tgu50-image-1842066478 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250424023308/https://www.theroot.com/tgu50-image-1842066478 |archive-date=24 April 2025 |access-date=13 September 2020 |work=The Root |publisher=G/O Media}}
Biography
Jamal was born in Atlanta, Georgia and attended Morehouse College.{{cite news |last1=Greenwood |first1=Douglas |date=11 February 2019 |others=In collaboration with Maison Margiela |title=how to live a radical existence, with fatima jamal |url=https://i-d.co/article/how-to-live-a-radical-existence-with-fatima-jamal/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250504210507/https://i-d.co/article/how-to-live-a-radical-existence-with-fatima-jamal/ |archive-date=4 May 2025 |access-date=13 September 2020 |work=i-D |publisher=Vice Media}} She completed a graduate program at The New School, where she studied documentary filmmaking.{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Tre'vell |author-link=Tre'vell Anderson |date=3 April 2020 |title=With 'No Fats, No Femmes,' Fatima Jamal aims for more than just visibility and representation |url=https://xtramagazine.com/culture/fatima-jamal-trans-reckoning-169530-169530 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118230839/https://xtramagazine.com/culture/fatima-jamal-trans-reckoning-169530-169530 |archive-date=18 January 2025 |access-date=22 September 2020 |work=Xtra |publisher=Pink Triangle Press}} Jamal underwent her gender transition after finishing graduate school. She credits her move from Atlanta to New York City as giving her the opportunity to thrive.
Career
About her art, Jamal has said, "My art really focuses on a black, queer, femme experience because those are all things that I'm interested in. I will never grow tired of capturing black, queer, and trans people and excavating our histories."{{cite news |last1=Thompson |first1=Tracy |date=7 November 2018 |title=Fatima Jamal Is Styling |url=https://jezebel.com/fatima-jamal-is-styling-1830261646 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714003401/https://jezebel.com/fatima-jamal-is-styling-1830261646 |archive-date=14 July 2024 |access-date=22 September 2020 |work=Jezebel |publisher=}}
= Acting and modeling =
Jamal has modeled on runways at New York Fashion Week, is a fixture of the ballroom scene, and has appeared in the TV show Pose. She was the first black trans model to walk the runway for a major menswear fashion house, for Stefano Pilati's unisex line in fall 2020.{{Cite news |last=Abad |first=Mario |date=13 January 2020 |title=Fatima Jamal (FatFemme) Made History on Florence Runway |url=https://www.papermag.com/fatima-jamal-fat-femme-runway |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250124023853/https://www.papermag.com/fatima-jamal-fat-femme-runway |archive-date=24 January 2025 |access-date=15 January 2021 |work=Paper}}
Jamal starred in Tourmaline's film Atlantic is a Sea Bones (2017), which takes its title from an eponymous poem by Lucille Clifton.{{Cite journal |last=Casid |first=Jill H. |date=2019 |title=Doing things with being undone |journal=Journal of Visual Culture |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=38–42 |doi=10.1177/1470412919825817 |issn=1470-4129 |s2cid=194658508}} The film concerns black queer history in New York City.{{Cite journal |last=Muna |first=Mire |date=16 October 2020 |title=Tourmaline Summons the Queer Past |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/tourmaline-summons-queer-past |url-status=live |journal=Frieze |volume= |issue=214 |pages= |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122042151/https://www.frieze.com/article/tourmaline-summons-queer-past |archive-date=22 January 2025 |access-date=4 May 2025 |via=}}
= Directorial work =
In 2020, Jamal began a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo to support a documentary, No Fats, No Femmes, that Jamal is writing and directing. According to her fundraising campaign, the film "examines and troubles how the gazes of others — particularly dominant white gazes — inform how we see ourselves and each other. In it, I center and am fascinated by my own Black, fat body as a site of criticism; and, an invitation inward, toward self — often, a self un-done, vulnerable, and terrifying." As of September 2020, the campaign had raised more than $55,000.{{cite web |title=No Fats, No Femmes |url=https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/no-fats-no-femmes#/ |publisher=Indiegogo |access-date=2020-09-22}} The project was featured in Artforum in July 2020.{{Cite journal |last=Jamal |first=Fatima |date=July–August 2020 |title=Project Fatima Jamal |url=https://www.artforum.com/features/project-fatima-jamal-248038/ |url-status=live |journal=Artforum |volume=58 |issue=10 |pages= |issn=1086-7058 |id={{ProQuest|2426194665}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240623124223/https://www.artforum.com/features/project-fatima-jamal-248038/ |archive-date=23 June 2024 |access-date=4 May 2025 |via=}}
Legacy
Jamal has been cited as a source of inspiration by other contemporary artists.{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Java |date=16 June 2020 |title=2020's MFA Grads on What It Means to Be an Artist Today |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-2020s-mfa-grads-artist-today |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250423163527/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-2020s-mfa-grads-artist-today |archive-date=23 April 2025 |access-date=15 January 2021 |website=Artsy |language=en |quote="While in the studio, I often refer to this question Fatima Jamal posed in an Xtra interview: 'Representation and visibility is given to us by larger power structures, but what do we give ourselves?'"}} Gabriel Garcia Román's “Queer Icons” series of paintings (started in 2011), which honors queer activists and artists, includes a portrait of Jamal.{{Cite web |last=Durón |first=Maximilíano |date=10 June 2019 |title=Leslie-Lohman Museum Will Stage Procession of 'Queer Icons' During NYC Pride March |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/leslie-lohman-museum-will-stage-procession-of-queer-icons-during-nyc-pride-march-12746/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241127172846/https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/leslie-lohman-museum-will-stage-procession-of-queer-icons-during-nyc-pride-march-12746/ |archive-date=27 November 2024 |access-date=15 January 2021 |website=ARTnews |language=en-US}}
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamal, Fatima}}
Category:African-American models
Category:Morehouse College alumni
Category:African-American film directors
Category:American LGBTQ rights activists
Category:African-American LGBTQ people
Category:American transgender women
Category:LGBTQ people from Georgia (U.S. state)
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:21st-century African-American artists
Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people
Category:21st-century American women
Category:21st-century American people
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