GenderFail

GenderFail is a queer publishing and programming initiative created by Be Oakley. It operates across independent publishing, exhibitions, archives, workshops, reading rooms, and other cultural formats, with an emphasis on intersectional and queer perspectives. Rather than functioning only as a conventional press, GenderFail presents itself as a platform for projects that challenge established cultural and artistic canons and create visibility for people and communities who have historically been marginalized, including queer and trans people and people of color. The initiative is associated with the guiding phrase “Radical Softness as a Boundless Form of Resistance,” a formulation that connects its publishing activity with a broader cultural and political approach. GenderFail’s work often treats publishing as a site for experimentation, collective voice, appropriation, and reinterpretation. Its publications have been described as using appropriation to disrupt or “pervert” the canon while bringing under-represented forms of identity and experience into view. This approach allows the press to move between artists’ books, anthologies, zines, digital memorial projects, public programs, and institutional collaborations. A significant early publishing project was An Anthology of Failure, released in October 2018. The anthology brought together contributions from writers and artists including Manuel Arturo Abreu, American Artist, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Demian Dinéyazhi’, Johanna Hedva, Nicole Killian, Andrea Liu, Be Oakley, Nate Pyper, Sable Elyse Smith, Alok Vaid-Menon, and Agustine Zegers. The project framed failure as a productive and politically meaningful subject rather than simply an absence of success. GenderFail subsequently published Consciousness by artist Lex Brown in 2019, while GenderFail Reader 1 was recognized by OutTV as one of its notable reads of that year. GenderFail titles have also received retail visibility through a dedicated shelf at Printed Matter’s bookshop. The initiative’s programming has extended into museums, galleries, art-book fairs, archives, and educational settings. Its documented appearances include MoMA PS1, the International Center of Photography, the Williams College Museum of Art, Sediment Arts, EFA Project Space, Book Culture, and A.I.R. Gallery. These engagements have included exhibitions, conversations, workshops, biennials, and archival projects. In 2021, GenderFail created the reading room Imperfect Archiving/Archiving as Practice at the Center for Book Arts, reflecting its interest in how queer and marginalized histories are preserved, organized, and made accessible. GenderFail also works in digital and memorial forms. Remember Their Name is a project documenting trans people murdered since 2016, extending the initiative’s publishing practice beyond conventional physical books and into public remembrance. Its visibility has been reinforced by coverage in Vogue Italia in January 2020 and by recognition from cultural commentators, including Legacy Russell, who mentioned GenderFail among favorite New York cultural destinations in a 2020 Condé Nast Traveler feature. The initiative is based in Brooklyn and remains associated with independent, artist-led, queer, and intersectional publishing and programming.

GenderFail emerged as an artist-led queer publishing and programming initiative created by Be Oakley. Its work combines independent press activity with exhibitions, workshops, archives, reading rooms, digital projects, and other forms of cultural programming. The initiative is based in Brooklyn, New York, and is guided by an intersectional perspective that foregrounds queer, trans, and otherwise marginalized experiences. A central idea associated with GenderFail is “Radical Softness as a Boundless Form of Resistance.” The phrase describes an approach in which care, vulnerability, collaboration, and imaginative cultural production can operate as forms of resistance. GenderFail’s publishing practice similarly treats books and related media as tools for disrupting dominant narratives. Its publications use appropriation and reworking to challenge the authority of established canons while creating space for voices that have been excluded or treated as peripheral. The initiative’s 2018 activities established much of this profile. GenderFail participated in the Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference at Book Culture, the Endless Editions Biennial at EFA Project Space, the GenderFail Archive Project at Sediment Arts, and programming connected with the International Center of Photography and MoMA PS1. In October 2018 it released An Anthology of Failure, a multi-contributor publication addressing failure through essays and creative work by a range of artists and writers. The same period also saw GenderFail’s participation in Queering the Collection at the International Center of Photography and Past and Future Fictions at MoMA PS1. In 2019, GenderFail continued both its publishing and educational activities. It published Consciousness by artist Lex Brown and participated in Queer Zines: A Conversation and Workshop at the Williams College Museum of Art. GenderFail Reader 1 was later included by OutTV in a selection of notable books of 2019. Its titles were also displayed through a dedicated shelf at Printed Matter, an important independent art-book retailer and distributor. GenderFail’s public profile expanded in 2020. It participated in the Feminist & Queer Art Book Fair at A.I.R. Gallery and was featured in Vogue Italia in January. Later that year, curator Legacy Russell cited the initiative in a Condé Nast Traveler feature about favorite places and activities in New York. These references placed GenderFail within a wider network of contemporary art, independent publishing, queer cultural production, and New York-based creative institutions. Archival practice became especially visible in 2021, when GenderFail created the reading room Imperfect Archiving/Archiving as Practice at the Center for Book Arts. The project reflected the initiative’s broader interest in how histories are collected, categorized, preserved, and circulated. Alongside physical publications and institutional events, GenderFail has developed digital projects such as Remember Their Name, a memorial page recording trans people murdered since 2016. Taken together, these activities show a model that extends beyond a traditional publishing house: GenderFail operates as a flexible platform for books, art, public programming, remembrance, and alternative forms of queer knowledge production.

• 2021

  Imperfect Archiving/Archiving as Practice

  [1]GenderFailen.wikipedia.org

  GenderFail created a reading room at the Center for Book Arts focused on archival methods and the preservation of imperfect or marginalized histories.

• 2020

  International media and cultural recognition

  [1]GenderFailen.wikipedia.org

  GenderFail was featured in Vogue Italia and mentioned by curator Legacy Russell in a Condé Nast Traveler article about notable New York experiences.

• 2019

  Publication of Consciousness

  [1]GenderFailen.wikipedia.org

  GenderFail published Consciousness by artist Lex Brown and continued its workshops and conversations through institutions including the Williams College Museum of Art.

• 2018

  Expansion through exhibitions and artists’ book programming

  [1]GenderFailen.wikipedia.org

  GenderFail participated in programs and exhibitions connected with MoMA PS1, the International Center of Photography, Sediment Arts, EFA Project Space, and Book Culture, establishing its presence in contemporary art and independent publishing networks.

• 2018

  Publication of An Anthology of Failure

  [1]GenderFailen.wikipedia.org

  GenderFail released An Anthology of Failure, a multi-author publication bringing together essays and creative contributions on failure, marginality, and cultural resistance.

An independent queer and intersectional publishing platform combining experimental books, artist-led programming, archival practice, and public cultural projects. GenderFail positions publishing as a tool for challenging canonical narratives, amplifying under-represented voices, and developing forms of collective resistance through creative work.

• Anthology · 2018

  An Anthology of Failure

  Released in October 2018, this anthology gathers essays and creative contributions from artists and writers including Manuel Arturo Abreu, American Artist, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Demian Dinéyazhi’, Johanna Hedva, Nicole Killian, Andrea Liu, Be Oakley, Nate Pyper, Sable Elyse Smith, Alok Vaid-Menon, and Agustine Zegers. Its contributors approach failure as a social, artistic, and political condition rather than merely a negative outcome.

• Artist book · 2019

  Consciousness

  A 2019 GenderFail publication by artist Lex Brown. It represents the initiative’s role in producing artist-led books that connect visual practice, speculative thought, and forms of identity and cultural critique.

• Reader · 2019

  GenderFail Reader 1

  A GenderFail reader recognized by OutTV in its selection of notable reads from 2019. The title reflects the press’s interest in assembling and circulating queer and intersectional writing through an independent publishing format.

• Digital memorial project

  Remember Their Name

  A digital project memorializing trans people murdered since 2016. It extends GenderFail’s publishing practice into online public remembrance and documents lives that might otherwise be erased from mainstream cultural records.

• Reading room and archival project · 2021

  Imperfect Archiving/Archiving as Practice

  A reading room created by GenderFail at the Center for Book Arts in 2021. The project explored archiving as an active and imperfect practice, with particular relevance to queer histories and under-represented cultural materials.

1. 1GenderFailen.wikipedia.org
2. 2GenderFail official websitegenderfailpress.info
3. 3Our Favorite New Yorkers on the Best Things in All Five Boroughscntraveler.com