# @hyperallergic on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DOY7FyeDtTT
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34406138-hyperallergic-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/cf354a8856.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-09-09T17:12:23.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Hyperallergic (@hyperallergic) — https://gondola.cc/hyperallergic

## Caption

In the international queer community, Arewà Basit is known as a dancing, singing don-diva who makes music, performs in drag, and co-leads the Black queer production organization Legacy. These days, she’s also making headlines for being the subject of a “controversial” artwork by Amy Sherald. The controversy in question: a painting depicting her as the Statue of Liberty in a pink bob. 

In July, Sherald pulled her exhibition American Sublime from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, over concerns that the institution would censor her painting of basit_. Amid the nation’s descent into fascism, “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024) calls into question whether institutions represent the state or the people — and whether they’ll ever learn from their past.

The Dallas-born musician, performer, and artist is no stranger to adversity. In an interview with Hyperallergic, Arewà explained that teachers often labeled her as unruly and disruptive for her “larger-than-life personality” and “ambition to entertain and to express.” 

To read the full interview by ridikkuluz, visit the link in bio.
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1 - Arewà Basit (photo by and courtesy Bryson Piscetelli) 

3 - A visitor with Amy Sherald’s painting “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024), a portrait of Arewà, at the Whitney Museum of American Art (photo Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic) 

5 - Photo by and courtesy Bryson Piscetelli 

#ArewaBasit #AmySherald #TransFormingLiberty #Drag #TransRights #NationalPortraitGallery

## Stats

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## Tags

transrights, transformingliberty, drag, nationalportraitgallery, arewabasit, amysherald

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