Ji Strangeway

Whether through her films or writing, Ji Strangeway’s art shares a common coming-of-age thread from an LGBTQ perspective. Her short film Nune features a 15-year-old social outcast who has her first love affair with a cheerleader. Strangeway’s young adult graphic novel set in the 1980s, Red as Blue, tells the story of two youths who find themselves in a forbidden love. Her stories come from “the margins of gender, orientation, and circumstance,” riding “the shoulders of a misunderstood anti-hero, exploring the crash zones between society and self, the physical and existential.” Being an out lesbian is empowering, she says, and at the same time has contributed to her success as an artist. “It is more about expressing my authentic self than being lesbian. The power of owning one’s individuality is what leads to self-acceptance and success. Success is waiting for all of us to meet it at a place where we feel utmost happiness. This is usually when we are being who we truly are.” Audiences notice how Strangeway channels her individuality into her work. “When the stories I create make a person feel loved or redeemed in some way,” she says, “I have done my highest work as an artist.” —SEJ