CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/6/2025

"Confidence to do whatever the hell you want" in Nina Chanel Abney's 'Big Butch Energy/Synergy'

Nina Chanel Abney’s 2022 diptych collage on panel, Mama Gotta Have A Life Too, is reproduced from new release Big Butch Energy/Synergy. Published by DelMonico Books in conjunction with ICA Miami and moCa Cleveland, this dynamic, affirming and fearlessly humorous body of work is centered around gender perception and performance in representations of college Greek life. Black butch energy/synergy “is what I yearned for,” Abney is quoted, “that camaraderie among like-minded queer community in these experiences that cater to straight people. Luckily, in my current life, I’m in community with queer individuals where I feel like my needs are centered and seen. I wasn’t for such a long time.… Big butch energy is the confidence to do whatever the hell you want. The move forward is being your true self no matter how difficult, exist as you want to be. I think that’s what we have to continue to do.”