Carry You With Me: Ten Years of Portraits is the result of a long-term, ongoing project by LJ Roberts, consisting of 6x4 inch embroidered portraits of the artist’s friends, collaborators and lovers within New York City’s queer and trans communities. Stitched entirely by hand and typically completed during transit on subway trains, these textile works—culminating in Roberts’s first New York solo exhibition at Pioneer Works as well as this first ever publication—aim to illustrate how politics, culture, and identity manifest in both visible and subtle ways through everyday encounters in daily life. In this companion book, each illustration is paired with an anecdotal passage wherein the artist reflects on the deeply personal companionships and shared moments with the depicted subjects. Text contributions by Carmen Hermo, Tirza Latimer, Theodore (ted) Kerr, and TT Takemoto further contextualize the work series within Roberts’s practice.

Pioneer Works Press publishes works that foster experimental modes of thought across a wide array of disciplines and mediums. Through our imprint and bookstore, we seek to demonstrate that publishing is essential to accessing the arts and that it is at the foundation of all creative practice.