Events and Testimonials

The Shapeshifter book can be used to facilitate discussions for non-binary and trans support groups, book clubs and workshops. There is a free traveling exhibit of 26 photos ranging in size from 8” x 10” to 18” x 12”. The photos are printed on foam boards and can easily be displayed on walls with supplied non-abrasive plastic Velcro strips. Watch a video of the exhibit here. Non-profit organizations that provide support services to trans and non-binary folks can request free copies of Shapeshifters to be disseminated to groups and individuals they support.

Contact Ira Baumgarten, Buddy’s Bench Press Publisher at: irabaumgarten@gmail.com or 518-441-3535.

Organizations Hosting Shapeshifter Groups and Exhibits in 2027

1. San Francisco Pride Center, February through April

Organizations Hosting Shapeshifter Groups and Exhibits in 2026

1. Rockland County Pride – January – March
2. Syracuse University – April
3. Prime Produce Art Collective, New York City – Fall

Organizations Hosting Shapeshifter Groups and Exhibits in 2025

1. Destination Now – Pride Center, Bronx, NY
2. San Gabriel Mountain Valley Pride Center, Carmilla, CA
3. State University of New York at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY
4. Rochester City Public Library, Rochester, NY
5. Fayetteville Public Library, Fayetteville, NY
6. Unitarian Church – Beyond the Binary Conference, Syracuse, NY
7. Sierra Madre Public Library, Sierra Madre, CA

Organizations Hosting Shapeshifter Groups and Exhibits in 2024

1. Russell Sage College, Troy, NY
2. Café Euphoria, Troy, NY
3. Arts, Letters and Numbers, Averill Park, NY
4. The Red-Light House Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
5. Moon Palace Books, Minneapolis, MN
6. Tulane University – Anthropology of Gender Class

Café Euphoria Gallery Exhibition and Book Launch, Troy NY – April 2024

“Having Shapeshifters exhibit at Cafe Euphoria has enriched not just our walls and community, but the very mission of our cafe. The photos are beautifully mounted, sturdy and impressive. We were so grateful for the exhibit and proud to be its first venue.” 
– Elizag, Art Gallery Coordinator

Arts, Letters and Numbers, Averill Park NY – May 2024

Red Light House, Minneapolis MN – June 2025

Moon Palace Book, Minneapolis MN – June 2024

San Gabriel Valley Pride Center, El Monate CA – March 2025

The SGV LGBTQ Center received the Shapeshifters collection with honor and gratitude. The impact not just visually, but spiritually really uplifted our community members that shared time, space, and energy to visit the center and experience the gallery. Truly, it uplifted the energy of the center itself. With each grounding activity, read through the book, viewing of imagery, were we reminded of that deep connection between body, land, and queer wisdom. An experience the center and the local community will never forget.
Antonio Reyes
SGV LGBTQ Center, Board of Directors
Arts Culture Programming

Tulane University – Anthropology of Gender Class – FALL 2024

In October 2024, Ira Baumgarten and Jenny Zander joined my Anthropology of Gender class at Tulane University via Zoom. It was a meaningful gathering that students were looking forward to as they had spent the last week exploring Shapeshifters. As part of the course, students wrote weekly ethnographic fieldnotes. It was clear that students were profoundly moved by the book content and the opportunity to speak with the authors.
– Dara Bramson, Professor

The Bronx LGBT Destination Tomorrow, Bronx NY -March – June 2025

Destination Tomorrow, Director of Education, Heaven Torres, brings Shapeshifters to NYC Riker Island Jail Trans and Nonbinary inmate units. Below is Heaven’s reflection on one of the sessions.

“I wanted to take a moment to provide you with an update on yesterday’s book club session at Rikers. As we delved into the second chapter of The Queen of In-Between by Tom Toni Parker, participants expressed a deep connection to the themes of self-identity and authenticity. This chapter resonated profoundly with many, particularly as it explores the journey of embracing one’s true self. This sentiment of liberation was echoed throughout the group, as individuals reflected on how they were finding the courage to embrace their true identities.”

SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta NY – May – June 2025 Exhibit – Martin-Mullen Gallery

Join us at the Martin-Mullen Gallery for the Shapeshifters: Bodies Like Water Reception, a celebration of those whose stories of body transitions, limitations, and connections fill its pages. This exhibit seeks to offer a loving mirror of celebration and inquiry for the parts of us that are curious and that seek to expand. For those who were raised in traditional views of gender, who want to better understand this journey, we hope this presentation will be a safe bridge to cross in the search for understanding.  Don’t miss this inspiring afternoon of art and conversation! 

Fayetteville Public Library – June 2025

 “I’m so glad I got to be part of last night … it was such a beautiful and meaningful workshop. The discussion around the book and everyone’s personal connections to it was so lovely. Being in spaces where people can connect, share and feel seen feels incredibly special in a time like this. I’m grateful to have been part of it, and even more grateful to have you leading the way with such care and intention.”
-Samantha Trombly, Workshop Participant

“Hosting the Shapeshifters display at the library during pride month this year was a real success. We received positive comments from library patrons on the exhibit the accompanying workshop. Thank you so much!’
– Monica Kuryla, Literacy & Readers Services Librarian.

Rochester City Public Library – July 2025

“What you and fellow artists have created is a guide to journey inward and outward in a continuous interplay of self-love and expression. There are so many seasons of the heart that come alive through visual images, prose and poetry, and communal discovery. It’s what makes us uniquely human and at the same time unites us to our ancestry, the environment and the source of all knowing. Exploring gender in all its forms does this when we loosen ties that keep us bound insecurity and fear.” 
– Steve Jarose, Rainbow Dialogues, Rochester, NY

Testimonials

Brave Heart Books – Stephentown, NY

 “I can’t stop thinking about you calling me a shapeshifter and my immediate denial of it. I see these beautiful pictures and stories when I think of the word Shapeshifter now and that they define to me strength and triumph and I forget the pain and turmoil that went into the shifting for these artists; so yes, I am a shapeshifter as I’ve known that pain and turmoil! My shape was shifted by the new environment and people i encountered so perhaps I didn’t realize that it was also internal and that shapeshifting isn’t just about gender and sexuality but is essentially about growth and self-awareness. And the great part? It never stops! We must look with sadness and the people that put on their brakes.”   – Louise Henry, Braveheart Books, Owner, Stephentown, NY

Metroland Now Arts, Albany NY Endorses SHAPESHIFTERS: BODIES LIKE WATER

According to the UCLA Williams Institute, an estimated 5.5% of adults in the US identify as LGBTQIA+—that’s almost 14 million adults. While there has been a lot of progress throughout recent history, these adults still face an uphill battle of acceptance, whether that is civil, legal, or social. That battle will be even harder in the near future. 

The rest of Americans, that more-than-significant-majority 94.5%, live their lives as expected in a heteronormative society, moving throughout it without ever truly understanding what it might be like to live in the shoes of someone queer. 

That’s where Shapeshifter: Bodies Like Water comes in. Published by Buddy’s Bench Press, this beautiful-crafted book pledges to be a bridge, offering understanding and acceptance through art. It is activism at its most artistic…

Shapeshifters: Bodies Like Water is an emotionally immersive work of art on its own—one that would be right at home alongside any other full-color book on your coffee table. It is a conversation starter, a conversation that needs to be had more than ever, to empathize with your fellow human beings that live a life that you may not understand. –  Elissa Ebershold

Rockland County Pride Center – SHAPESHIFTER EXHIBIT January 2026

“Shapeshifters: Bodies Like Water is a celebration of self. It’s a celebration of who we are, not the people we’re told that we are. Shapeshifter is an opportunity to find out something beyond our comforts, something beyond the things that we understand or that we have been told to understand. Shapeshifting is beyond gender, beyond culture, beyond race and religion. It is a celebration of self, in our truest forms, in our most authentic forms. Every one of us is made of so many different colors, and themes, and notes. And I think that Shapeshifter is trying to do or is doing is inviting us to ask those questions. Who are you?”
– Alessandra Francisco , Director of Youth & Young Adult Services

“I have been changed by Shapeshifters; by its beautiful honoring of the deep connections between the body, land, and queer wisdom; by the life-saving necessity of documenting the courage it requires to move beyond imposed ideas of gender and embrace the sacred journey of becoming. I hope, in its long life, others will allow themselves to be uplifted by Shapeshifters’ celebration and the powerful reminder that transformation is a source of strength, truth, and liberation.”
– Kris Hillen, Director of Operations, Rockland County Pride

Syracuse University

Intercultural Collective – LGBTQ+ and Native Student Program

March 2026

Students visiting the Exhibit were asked: What emotions are evoked as you experience
the Shapeshifters: Bodies Like Water exhibit? Responses recorded: Inspiration, Hope,
Affirmation, Calm, Excitement, Curiousness and Groundedness.

Bloomfield City Pride – June 2026

Bloomfield City Pride hosted Shapeshifters: Bodies Like Water Exhibit as
part of their Pride Month activities. Hosted graciously at the Everyday Grind
Café, Tim Opieka, Owner.

World Premier of the Shapeshifter film: I Am A Person, I Promise

Watch the video now!

“I just wanted to share with you what I grabbed from your story. I definitely felt the pain, I took the garment itself as I am wearing myself, I am being authentic and visible, and yet I still need you to see me. I saw the struggle of trying to break out of the garment, of the shell that we have hid beneath in authenticity, to say I need you to see me for more than what you see. “
– Audience Member comment.

Other Testimonials

I don’t identify as queer or Trans but I am questioning and as a neurodivergent person myself I have found the queer and Trans community to be incredibly supportive towards social justice to those who don’t fit into culturally expected. categories as neurodivergent people are. I was most likely drawn to the shapeshifters exhibit because it seemed to me to have enormous sympathy for people who are neurodivergent in general or towards people who see and feel things differently as the Trans and queer community often does too. I do wish you luck in finding your next exhibit and offer my support if there is anything I can do to be of help.
– Susan Yang, Library Patron, Rochester, NY

“I’m an Acupuncturist and have the Shapeshifters book in my clinic’s waiting room. More times than I can count at this point, I’ve brought patients from the waiting room into the treatment room where they immediately mention the book: how beautiful it is, how wonderful to find that instead of magazines, and how seen they felt by it either because of their own fluidity or that of someone close to them. I’ve also had patients new to the book’s material express gratitude over its educational aspect. The book is a signal to patients under my care that all are welcome and celebrated as they are. Thank you for this priceless and community-shifting resource.”
– Ruby Defina, Acupuncturist