Writing The Gay Agenda

Ash Molesso and Chess Needham

What happens when you take a queer power couple with backgrounds in high school special education and home textiles and start a new business? You get Ash + Chess, a stationery company in Richmond run by Ashley (Ash) Molesso and Chessie (Chess) Needham. The company, which made its debut at the National Stationery Show in May 2017, creates greeting cards and art prints with bold, retro color palettes.  

Molesso was introduced to the stationary world in 2014 when she attended the National Stationery Show. At that time, she was an assistant designer to wallpaper company Aimée Wilder in Brooklyn. Molesso was working the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and Wilder had given her the opportunity to attend other trade shows that were going on at the same time as ICFF. 

“The National Stationery Show showed me that so many people were selling their artwork on their own terms, getting into stores, and being their own boss! I loved it and I was so inspired,” said Molesso. 

For seven years, Needham worked as a high school special education teacher. He had no idea that stationery was even a business that someone could have as a career. Then, he met Ash and Molesso taught Needham everything about stationery--including how to use Adobe Illustrator.

“I couldn’t wrap my mind around a product with such a low price point (especially wholesale) being profitable and was nervous to start,” Needham said. “But Ash is very convincing, and I was inspired.”

The power duo used Needham’s savings to rent a booth during the National Stationery Show and it worked out for them. Now, Needham designs cards for their stationery company and packs orders. According to Needham, he enjoys the short-term rewards of filling and packaging orders. 

Since launching Ash+Chess, the duo has worked on collaborations such as artwork for Belletrist, a book club run by actress Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss; book illustrations for HarperCollins and Workman Publishing; and t-shirt designs for The Style Club x Forever 21.

After their business took off, Molesso and Needham were approached by an agent on Instagram and were given the opportunity to write an illustrated book. After collaborating with each other, they came with the idea of a history book of queer history. The Gay Agenda--available in this month and is being published under Morrow Gift, an imprint of William Morrow of HarperCollins Publishers--is 176-page illustrated handbook that provides insight on queer topics like coming out, transitioning and what being queer means.

The Gay Agenda is now available online and in stores.

“... we wanted to be able to use our voice and this opportunity to speak up for our community,” Needham said. “The beginning of the book (well, most of the book, actually) is a brief history of some notable figures and events that have mostly been left out of the general ‘American history’ timeline. The back part of the book is a sort of handbook, it just has brief introductions to important topics within our community.”

Molesso hopes that The Gay Agenda will help young people or family members of those who have recently come out or may be questioning their identity. Needham wants readers of the book to realize and understand that they are not alone.

“Basically, we just want this book to help people, by spreading the little told histories of the queer warriors that came before us,” Molesso said.

Molesso and Needham would like to focus on expanding the handbook portion of The Gay Agenda--think “Queer Stuff For Dummies” as kind of a followup. Needham’s favorite part of The Gay Agenda was completing research for the handbook. According to Needham, there was so much queer history to write about but by the time they got to writing the handbook, a lot of the material was cut. He would also like to expand on specific topics such as transitioning.

“I myself am transgender and could write pages upon pages about what transitioning has been like for me, so I feel like we glossed over a lot of really important topics,” he said.

Needham added, “We also have some super secret [other] book proposals in the work, that aren’t exactly The Gay Agenda follow ups, but are tangentially related.”

Since moving to Richmond in November 2019, Molesso and Needham have been taking advantage of all of the nature trails and hiking around town. Molesso’s favorites so far are the trails behind Barker Field and Dogwood Dell in Carillon and Forest Hill Park, and she loves Hotel Greene, an indoor hotel-themed mini golf course downtown. Needham really likes dining at Coppola’s Deli where he can get grilled cheese with eggplant.

“The Gay Agenda” is now available for purchase on HarperCollins Publishers’ website. For more information on Ash+Chess, visit their website.