Notable NYC: 5/6–5/12
Saturday 5/6: Jennifer E. Smith presents Windfall. McNally Jackson Books, 6 p.m., free.
Carmen Giménez Smith and Aldrin Valdez join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5.
...morePosts Tagged: Kathy Acker
The Rumpus Interview with Joshua Mohr
Joshua Mohr discusses his memoir Sirens, writing for his daughter, and why he values art that trusts its audience. ...more
The Rumpus Interview with Amy Rose Spiegel
Amy Rose Spiegel discusses her debut memoir, Action: A Book about Sex, carnal confidence, and the nuances of sex-positivity. ...more
The Shocking Power of Claude Cahun
Jessa Crispin discusses discovering the darkly fascinating self portraits of gender-bending surrealist photographer Claude Cahun and the mystery in her life, in an excerpt from The Dead Ladies Project:
...moreThe Cahun version of Acker had the shaved head, but angled to look frail and sickly, near death, a pre-Holocaust vision of the Auschwitz survivor.
Out Like a Lion: Kathy Acker’s Last Hours
...moreHer genre-defying fiction, from the mail-art chapbook The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula to incendiary novels like Blood and Guts in High Schooland Empire of the Senseless, were ways to think against every repression, to overturn the worlds—and words—of parents, gender, the academy, rationality, the traditional novel.
The Rumpus Interview with Ben Fama
Ben Fama talks about his first full-length poetry collection, Fantasy, the New Narrative movement, and the worst thing that could happen at the Chateau Marmont. ...more
The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Jacob Wren
Jacob Wren discusses his newest novel, Polyamorous Love Song, the relationship between art and ethics, and whether Kanye West is a force for good in the art and music world. ...more
Kathy Acker, Pirate
Speaking of icons being people … here’s an odd piece of memory to add to the mix. Way back in 1997, I was enlisted as the lighting person for a performance of the Kathy Acker-Mekons operetta Pussy, King of the Pirates, an adaptation of Acker’s novel Pussy, King of the Pirates, at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
...moreKathy Acker, Icon
In today’s New York Times Book Review, there’s a great essay by Cheryl Strayed responding to the prompt “Is This a Golden Age for Woman Essayists?” She rightly tears the question to shreds. And yet, I’ll admit it. I tend to gravitate towards writers who are women, both in terms of what I read and who I befriend.
...moreAbout a Boob or The Hermeneutics of a Woman’s Body
“Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write your self. Your body must be heard.” — Hélène Cixous