Conversations, dispatches and ideas from the Bush Theatre.
Queer destabilises everything around it, laughs until all that is set becomes disrupted. It is a political force, an identity, a blurring of fixed lines, of ideals, of hierarchies – a way of seeing the world and seeing yourself. It is big and complex and messy and joyous. It is a personal identity, an insult remoulded, an idea moving in relation to whatever is considered ‘normal’. It’s fun, sexy, present and – revolutionary.
It could express a person’s sexual, gender, political or social identity. As a gender-queer person I would use it to describe all of those things. Not in a ‘I’m living in Peckham and I’m totally fluid’ kind of way (I do live in Peckham and I do describe myself as fluid…), BUT also a way which is like waking up and feeling, genuinely, like a guy, or like a mix, even though my body looks more female. I feel comfy in the word queer, there’s room to manoeuvre, to spread out, to backtrack and change.
I run Milk Presents with Ruby Glaskin and Adam Robertson and we’ve put together a queer reading list to alongside Taylor Mac’s Hir. Have we read them all? No. We’re working on it! We put out a call out and asked as many people as we could to contribute and here’s the list so far. Feel free to tweet over suggestions to @milkpresents or @bushtheatre and we’ll add them on.
ALSO while you’re here, if you are or know any 16-21 year olds, we’ll be running a play-in-a-week residency at the Bush Mon 07 – Fri 11 Aug. We’ll be creating a post-gender world, mashed up with cabaret, devising and theatre – get involved! Book here.
– Leo vs Lucy J Skilbeck, Milk Presents
A podcast made by excellent trans and non-binary folk discussing a range of subjects.
A theatre maker’s perspective with tones of great interviews.
A podcast that champions the best emerging and established women writers with news, reviews, features and interviews.
Issue #1 of Working Class Queers debuted at Queer Zine Fest London 2013 and is available in hard copy for £2.00 (postage included). Paypal money (and include yr address) to [email protected].
Mixed Up!: A Zine About Mixed and Queer Feminist Experience by Lil Lefkowitz, Lee Naught & Lior Hadar (2013)
50 Zines by Queer People of Colour
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (2006)
The Wicked + The Divine by Gillen McKelvie and Wilson Cowles
Comics and zines from Black Lodge Press (via Etsy)
Confessions of a Transvestite Buddhist: A Quest for Manhood by Upasaka Devamitra (watch the book launch)
Close To The Knives by David Wojnarowicz
The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry
The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs
Oh Joy Sex Toy by Erika Moen
101 Alternatives to Suicide by Kate Bornstein
Redefining Realness – A Trans Girl’s Memoir | Janet Mock
Elephant Mag (here)
Not In Front of the Audience: homosexuality on stage by Nicholas de Jongh (2002)
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer by Riki Wilchins
Performance in America: Contemporary U.S. Culture And The Performing Arts (Perverse Modernities: A Series Edited by Jack Halberstam and Lisa Lowe)
In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (Sexual Cultures) by Jack Halberstam
Trans: A Quick and Quirky Accounts of Gender Variability by Jack Halberstam
The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam
Queering the Renaissance by Jonathan Goldberg
ASC Queer Theory: Disidentifications by Jose Muñoz
Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity Book by José Esteban Muñoz
An Archive of Feelings by Ann Cvetkovich
Feeling Backward by Heather Love
Testo Junkie by Paul Preciado
Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi
Cool For You by Eileen Myles
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
The Well of Loneliness by Radcliffe Hall
Carol by Patricia Highsmith
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
(Re)sisters published by For Books Sake
Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett
Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Mundo Cruel: Stories by Luis Negrón
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters (book/play)
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Kim Reaper by Sarah Graley
Axolotl
Transgender Step Parent – Mama Lips – BlackLodge Press
Rat Queens
Paper Girls
Nimona
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Some Explicit Polaroids by Mark Ravenhill
Pronoun by Evan Placey
Angels in America by Tony Kushner (1993)
Rotterdam by Jon Brittain
Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey (1993)
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (1985)
The Faith Machine by Alexi Kaye Campbell (2011)
Mother Clap’s Molly House
Southwark Fair
Neaptide by Sarah Daniels (1986)
Wig Out! by Tarell Alvin McCraney (2008)
Certain Young Men by Peter Gill (1999)
Bent by Martin Sherman (1979)
The Drag by Mae West (1927)
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