Intersections: An Inaugural Black Queer Sexuality Studies Conference

I just learned about a conference that seems really amazing- it’s called “Intersections: An Inaugural Black Queer Sexuality Studies Graduate Student Conference,” and it will take place on October 20th at Princeton University. Conference organizers are still seeking project proposals- the deadline for abstract submissions is this Friday, the 31st. Contact information for submitting a proposal can be found here. The keynote speaker will be Kara Keeling, a professor of cinematic arts at the University of Southern California and author of the book The Witch’s Flight: The Cinematic, the Black Femme, and the Image of Common Sense.

According to the call for papers, Intersections “seeks to create a public forum for dialogue on innovative research across disciplines and fields that interrogate the intersections between blackness and queerness. Against an abjuring history, we ask: how might we understand the relationship between blackness and queerness if we first reject the premise of their mutual exclusivity? How might transit between blackness and queerness open up new pathways of thought to engage thinking concerned with a host of issues ranging from agency to temporality to phenomenology to resistance?  Are we in a post-black or post-queer moment, and if so, how might a reinterrogation of both blackness and queerness reanimate supposedly deadened modes of inquiry?”

I’m going to try to make it to the conference myself- I presented at a conference at Princeton once, it was a really great experience (and the area is gorgeous).

 

 

Brooklyn College Zine Collection Opening

This Tuesday will be an exciting day for New Yorkers who love zines, as the long-awaited Brooklyn College Zine Collection is officially opening! The collection was started in 2011 by Brooklyn College librarian Alycia Sellie and primarily features zines that are connected to Brooklyn (specific collection parameters available here).

Tuesday’s celebration is open to the public and will feature readings by Brooklyn College students and Brooklyn zinesters (including my zine buddies Elvis Bakaitis and Kate Wadkins). I’ll be reading from my zine “My Feminist Friends” and am especially pleased because my first academic library internship ever was at Brooklyn College!

More info about the event is available in the press release.

Flyer by zine interns Sarah Rappo and Erica Saunders

ABC No Rio Zine Library Benefit Party

I volunteered for about a year as a zine librarian at the ABC No Rio Zine Library and I have to say, it’s quite easily one of my favorite places in all of New York City (which within itself is a paradise to me).

The No Rio collection houses around 12,ooo zines, which anyone is free to come look at during the library’s open hours. An already delightful place is made even better by the presence of a sweetheart cat named Cookie Puss, who alternated between sitting on my lap and stepping on the letters “Q” or “W” when I would catalog zines.

Photo taken by Eric Bartholomew, 25 March 2010

In order to keep this wonderful print culture gem up and running, ABC No Rio is hosting a benefit party for the zine library this Friday from 8PM-1AM! Beverages and zines will be sold and endless fun will be had!

Networked New York

I wish I had found out about this conference earlier – I just happened to see it on the great blog NYU Workshop in Archival Practice! Titled “Networked New York,” it’s advertised as a conference on “material, literary, and digital connections in the city.” It’s free and open to the public and will take place tomorrow, March 9th, in the Great Room of 19 University Place.

The panels look fascinating, and I really wish I could see the keynote- a presentation by Marvin Taylor (Director, Fales Library & Special Collections) called “Playing the Field: Thoughts about Social Networks and the New York Downtown Arts Scene.”

If you go please give me a recap afterward! 🙂

Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database

NYU School of Medicine maintains a quite unique, fascinating free database called Literature, Arts, and Medicine. The “About” section of the database describes itself as an “annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art that was developed to be a dynamic, accessible, comprehensive resource for teaching and research in MEDICAL HUMANITIES, and for use in health/pre-health, graduate and undergraduate liberal arts and social science settings.”

It’s really useful for both students of these subjects as well as librarians/professors looking for teaching resources.  Site visitors can search for information by annotation, people search, keyword (topic), annotator, and a general free text search.

The site’s maintainers are meticulous about updating it – they post new announcements most days of the week, it seems!

Women Artists Archives National Directory

It seems to me that Rutgers University somehow has an endless supply of stellar women’s/gender/queer studies online resources. Most recently I heard about Women Artists Archives National Directory (WAAND). WAAND is a web directory of archival collections of primary source materials by women visual artists. The artists featured in the directory are based in the United States and their work spans from 1945 through the present.

Site visitors can either browse the entire directory (1000+ collections listed) or search library-catalog-style. This is an example of one search record — the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, found by a keyword search I did for one of my favorite artists, Eleanor Antin.  Records will provide all of the information you will need to access the collections.

Library Science Exhibit

Although I have lived in New York for many years now I spent over 2 decades in the boxy little state just to the north, Connecticut. I recently learned that I am going to have something especially exciting to do the next time I visit CT: check out the Library Science exhibit at Art Space in New Haven!

photo by origamidon

Here’s an excerpt describing the exhibit from its website:

“Through drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, painting and web-based projects, the artists in Library Science explore the library through its unique forms, attributes and systems: from public stacks to private collections, from unique architectural spaces to the people who populate them, from traditional card catalogues to that ever-growing “cyber-library,” the World Wide Web.”

Road trip up north this winter, fellow librarians?

Su Friedrich Lecture

Believe it or not, I initially learned that avant-garde feminist filmmaker Su Friedrich is giving a talk at my workplace, Sarah Lawrence College, from a garbage can. Well, to be completely honest, I think it was a recycling can, and it was being used as a temporary bulletin board to advertise an exciting presentation by Friedrich called “How to Drag Your Private Life Kicking and Screaming into the Public: Looking back at thirty-two yeras of filmmaking.”

The presentation is free and open to anyone and will be happening this Thursday, Nov. 10th, from 5:30-7:30PM in Donnelley Lecture Hall in the Heimbold Visual Arts Center. For anyone located in NYC who is unsure that they want to make the train trip out to Westchester- IT WILL BE VERY WORTH IT! If you don’t believe me just watch Hide and Seek.

See you there- I’ll be in the front row with a smile and a women writer’s mug.

Dennis Cooper & Eileen Myles Reading

My friend Charlotte gave me some exciting news the other day – authors Dennis Cooper & Eileen Myles will be giving a reading at McNally Jackson Books on Nov. 14th! The reading will begin at 7PM- Cooper will read from his book The Marbled Swarm and Myles will be reading from Inferno: A Poet’s Novel.

I haven’t read Marbled Swarm yet, but I loooooved Inferno. (I bought it for my library’s collection as soon as it was published).  Hope to see you there! 🙂

NYC Feminist Zinefest

I am thrilled to announce that my zine-copilot/illustrator friend extraordinaire Elvis Bakaitis and I are organizing a NYC Feminist Zinefest! We co-hosted a feminist zine event at Bluestockings a few months ago and it went so well that we were inspired to organize a larger event. The zinefest will be held on February 25th at Brooklyn Commons, a community space located close to the Atlantic-Pacific subway station.

Created by Elvis Bakaitis

We are currently seeking feminist zinesters to table at the event- $5 gets you a 4′ table space to cover with zines and art.

We recently created a blog for the event which we will start posting to frequently. You can also reach us at feministzinefestnyc@gmail.com!

We are both so excited about this and hope you are, too! 🙂