Transfeminism in Literature Reading and Discussion (curated by Belladonna*)

September 27, 2012 7pm
Poets House
$5 suggested donation

What is transfeminism? How does it redefine genre and gender poetics? Join Belladonna* as we host Transfeminism in Literature, a reading and discussion investigating transfeminist theory in contemporary literature, featuring poets Trish Salah, Tim Trace Peterson and critics Nicholas Birns and TL Cowan. Discussion will be moderated by poet Joy Ladin.

This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Trish Salah is a lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research addresses the contemporary emergence of transgender literatures and the cultural politics of transnational anti-trafficking movements. Her writing has appeared in a wide range of journals and anthologies, most recently Selling Sex, Contested Imaginaries, Cordite Poetry Review, No More Potlucks and Feminist Studies. Her first book of poetry, Wanting in Arabic, was published by TSAR in 2002, and her new book, Lyric Sexology, is forthcoming.

Tim Trace Peterson is the author of Since I Moved In (Chax Press) and Violet Speech (2nd Avenue Poetry), and the editor/publisher of EOAGH. Peterson is co-editing, with TC Tolbert, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books / EOAGH) and co-editing with Gregory Laynor the forthcoming Collected Writings of Gil Ott (Chax Press). From 2009-2012, Peterson curated the TENDENCIES: Poetics & Practice talks series at CUNY Graduate Center.

Nicholas Birns is on the faculty of Eugene Lang College, the New School, where he teaches courses on post-1900 American and British fiction, literary theory, Shakespeare, and the history of literary genres and traditions. He is the author of Understanding Anthony Powell (University of South Carolina Press, 2004) and the co-editor of A Companion to Australian Literature Since 1900 (Camden House, 2007), which was named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book of the Year for 2008 and of Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics (Palgrave. 2010). His book Theory After Theory: An Intellectual History of Literary Theory From 1950 to the Early 21st Century appeared from Broadview in 2010, and his edited anthology Cultural Encounter will appear from Salem Press in 2012.

T.L. Cowan teaches feminist and queer performance, literary and cultural studies at Eugene Lang College and in the School of Media Studies at The New School. T.L. has shown work in venues including Montreal’s Edgy Women Festival, Edmonton’s Visualeyez, Poetry Gabriola, and Toronto’s Festival of Original Theatre. Her performance work includes The Twisted She Project—an intermedial collaborative performance collage that deals with the perversities of contemporary queer femininity—and the ongoing video and performance cycle, Forgiving Medjugorje—a meditation on sex, religion, reconciliation and money. She is also co-convener of DYKE CHECK! Queer Takes on the Revolution, a stage for trans* feminist and queer political performance at Dixon Place, and she is the author of GLITTERfesto: An Open Call For A Revolutionary Movement Of Activist Performance Based On The Premise That Social Justice is Fabulous. You can regularly find T.L. concocting GLITTERactions on the streets of New York City, where she lives.

Joy Ladin, Gottesman Professor of English at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University, is the first out transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution. She is the author of a recently-published memoir of transition, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders and six books of poetry, including recently-published The Definition of Joy, and two collections that address transgender issues, Forward Fives award winner Coming to Life and Lambda Literary Award finalist Transmigration.