On the occasion of what would be his 70th birthday, the David Wojnarowicz Foundation in collaboration with the New York City AIDS Memorial, Visual AIDS, and P·P·O·Wwill stage a production of Wojnarowicz’s seminal monologues, The Waterfront Journals, a collection of autobiographical fiction inspired by the many people he encountered in his early twenties. Readers including Tommy Turner, James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook, Nayland Blake, Morgan Bassichis, Paul Soileau, and Pamela Sneed, with introductions by Amy Scholder will be accompanied by the band Rimbaud Hattie—comprised of Wojnarowicz’s former 3 Teens Kill 4 bandmates Doug Bressler and Julie Hair, along with John Kelly. The Memorial will also unveil a park bench dedicated to Wojnarowicz to memorialize his championing of the fight against HIV/AIDS. Following the performances, a candlelit procession will move from the New York City AIDS Memorial to the LGBTQ Memorial in Hudson River Park, symbolically ushering Wojnarowicz’s spirit in communal recognition and celebration.
September 14, 5pm, NYC AIDS Memorial Park 76 Greenwich Ave, New York NY 10014. More info
An evening with Justin Torres, Pablo Alvarez & Amy Scholder to celebrate the publication of this stunning portrait of sex, family, religion, culture of origin, and the betrayals of the body.
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 at 7pm. More info
Co-sponsored by the SF LGBT Center: An evening with Kevin Martin, Rafael Pérez-Torres and Amy Scholder, with an opening statement by Greyson Wright from the SF LGBT Center. Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7pm. More info
I’m co-hosting with Chris Kraus a celebration of Ann Rower’s IF YOU’RE A GIRL: Selected Stories 1985-2023. Join Devan Diaz, Fiona Duncan, Richard Hell, Karim Kazemi, Kate Valk, and Ann Rower on April 1, 8pm. The Poetry Project at St Mark’s: 131 East 10th Street, NY, NY 10003. More info here.
A long time ago, I edited a lesbian cookbook inspired by Alice B. Toklas. It was published by Firebrand Books in 1996. It gets some love in this essay “Pass the Butchy Borscht: Digging in the Lesbian Cookbook Archives,” by Emma Banks.
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Director Pratibha Parmar will be in conversation with Karen Tongsen following the screening. More info here.
Insurgent Beatitudes: The History of a Cultural Center. with Elaine Katzenberger, Nancy Peters, Paul Yamazaki, and me. Moderated by David L. Ulin. More info here.
It’s a digital repository about archiving the impermanent.
Excerpt: “The confluence of starting to edit and publish books, forming my first real sense of community in the city, finding friends and a social life, a club life, an urban life, just as the AIDS epidemic took off—that changed everything. As my community very rapidly shifted into a health crisis, and a political crisis, I started to understand that I could respond in the cultural sphere as a book editor. So that’s what I set my sights on...”
Excerpt: “An editor exists in the invisible space between literary source and destination, scrutinizing the text, wielding red ink, filtering material, and creating and guiding public tastes. They operate via an unusual mix of humility and power, serving the writer’s needs while also possessing the ultimate authority to say ‘No.’ Even an editor célèbre, like Amy Scholder, currently Editor At Large for City Lights Publishing, stresses her more humble duties first.”