#DNL27 · June 17–19 · 2022

TRANSITIONING

Art, Politics & Technologies of Gender Change

THE 27TH CONFERENCE OF THE DISRUPTION NETWORK LAB

KUNSTQUARTIER BETHANIEN - BERLIN & STREAMING

Video · Introduction · Schedule · Full Programme · Screening · Workshops · Tickets · Speakers

No tickets required to watch the livestream. The film screening will not be streamed.

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Schedule

Friday, June 17 · 2022

16:30 · Doors Open

17:00—17:10 · Introduction

Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE)

17:10–18:15 · PANEL · Diane Torr: Performing Gender, Beyond Gender

Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat (Artist & Art Therapist, FR/DE), in conversation with Stephen Bottoms (Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance, University of Manchester, UK).

18:30–20:00 · KEYNOTE · Insurgent Hearts

Dahlia Damoiselle (U.S. Military Veteran, Educator, Sex Worker, US). Moderated by Jay Bernard (Writer & Activist, UK/DE).

20:15–21:15 · PERFORMANCE · King-ing the Drag – Drag-ing the King

21:15–21:45 · Q&A  

Bridge Markland (Performance Artist, DE). Moderated by Nancy Lund (Drag Performer, UK/DE).

Saturday, June 18 · 2022

16:00 · Doors Open

16:30–17:30 · INSIGHT · Trans Community in Ukraine: During the War and Beyond

Anastasiia Yeva Domani (Executive Director Cohort NGO, UA). Translated and moderated by Filip Noubel (Managing Editor at Global Voices, UA/CZ/DE).

17:45–19:15 · KEYNOTE · Science Won’t Save Us: What Will?

Os Keyes (Researcher, Writer & Activist, University of Washington, US), Mallory Moore (Activist & Researcher, UK). Moderated by Resa-Philip Lunau (Philosopher, DE).

19:30–21:30 · PANEL · Hacking Biocodes: Social Revolt, Virtual Worlds & Viral Love Biohack

Helena Velena (Hacktivist, Artist & Technologist, IT), Shu Lea Cheang (Artist & Filmmaker, TW/US/FR), Jira Duguid (Artist & Member of Fantasia Malware, AU/DE). Moderated by Margherita Pevere (Artist & Researcher, IT/DE).

Sunday, June 19 · 2022 · Not Streamed

11:30-13:30 · WORKSHOP · The Empire Strikes Back: A Workshop on the ICD-11 and Trans* Self-Definition

With Sonia Anastasia Steinmann (Community Organizer, MA Gender Studies, Humboldt University, US/DE/GR). Location: Failing Femmes, Karpfenteichstrasse 13, 12435 Berlin

14:30–16:30 · WORKSHOP · Mapping and Monitoring Anti-Trans Movements

With Os Keyes (Researcher, Writer & Activist, University of Washington, US), Mallory Moore (Activist & Researcher, UK).

18:00–19:45 · FILM SCREENING · Sex n Drag n Rock n Role · 18+ · Free · Not Streamed

A Selection of Films in Homage to Diane Torr (Performer, Director & Drag King Pioneer, UK).
Introduced by Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat (Artist & Art Therapist, FR/DE).

19:45–20:30 · Q&A · Free · Not Streamed

Bartholomew Sammut (Founder, XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, DE), Stephen Bottoms (Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance, University of Manchester, UK), Helen Varley Jamieson (Artist, Producer & Performer, NZ/DE), Laura Meritt (Sex Activist & Researcher, DE). Moderated by Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat (Artist & Art Therapist).

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Conference Introduction

Exploring political, medical, and artistic practices of becoming the gender you feel on the inside.

Gender transitioning is the process of changing one's gender identity and/or sexuality. It is a very private, personal and individual process that involves a profound engagement with community and society as a whole. It’s a topic of high cultural and social interest internationally and is increasingly being discussed in Germany. As more and more young people experiment with this practice from puberty onwards, this debate is becoming central to the future of civil society.

The Disruption Network Lab's programme TRANSITIONING: Art, Politics & Technologies of Gender Change aims to address the complexities of gender transition for both young people and those who have long fought for this right, and to present the implications of this practice in the realms of art, culture, society and human rights. The programme series includes a three days conference, film screenings, a community meet-up, and two community workshops.

The series explores designs of identity and sexuality both in the online environment and in everyday life. It brings into dialogue artists, activists, performers, transgender rights advocates, medical experts, and the grassroots of international and Berlin's LGBTQI+ community. By monitoring political, social and legislative developments, the conference explores techniques and technologies to self-determine the gender people feel on the inside, empowering a younger generation for a more confident and safer path of transition.

The TRANSITIONING programme aims to discuss the perception of one's own body and the extent to which it can go beyond fixed boundaries, investigating gender as an artistic practice (Diane Torr) as well as the ethical, cultural and political significance of transitioning.

On one hand, the events aim to provide a critical response to hormonal control and pharmacological techniques over the transgender body by governments and other institutions. On the other hand, it explores this issue on a subjective level by inviting speakers who experience this challenge in their daily lives. The artistic and technological potential of gender transitioning is at the heart of the conference. Speakers reflect on how art and technology can respond to this new challenge by contributing to fight for more rights and respect for gender diversity.

The conference programme includes a performative talk on legacies of violence in times of conflict by Dahlia Damoiselle, a queer, transgender writer of Vietnamese heritage and U.S. military veteran, who reckons with the consequences of American wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam; gender, tech and (counter)power researcher Os Keyes, who will speak about the politics of scientific research into trans healthcare; Berlin performer Bridge Markland who will cross gender boundaries exploring the artistic potential of transitioning through role-play and transformation.

The programme will be opened and followed by film screenings of the work of artist Diane Torr (1948-2017), a central force in the drag king scene in the US, Europe, Istanbul and New Delhi. The screening marks the first time that a comprehensive collection of film clips with and of Torr's performances on gender identity and transition will be presented on an international scale – including Diane Torr’s early video archive and a selection of videos and film excerpts in which she was acting.
This conference event was initially discussed by Tatiana Bazzichelli with her, and imagined to be developed together, and is therefore dedicated to the work and art of Diane Torr.

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Full Programme

Friday, June 17 · 2022 · Get tickets

16:30 · Doors Open

17:00—17:10 · INTRODUCTION

Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE)

17:10–18:15 · PANEL

Diane Torr: Performing Gender, Beyond Gender

Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat (Artist & Art Therapist, FR/DE), in conversation with Stephen Bottoms (Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance, University of Manchester, UK).

This panel is dedicated to life and work of Diane Torr – a performance pioneer whose innovations proved pivotal in the development of transgender arts and culture. Scottish-born Diane initially trained in dance before moving to New York in the 1970s, where she became part of the emerging downtown performance art scene. Combining elements of movement, text, installation, film and video, Diane's work persistently explored questions of gender as performance. In the 1990s, she became internationally renowned for her drag king performances and "Man for a Day" workshops, which taught participants how to pass as male in the outside world. The workshops attracted many kinds of participant, and for some became a key step in their longer-term journey of transitioning. 

In this panel, Stephen Scott-Bottoms and Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat will lead through something of Diane’s artistic process: how the journey of her art and life brought her to investigate non-binary approaches to gender and sexuality at a time when the term "transgender" had not even been invented yet. The items for consideration include dinosaur skeletons, aikido training, gogo dancing, and the songs of Dusty Springfield.  

Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat got to know Diane after reading Paul B. Preciado's book Testo Junkie. Having taken part in a Man for a Day workshop, she became an assistant to Diane, a co-performer, and a friend. Diane entrusted various objects and materials to her for archiving, and following Diane's death in 2017, Anaïs felt that she had to find a way to present them in public and bring them to life again. 

Stephen Scott-Bottoms is a UK-based historian of the New York theatre and performance scene, who became friends with Diane after she moved home to Scotland in 2003. He worked with her to co-author the book Sex, Drag and Male Roles: Investigating Gender as Performance (2010), which documents the history and impact of her work, and places it in historical context. They remained close friends, and after she passed away, Stephen wrote Diane's obituary for The Guardian, at the request of her daughter Martina.

With this panel, Anaïs and Stephen hope to honor the memory of a remarkable artist and a dear friend, who made a profound difference in so many lives.

18:30–20:00 · KEYNOTE

Insurgent Hearts

Dahlia Damoiselle (U.S. Military Veteran, Educator, Sex Worker, US). Moderated by Jay Bernard (Writer, Artist & Activist, UK/DE).

We cannot discuss power and hegemony without confronting constructs of gender and their accompanying systems of violence, especially within the framework of Western Neo-Imperialism. We’ve witnessed the rise and resurgence of such masculinised victim/hero complexes in fascism, right-wing religious extremism, racism, and anti-queer ideologies which have infected institutional, cultural, social, and political spaces. In this performance, Dahlia Damoiselle seeks to use transition and gender identity as asymmetrical guerrilla tools by which to confront the rhetoric and violence employed by such forces with emotional truth, lyric, and vulnerability. This series of lived experiences and poems will interweave narrative threads of the marginalised assemblages that make up Dahlia Damoiselle’s many selves—as the son of Vietnamese refugees who became a soldier, as a boy struggling to define love, as a queer transgender woman eking out a living in America, as a disillusioned veteran returning home, as a poet, as sex worker, and as a lover.

This personal discourse will explore the wars in Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and ongoing Culture Wars around queer identity in the West, while seeking an emotional liberation through the act of transition and transformation via healing, community, and insurgent queer love. By centering this marginalised assemblage as existential threats to Western order, Dahlia Damoiselle hopes to stoke an insurgent imaginary that seeks healing, community, and liberation through the lens of gender and transition.

20:15–21:15 · PERFORMANCE / 21:15–21:45 · Q&A  

King-ing the Drag – Drag-ing the King

Bridge Markland (Performance Artist, DE)
Q&A Moderated by Nancy Lund (Drag Performer, UK/DE).

"The coolest lecture we ever had!"  - Student, Technical University Braunschweig, 'Gender Studies'.

"Bridge Markland’s performance had me entertained from beginning to end. Her raw and interactive gestures towards the audience make you feel as if you are part of her experience, not just an observer."  - Student, CIEE US-College in Berlin, 'Gender and Sexuality' course.

In her lecture performance king-ing the drag – drag-ing the king - Bridge Markland gives accessible, fun, and non-academic talks about her life and work, which emphasise the development of her drag + gender performances. The audience will hear fascinating details and anecdotes about the origin of her performances – how research in the street, at clubs and parties led to her most famous transformation performance: “The most beautiful Woman in the World”. The audience will hear how Bridge first met the Grand Daddy of Drag Kings Diane Torr and how she participated in Diane Torr’s first “Man For A Day” Workshop, held at Annie Sprinkle’s Appartement in 1991. Audiences will hear how Bridge performed in the legendary Club Casanova in New York City in 1996 organized by Drag King Legend Mo B Dick and how she got to be portrayed in the Documentary Film “Venus Boyz” by Gabriel Baur – in which Diane Torr and Mo B Dick were also portrayed.


During the lecture performance people will have the chance to experience her most famous transformation piece live, with the opportunity for Q & A afterwards. This Q+A will be moderated by Nancy Lund – who In 2019 started a show called 'Venus Boys - The Playground of Masculine Drag' at Silver Future (Berlin), and who is co-curating the next go drag! Festival together with Bridge Markland and Bleach BabyChino this fall 2022 in Berlin.



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Saturday, June 18 · 2022 · Get tickets

16:00 · Doors Open

16:30–17:30 · INSIGHT

Trans Community in Ukraine: During the War and Beyond

Anastasiia Yeva Domani (Executive Director Cohort NGO, UA). Translated and moderated by Filip Noubel (Managing Editor at Global Voices, UA/CZ/DE).

Anastasiia Yeva Domani, as the director of the Ukrainian civil society organization Cohort, and as an activist for trans rights, will address the state of the development of the trans community in Ukraine, when the war in Ukraine started and now.

Are humanitarian activities replacing advocacy at this stage? What were the main challenges and needs for trans people in the first three months of the war, and how did they evolve? How can transgender people who identify as male cross Ukrainian borders at a time of national mobilisation and when the country is in a state of war? She will also speak about Trans people in the war against Putin, and those who went to fight and joined territorial defense and other forces. Furthermore, Anastasiia Yeva Domani will discuss the future of Ukrainian organisations working for trans rights, and for trans people overall; how people are leaving Ukraine; and question how war became for some trans people a geopolitical opportunity, something that is not discussed openly, including methods and reasons for leaving or being evacuated from Ukraine.

17:45–19:15 · KEYNOTE

Science Won’t Save Us: What Will?

Os Keyes (Researcher, Writer & Activist, University of Washington, US), Mallory Moore (Activist & Researcher, UK). Moderated by Resa-Philip Lunau (Philosopher, DE).

This keynote presentations and conversation will address the politics of scientific research into trans healthcare, as well as the perniciousness of the current moral panic around conversion therapy, and what can be done to improve the current situation.

The last few years have seen increasing efforts to undo hard-fought victories for trans healthcare access, both specifically and as part of a broader wave of revanchism. Deploying moral panics centered on ideas of purity, as well as perceived-uncertainty around the evidence base for the results of gender-affirming care, a loose alliance of traditionalists, right-wing populists and trans-exclusionary feminist groups have sought to eliminate access to trans medicine, both in Europe and North America.

Mainstream liberal responses – when those with a modicum of structural power deign to respond at al – have largely focused on repudiating that perceived uncertainty; on affirming the robustness of existing scientific evidence that access to gender-affirming medicine enables better quality of life, and advocating for more scientific studies in turn. But who is given power when happiness is in the hands of statisticians? How does leaning into the demand for scientific studies paradoxically damage clinical experiences in the here-and-now? And is this fight even about science in the first place?

Looking at the past, present and future of research into gender affirming medicine, Os Keyes will explore how this demand for scientific purity has shaped and warped trans healthcare experiences while having an at-best ambiguous impact on the fights to enable access to that care. Rather than debating the science, they argue, we should be fighting over the values and fears motivating this backlash.

Alongside, Mallory Moore, as a researcher and grass roots activist with extensive time spent monitoring DIY conversion therapy groups, will talk about some of the practical and widely unacknowleged challenges facing efforts to "End Conversion Therapy", and suggest some ways through these.

Over the last decade a "genderising" of anti-LGBT propaganda through the anti-gender movement has renewed and innovated conversion therapy advocacy. At the same time, there has been a parallel global swell in interest in criminal conversion therapy bans driven by mainstream LGBTQ+ NGOs.

While a lot of older more explicitly religious models have become increasingly discredited, a new and growing array of approaches combine innovations in exploiting and weaponising the latent anti-queer power dynamics in the Gender Identity Clinic. Furthermore, we witness the liberty of psych professionals to invent new diagnoses to pathologise gender diverse patients (in a time where depathologisation is the wider trend), as well as the internet conspiracy hot house we all went through in the last few years in order to create self-sustaining autonomous, secular communities of parents and family members to share tips on undertaking DIY conversion therapies – and exploiting other power dynamics, such as those within the nuclear family over victims.

We will discuss the issue of whether trans medicine works, and the importance of doing work on the ground to find better methodologies and solutions.

19:30–21:30 · PANEL

Hacking Biocodes: Social Revolt, Virtual Worlds & Viral Love Biohack

Helena Velena (Hacktivist, Artist & Technologist, IT), Shu Lea Cheang (Artist & Filmmaker, TW/US/FR), Jira Duguid (Artist & Member of Fantasia Malware, AU/DE). Moderated by Margherita Pevere (Artist & Researcher, IT/DE).

This event focuses on technological, fluid, and visionary dynamics of gender transitioning. At the core of the current debate, is the use and production of technologies of the body from biotechnology to surgery, and endocrinology, to analyse and discuss the conscious practice of self-generate a transgendered identity. By combining a critical approach within the artistic, hacker and activist fields, we will present the development and the consequences of such intentional intervention, at a political, technological and artistic level. Starting from the reflection on gender transformation and its cultural and political meaning, this panel wants to focus on new dynamics of gender transitioning, as well as on issues of techno-capitalism, viral media, and biotechnologies.

Helena Velena, a transgender activist who has been radically analysing and criticising the mechanisms of standardised behavioural induction since the 1980s, will reflect on the ethical, critical and cultural consequences related to the of reappropriation of individuality against the conformism of work and social control ethics as well as in response to the hormonal control on female and trans bodies prescribed by governments and institutions. As she points out, “transgender is the philosophy of creating our own identity using all materials and influences available”, refusing fixed identities and behaviour that are normalised by society.

Artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang, whose cyberpunk porn film “I.K.U.” (2000) and cypherpunk scifi FLUIDØ (2017) crafted her own genre of Scifi New Queer Cinema, will speak about her current feature film in the making, UKI - a scifi viral alt-reality cinema. In 2009, Cheang declared her exit from the Internet and retreated to BioNet to begin a cycle of art practice, Viral Love Biohack. GENOM Co. takes human body hostage to initiate BioNet, a network made up of re-engineered red blood cells (erythrocytes) capable of altering DNA and micro-computing auto-generated orgasm into self-sustained pleasure. GENOM Co. owns REIKO, an IKU (orgasm) coder from Net-Porn era. Deemed redundant, after full body of orgasm data downloaded, REIKO is dumped as a piece of Etrash. The data deprived REIKO roams E-trashville inhabited by transmutants, hackers, coders, migrants, refugees and the native laborers. Cheang recounts REIKO’s 7 reformation through coding and re-coding to re-emerge as UKI the Virus. UKI engages UKI the virus as infiltrating agents to sabotage a detrimental bio-scheme engineered by GENOM Co.

Jira Duguid, game artist and member of Fantasia Malware collective, will link lamentations and reflections of life spent in plurality, collectively imagined virtual worlds, collectively obtained hormones and medication, and collectively built cultures and communities. Featuring an additional bonus, Jira will perform a DLC live performance of The Life of Saint Fiona Bianco Xena, a maelstrom of figures, stories and symbols occurring on different timelines, dimensions and scales. Saint Fiona is a kaleidoscopic vision of one woman seen through three rotating eyes, an illusion of separated light scattering in different directions…

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Sunday, June 19 · 2022 · Not Streamed · Get tickets

11:30-13:30 WORKSHOP · Register now · Limited spots

The Empire Strikes Back: A Workshop on the ICD-11 and Trans* Self-Definition

Location: Failing Femmes, Karpfenteichstrasse 13, 12435 Berlin

The medical establishment, especially psychologists, endocrinologists, and surgeons, have a great impact on the lives of trans* people, especially those who choose to medically transition. As part of their role of screening trans* patients for medical care, psychologists have established diagnoses of "transsexuality" and "gender dysphoria." Most recently, the World Health Organization has proposed the diagnosis of "gender incongruence of adolescence and adulthood" for its ICD-11 manual. This diagnosis promises to be less restrictive, stigmatising, and binary than previous diagnoses.

Still, why is transness contained in a manual of diseases? Why do mostly cis white male scientists define and pathologise trans* experiences? In this workshop, trans* people will gather to critically read and annotate the definition of "gender incongruence" in the ICD-11 together. Then, we will freely come up with our own self-definitions and narratives, whether they conform or conflict with binary, heteronormative, Western European, "passing" definitions of being trans* and transitioning. We will listen to and encourage each other as we draw from our own experiences, identities, beliefs, and artistic practices to come up with a kaleidoscope of counter-definitions.

The title of the workshop is in reference to "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto" by Sandy Stone.

Registration:

• The workshop is open to all people who have a relationship with the term trans*, including those who identify with it or have a critical relationship with it. No one will be forced to speak on their personal experiences and participants can leave and return at any point if they feel triggered by the topics discussed.

• The workshop will be conducted in English, although participants who choose to write can do so in a language of their choosing.

• Free Admission - The number of participants is limited.

• Register here

Facilitator

Sonia Anastasia Steinmann (she/her) is a Greek German American trans woman living in Berlin. She is an MA student in Gender Studies at Humboldt University and was involved in community organising and journalism advocating for trans and queer justice at the intersection with migrant, racial, and economic justice in New York City.

14:30–16:30 · WORKSHOP · Register now · Limited spots

Mapping and Monitoring Anti-trans movements

With Os Keyes (Researcher, Writer & Activist, University of Washington, US), Mallory Moore (Activist & Researcher, UK).

Join us on Sunday June 19 as part of Disruption Network Lab's community programme for a follow up workshop with our keynote speakers at TRANSITIONING: Art, Politics & Technologies of Gender Change: Os Keyes (Researcher, Writer & Activist, University of Washington, US) and Mallory Moore (Activist & Researcher, UK).

In their keynote “SCIENCE WON’T SAVE US: What Will?” on Saturday, 18 June, they will address the politics of scientific research into trans healthcare, as well as the perniciousness of the current moral panic around conversion therapy, and what can be done to improve the current situation.

At the workshop we will dive more into the rising tide of opposition to trans rights, including access to care, that has been characterised by widespread coordination and organisation as part of the broader "anti-gender" alliance of far-right groups. Combating them effectively requires understanding that coordination, and coordinating ourselves, in turn. With a hands-on practice, Os Keyes and Mallory Moore will share approaches, lessons and techniques that they have collectively and individually used to expose the interests at play, including the analysis of legal cases, social media data and policy documents.

Registration

• This workshop is primarily aimed at both existing and interested campaigners around trans rights; you don't have to have experience to attend!

• Please bring a laptop and charger if you can; you will be able to participate if that is not possible.

• We are limited to a maximum of 20 attendees.

• Get your ticket here

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18:00–19:45 · FILM SCREENING · Free · Register now

Sex n Drag n Rock n Role

18+ age restriction

A Selection of Films in Homage to Diane Torr (Performer, Director & Drag King Pioneer, UK).
Introduced by Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat (Artist & Art Therapist, FR/DE).

19:45–20:30 · Q&A · Not Streamed · Free Entrance

With: Bartholomew Sammut (Founder, XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, DE), Stephen Bottoms (Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance, University of Manchester, UK), Helen Varley Jamieson (Artist, Producer & Performer, NZ/DE), Laura Meritt (Sex Activist and Researcher, DE). Moderated by Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat (Artist & Art Therapist, FR/DE).

“I loved Diane a lot. She was a very special friend, and she really knew how to be a good friend.

Diane Torr was ahead of her time. A great performance artist, mom, queer, gender pioneer. She was one hot babe!” -
Annie M. Sprinkle

This event presents video works from and with performer, director and drag king pioneer Diane Torr. Connecting to the panel “Performing Gender, Beyond Gender”, opening the TRANSITIONING conference, the screening comprises for the first time extracts of documentaries, performance documentations and film essays reflecting the manifoldness of Diane’s experimental journey towards gender and sexuality in different artistic and historical contexts. From ‘80s experimental pieces to late career video works, we experience the filmed body at its core following Diane Torr on her artistic path of developing new narratives on the erotic, the androgynous or the state of ageing, among others.

We will show extracts from:

Man for a Day (2012, Katarina Peters)
Venus Boyz (2002, Gabriel Baur)
The Deadman (1989) by Peggy Ahwesh and Keith Sanborn, featuring Jennifer Montgomery, Diane Torr and Ramon Quanta la Gusta.
Martina's Playhouse (1989) by Peggy Ahwesh
Open for Flavour (1994, performance and film presented among others at Theater het Liefje with students from the School for New Dance - SNDO in Amsterdam)
The Undergrad (2003, Mickey R. Mahoney)
Donald does Dusty (2006) by Diane Torr, performed for Glasgay Festival Commission at Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts.
Eier haben (2013) by Diane Torr with Anus B. Haven, Kai Simon Stoeger, Viola, Anaïs Héraud, performed at transmediale.
Mountain Men and British Birds (2006, Diane Torr)

The screening will be followed by an open discussion with Bartholomew Sammut, Stephen Bottoms, Helen Varley Jamieson and Laura Méritt, moderated by Anaïs Héraud-Louisadat.
The title of the screening is inspired by Diane Torr’s talk “Sex n Drag n Rock n Role” and performance, that took place as part of GENDER LAB at Emmetrop in Bourges (France), on November 29, 2012.

A special thank you goes to all of Diane’s friend and colleagues that helped finding video material, allowed the showing of the films and gave their time to discuss, recall and acknowledge Diane’s pioneer work: Ruth Peyser, Peggy Ahwesh, Annie M. Sprinkle, Mickey R. Mahoney, Lizzie Olesker, Stephen Scott-Bottoms, Martha Wilson, Gabriel Baur, Bridge Markland, and many more!

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SPEAKERS

Jay Bernard

Writer, Artist & Activist, UK/DE

Jay Bernard is a writer from London. Their practice is interdisciplinary and rooted in social histories. Jay’s debut poetry collection and performance Surge won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2020 and the Ted Hughes Award 2017.
Jay works as a programmer at BFI Flare (London’s LGBTQIA film festival) and is currently a fellow of the DAAD programme in Berlin.

Stephen Bottoms

Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance, University of Manchester, UK

Stephen Scott-Bottoms is Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance at the University of Manchester, UK. Previously he has worked at the Universities of Glasgow and Leeds. Steve co-authored the book Sex, Drag and Male Roles (2010) with Diane Torr about the history of her work exploring gender in performance. Steve's more recent work extends that book's interest in the blurry lines between performance and everyday life, by investigating the history of social psychology experiments.