juliaserano

Julia update July 2009

1.    new writings!
2.    Julia in Tulsa, OK!
3.    another Bitesize show!

hi everyone,

just wanted to let you know about some recent goings on:

1. new writings

OK, so I have a couple new writings that are floating around out there.

First, my spoken word piece “Ophelia Revisited” appears in the new anthology “She's Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out and fighting back.” As you may have guessed, it was edited by the wonderful folks at Shameless Magazine (http://www.shamelessmag.com). Definitely look for it in your local bookstore! If you can’t find it there, here is the Amazon page for it:

http://www.amazon.ca/Shes-Shameless-growing-rocking-fighting/dp/0978335198

In other news, I have finally updated my “TS Psychology” webpage to include links to four new pieces: my Feministing.com piece about the impending DSM revision, my speech from May’s APA protest in San Francisco, my speech from last month’s Trans March (also in San Francisco), and my keynote talk from last month’s Philly Trans-Health Conference. Lots of me raging against the machine. Enjoy...

Also, there has been much brouhaha in the webosphere (or the cyberverse, or whatever you wanna call it) regarding cis/trans terminology and the concept of cis privilege (both of which I forwarded in WG). To clarify some of the misperceptions that are out there, back in May I wrote an FAQ about the issue - it can be found here:

http://juliaserano.livejournal.com/14700.html

also, Ethan St.Pierre recently had me on his show (TransFM.org) to talk about the issue – you can listen to that interview here:

http://www.archive.org/details/RadTrans-2009-7-05-TransFM

and finally, some of you may remember that Gina de Vries and I co-curated a show for last month’s National Queer Arts Festival called Girl Talk: A Cis and Trans Woman Dialogue. Since lots of out-of-town folks were interested but could not attend, we recently posted an mp3 of the entire event for anyone to listen to! It can be found here:

http://www.juliaserano.com/av/6_17_09-GirlTalk09.mp3

links to all of the details of the show and the cast (including a breakdown of the times each performer comes on in the mp3) can be found here:

http://juliaserano.livejournal.com/15219.html

once again, enjoy...

2. Julia in Tulsa, OK

Yes, I will be performing spoken word in Oklahoma later this month! Here are the details:

July 24, 2009
at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center
http://www.okeq.org
621 E. 4th in Tulsa, OK
the event will begin at 7pm

3. another Bitesize show!

On the heels of our March reunion show, my band Bitesize will be playing yet again! btw, for those who haven’t heard us before, we have free mp3s available for your listening pleasure at http://bitesize.net/mp3s.html

here are the details:

This upcoming Sunday (July 12th), Bitesize will be participating in "The Festival of Drums" at the Stork Club in Oakland. Basically, every band is including extra drummers and/or percussionists, and audience members are encouraged to bring percussion instruments to the event! And every band is supposed to end their sets with an "all-star" jam (open to interpretation, of course). [note: read the recent East Bay Express article about the show!]

We already have some excellent beatboxing and finger-cymbaling lined up, and we may be adding some other impromptu drummy stuff into our set on the day of the show (so if you have any brilliant ideas for participation, please let us know!). We are also planning to end our set with a Hey-Jude-meets-We-Are-the-World version of The Bee's Knees - so if you know the tune, we encourage you to join us onstage at the end of the song for a seemingly endless sing along!

Also, a bonus: it is a BBQ show! It starts fairly early (5pm) and we go on promptly at 7-ish - so if you wanna bang away with us, be sure to get there on time...

Okay, so here are all the details:

Sun 7/12/09
Sunday, July 12th @ 5pm

Stork Club
2330 Telegraph Ave
Oakland, 94612
Cost:$7
storkcluboakland.com
510-444-6174

A torrent of drums.  A hurricane of drums.  Class 6 rapids of drums.  7 bands adding countless drummers at the Festival of Drums.  More thunder than the drum corps.  More power than the solo in "Wipeout."  More drum solos than a Led Zeppelin concert.  More fun than the post-apocalypse.  The theme of this BBQ is "graduation" and it will also be Bunny Numpkins & the Kill Blow-Up Reaction's cd release.  So dust off your double kick petals, tablas, and kettle drums and get ready to rumble.

5:00 DJ Mole, DJ Tidbit, Kelsey on Accordion

5:45 David & Joanna www.myspace.com/davidandjoanna
6:30 Harlan Hollander www.myspace.com/musicbyharlan

7:15 Bitesize www.bitesize.net
8:00 Bunny Numpkins and the Kill Blow-Up Reaction www.myspace.com/bunnynumpkinsandthekillblowupreaction
8:45 The Happy Clams www.thehappyclams.com
9:30 Siddhartha www.myspace.com/siddharthamusic

10:15 The New Dysfunctions www.myspace.com/dylanchampagne

11:00 Static Mind-Fi www.myspace.com/staticmindfi

OK, that’s it for the update, hope some of you can make it out to the shows!
-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com

Happy Pride month everyone!

I just wanted to let everyone know about a 2009 National Queer Arts Festival show I will be participating in this month. It is called Girl Talk: A Cis and Trans Woman Dialogue - it is a spoken word event that I have co-curated with Gina de Vries (and featuring an awesome cast!) on a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area on June 17th, I highly encourage you to come out for it! All the details and a description of the show are below. Please be sure to order advance tickets online, as the event may sell out...

The National Queer Arts Festival Presents:
Girl Talk: A Cis & Trans Woman Dialogue
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/QFest09/GirlTalk.html
Curated by Gina de Vries & Julia Serano
Wednesday, June 17th
LGBT Center - Ceremonial Room
1800 Market Street, San Francisco
7:30pm
Tickets: $12-$20
Buy Tickets on-line!!:  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/66001

Featuring the lovely & fabulous!:
Ryka Aoki de la Cruz
Tina D’Elia
Gina de Vries
Dorian Katz
Nomy Lamm
Julia Serano
Rose Sims (aka Little Light)
Lauren Steely

Queer cisgender women and queer transgender women are allies, friends, support systems, lovers, and partners to each other. Trans and cis women are allies to each other every day -- from activism that includes everything from Take Back the Night to Camp Trans; to supporting each other in having “othered” bodies in a world that is obsessed with idealized body types; to loving, having sex, and building family with each other in a world that wants us to disappear. Girl Talk is a spoken word show fostering and promoting dialogue about these relationships. Trans and cis women will read about their relationships of all kinds – sexual and romantic, chosen and blood family, friendships, support networks, activist alliances. Join us for a night of stories about sex, bodies, feminism, activism, challenging exclusion in masculine-centric dyke spaces, dating and breaking up, finding each other, and finding love and family.

*********

note added on 6-20-09 (i.e., after the show):
The show was amazing! For those who were not able to make it, you can listen to an mp3 of the show, which (for the foreseeable future) will be available here:
http://www.juliaserano.com/av/6_17_09-GirlTalk09.mp3

here are the times for those interested:

0:00:00        Pam's introduction
0:03:16        Gina
0:17:39        Ryka
0:32:26        Tina
0:42:26        Lauren
1:06:23        Nomy
1:19:23        Rose
1:33:09        Dorian
1:46:17        Julia

enjoy!

so I recently got back from a crazy, hectic week on the road. I had three college presentations, plus the WAM! conference, all in one week. The WAM! conference was especially fun – I got to meet lots of people whose blogs I have read and/or folks I’ve corresponded with but whom I have never met face to face. It is neat to meet people that you know, but have never seen with your own eyes. It makes you realize how often we unconsciously make assumptions about people based upon their appearance in the "offline" world.

At WAM!, I was on a panel called “In/Out of Focus, Broadening a Feminist Lens: Gender, Non-Conformity and the Media” which was moderated by Kate Bovitch, and also included Miriam Zoila Perez and  Jack Aponte. The conference filmed it and video of it should appear on the web soon – I’ll let you know when it happens...

At WAM!, I also learned that I am probably the only feminist in the world not Twitter-ing, and that I was likely the only person there who was not actively blogging about the conference. Although, I suppose I’m blogging about it now. But in the new modern world, does blogging about something ex post facto even count anymore? sigh...

While on my trip, I also got to see my family, since the last college event was in Bryn Mawr - a 15 minute drive from my parents house (aka, the house that I mostly grew up in). I had a weird time capsule moment while at Bryn Mawr. I remembered bike riding around that campus when a car pulled up beside me. A middle-age-ish guy rolled down his window, said he was from out of town, and asked if there were any good bars or clubs in the area (this was day time, mind you). I told him that I was home from college and never really went out around this area. Then he asked me if I liked to party. No lie: he literally said “do you like to party?” It was only then that I naively realized that he had been hitting on me. I said no, not really, and biked off. I think that was the first time that a guy ever hit on me as a boy (or, at least, the first time I figured out what was going on).

On my trip, I read my first fun, non-gender-y book in a long while: the Steve Martin book Born Standing Up, which chronicles his stand-up career. Lots of folks younger than me seem surprised when I say that he is probably my favorite stand-up comedian ever. They probably know him only from his many lame movie appearances over the last 20 years. Or they have seen little snippets of him saying “Excuuuuuse me” or “I’m a wild and crazy guy” and they got the impression that he was a shtick-y sort of comedian. But he was actually very surreal and “intellectual” (as he’d often joke). For those who have not been initiated, I highly encourage you to check out his comedy albums (e.g., Let’s Get Small. or Wild and Crazy Guy).

Anyway, I’ve been poking around YouTube looking for old bits from his stand up days (there are too few) when I stumbled onto this. It’s Steve Martin guest hosting the old Johnny Carson Tonight Show. The main guest is Burt Reynolds in his sexyist-man-alive heyday and, if you have the endurance to make it to part three, Burt Reynolds shaves off half of his moustache live on TV. and, if you make it to part four, Burt & Steve share a man-kiss. enjoy...

I know this will make me sound old, but I felt like I was at home watching it. I have no desire to go back to the 70’s. Nostalgia is kinda dumb, as every decade has its good points and bad points. But it was nice seeing something from my ten-year-oldish days that made me smile. those were (for better or worse) my formative years...

-julie

hi everyone,

so this month’s update is chock full of all sorts of upcoming events that involve me in some way, including several college appearances, a conference panel, a cabaret, and a reunion of my band Bitesize! But before I delve into all of that, a quick personal note:

some of you know (and others may know of) Dani - she was my partner for many years and remains a close friend. Well, she is currently looking for a job, preferably one that is full time with benefits. She has oodles of non-profit admin, HR and event organizing experience and is a pro at event production, marketing, and fundraising/sponsorships. She ran two successful businesses and has worked at coops, non-profits, and for profits. Dani is one of the smartest, most hard-working people I know, so if you (or anyone you know) is looking to hire someone in the Bay Area, I highly encourage you to get in touch with her! Dani’s contact info and resume can be found here: 
http://www.daniland.com/resume.html
or you can email me and I’ll put the two of you in touch...

okay, now here are all of my events for the month in chronological order:

Saturday, March 7, 2009
I’ll be performing at Cupcake Cabaret, a performance celebrating the strength we get from what marks us as different in this world. Size, gender, sexuality, class, race, dis/ability, age, religion and all numbers of identities bring the artists in the series a sense of power and esteem. Cupcake Cabaret features comedy, burlesque, spoken word, performance art and all manner of genres celebrating the radical act of self-love.

the show features an All-Femme Cast! in addition to me, performers include:
Bevin Branlandingham
Gina de Vries
Zuleikha Mahmood
Mollena Williams

the show will take place on Saturday, March 7, 2009
at the Center for Sex and Culture
1519 Mission St. San Francisco (between 11th Street & South Van Ness)
Doors at 7:00, Show at 7:30
$10-$20 sliding scale
more details at http://queerfatfemme.com/cupcakecabaret
This event is presented by San Francisco in Exile (http://sfinx.org) and is co-curated by Bevin Branlandingham & Gina de Vries.

*****

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Bitesize reunion show!

As some of you know, for many years I was the guitarist-vocalist-lyricist for a noisy pop/indie rock band called Bitesize. We’ve spent most of the last four years on hiatus, but lately we’ve taken up playing again!

on Thursday, March 12, 2009, we will be playing our first show in quite a while. It will take place at the Eagle Tavern (398 12th St. San Francisco, CA), and we will be playing with one of our very favorite local bands, Ex-Boyfriends, as well as the excellent Control-R. The show will be held at 9pm, 21+.

for those who haven’t heard us before, we have free mp3s available for your listening pleasure,

also, if you’re interested in learning more about us, you’ll be happy to know that we *finally* refurbished our bio page after many years of neglect. It now includes a (hopefully) humorous (mis)informative career retrospective article called "Hear No Evil: the almost entirely true unauthorized autobiography of the band who almost changed the world."


*****

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I will be at USC Upstate (in Spartanburg, South Carolina) to participate in their 2nd Annual Bodies of Knowledge Symposium. It takes place from 4-8:30pm on the campus of USC Upstate in the Rampey Building. Other presenters include Kirk Read and Jennifer Baumgardner. More info about the symposium can be found here:
http://www.uscupstate.edu/bodiesofknowledge

(note: Seating for the event in Rampey is limited and advance registration for this date is required.  Register online now at http://www.uscupstate.edu/bodiesofknowledge)

*****

on Thursday, March 26, 2009
I will be at UNC Chapel Hill for their annual Women's Week giving a presentation entitled Trans Feminism: A Performance and Discussion (it will be part talk, part spoken word performance). It will take place from 5:30 to 7pm at Stone Center, Hitchcock Multipurpose Room.

*****

March 27 - March 29, 2009, I will be at
Women, Action & the Media:
A Conference for Activists, Journalists & Everyone
at MIT’s Stata Center, Cambridge, MA

While there, I will be taking part in a panel called:
In/Out of Focus, Broadening a Feminist Lens: Gender, Non-Conformity and the Media
it will take place March 28th, Saturday, 11-12:30 pm, and the other panelists include Kate Bovitch, Miriam Zoila Perez and Jack Aponte

*****

Monday, March 30, 2009
I will be presenting a talk at Bryn Mawr College as part of their Trans-Awareness Week. more details to come...

*****

also, some new press snippets:
 
a new interview with me will appear in the March 2009 issue of Stereotypd.

I am also briefly mentioned in a review of the new Antony & the Johnsons CD that appeared in the Chicago Reader.

*****

ok, that’s it for now. thanks for listening!
-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com/

Here is an update I just posted to my Yahoo Group today:

hi everyone, this is a very small update. I mostly wanted to remind folks in the Bay Area about the reading I will be doing this Tuesday:

Passing on the Pen: Intergenerational Queer Storytellers

Tuesday, December 9th @ 6:30pm
at The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society
657 Mission Street #300
San Francisco, CA 94105
(fyi, I got this address wrong in my last update)

the other writers featuring that night are Jamison Green and Tristan Crane.

***

the other thing I wanted to mention is that a new interview with me has recently appeared on two websites:

the lesbian community website Cherry Grrl:
http://www.cherrygrrl.com/2008/11/30/julia-serano-transgender-dyke/

and the South African website Queer Life:
http://queerlife.co.za/test/content/view/2387/1/

(note: its the exact same interview, just posted two places)

***

so Julia, what are your plans for 2009?

well, first off, I have a number of different performances & presentations slated for early next year, including taking part on panels at the IFGE (International Foundation for Gender Education) and WAM! (Women, Action & the Media) conferences. more details to come...

I’ve also been working on several academic papers that will hopefully see the light of day next year. Two of them will likely become chapters in my next book (which will definitely *not* come out in 2009, but I have slowly begun working on it). Also, I am working with my friend Ryka on a book proposal for an anthology we want to co-edit together – so stay tuned for a Call for Submissions for that some time in early 2009 (I promise to post it here)...

That’s it for now. See you next year!
–julia
http://www.juliaserano.com

hi everyone, here is my November 2008 update – it’s a quickie:

1) three upcoming shows, each in a different place. Here they are in chronological order:

This Tuesday eve (November 18th) I will be performing spoken word at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. For those in the vicinity, the show will take place at 7pm in Memorial Union room 109. The show is part of their Trans Awareness Week.

--Then this Saturday (November 22) I will be performing in LA at Trans/giving’s 5th year Tranniversary! here are the details:

Plummer Park
7377 Santa Monica Blvd
Rooms 5 & 6
West Hollywood, Ca 90046
@ 6 pm
$5-$10 Donation Requested (NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS!)
other artists include the amazing Ryka Aoki De La Cruz and Scott Turner Schofield

--Then on Tuesday, Dec 9th @ 6:30pm, I’ll be reading at a very special event:

Passing on the Pen: Intergenerational Queer Storytellers
at The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society
657 Mission Street #30
San Francisco, CA 94105
the other writers featuring that night are Jamison Green and Tristan Crane.

2) an anthology contribution:

any day now, the anthology “Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape” edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti will be released. It includes my essay “Why Nice Guys Finish Last” along with other excellent contributions by many wonderful feminist activists and writers. Look for it in your local independent bookstore!

3) Prop 8

For the first time ever in the US (to the best of my knowledge), voters in California voted to take away a minority group’s civil rights. I already sarcastically blogged about Prop 8’s passage last week. While I have always obviously been for same-sex marriage, I have felt that the marriage issue has seemed to suck all of the oxygen out of queer activism in the last decade. I think it’s important, but there are numerous other queer issues that I feel have been ignored as a result. Having said that, this recent proposition passage is really scary, as it sets up a precedent where a majority of voters in California can effectively eliminate any minority group’s civil rights. I encourage you all to fight it tooth & nail and to make your voice heard on this matter!

enough said.

best wishes! –julia
http://www.juliaserano.com

Hi everyone,

Well, once again it’s Pride month, and I’ll be performing in a number of National Queer Arts Festival Shows in San Francisco. In addition, I was invited to perform on the Trans Stage in Toronto – I am super-excited about this as I met many new friends and had a blast there last summer! Anyway, here’s the rundown on all of these events:

*********

June 4 & 5th
FRINGES, MARGINS & BORDERS
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/QFest08/Fringes.html

Curators: Leo Garcia (Highways) & Michelle Tea (Radar)
LGBT Community Center - 2nd Floor
7:30pm
Tickets: $8-$15 Sliding Scale. Buy at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/34351
 
A series pairing radically innovative Los Angeles and San Francisco artists and writers making new work that explores themes of marginality and lives lived on the fringes of a larger culture. Featuring  (from LA) DeadLee, Saleem, Alison de la Cruz, Ian MacKinnon and (from SF) Zuleikha Mahmood, Lorlei Lee, Julia Serano and Len Plass.

**********

June 7th
Exhibition and Art Reception Untold Stories; Visual and Performative Expressions of Transwomen featuring art works by Charlie Anders, Julia Serano, Marilynn Mitchell, Sheila Malone, Kiddy Drown, Anne Drew Potter, Annie Danger. Untold Stories brings to the public visibility to a group of women artists who are so very rarely heard in our society.  We celebrate and bring focus to these stories, to these lives, to important and influential artistic expressions that will have made a huge impact on our queer culture. Untold Stories brings a myriad of different art forms to one gallery space showcasing video art, performance art, pastels, sculpture, unique installations, and pen & ink works.

at Femina Potens
http://feminapotens.com/
2199 Market St., San Francisco, CA
reception 5 - 9pm (free)
The installation will remain on display from June 7 thru 29th.

*********

June 18th
THE DEEP LEZ POTLUCK AND PERFORMANCE NIGHT
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/QFest08/Deep.html

Curators - joey stevenson and Caitlin Sweet
El Rio - NOTE: No-one under 21 years old will be admitted
7:00pm films; 8:30 performance
Tickets:  $10-$15 sliding scale Buy Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/35921

The Deep Lez Potluck and Performance Night is a formal hand fasting of radical lesbian feminism and urban queer and gender queer politics. It's a celebration with bands, films, spoken word, fashion show, body painting, macramé and tea leaf readings. Films at 7 pm sharp, get your vegan potluck on, make some crafts, consciousness raise, let go and let goddess. Performance at 8:30 with Gretchen Phillips, Lesbians, Nomy Lamm, Jenna Riot, Pickup Pattern, Julia Serano, Ophelia Stringer, Meliza Banales, Celeste Chan, Rhiannon Argo, Elan Gerie, Machine, Trinity of Poon Joey Cupcake, Saturn Ray Turn and many more! DJ's kicking some sisterhood is powerful ass! Come widen the circle for ALL deeply lez identified lezzies of the past, present, and future and friends.

*********

June 25th
COMING-OUT...AGAIN
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/QFest08/ComingO.html

Curator-Meliza Bañales
LGBT Community Center – 2nd Floor
7:30pm
Tickets: $8 - $15 sliding scale
Buy Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/34350

This event will tell the coming-out stories of folks who, because of various life circumstances, had to come-out again.  In our first coming-out, maybe we were dykes who in our second coming-out became gay men.  Or we may have been men who became dykes, or dykes who found they were bisexual or folks who transcended so many lines that they were, in a word, queer.  What happens when the community accepts you as one identity and then has to adjust to another?  How do we find community, fit into new ones, and completely mess with our own ideas of whose who and how that defines us?  Curated by award-winning writer Meliza Bañales, six artists including Julia Serano, Sherilyn Connelly, Jeanette Aguilar, Ami Mattison, and Prado Gomez, will illustrate their paths to acceptance and wholeness and what it was like for those of us to come-out…all over again.

***********

And, as mentioned earlier, on June 28th I will be performing at the Pride Toronto Trans Stage between 5:30pm to 6:15pm. Related details should be available soon at the Pride Toronto website:
http://www.pridetoronto.com/

*********

that’s it for now. have a fun Pride month and don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do...

-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com/

 

...because I haven't been posting much except for event updates...like this one:
Four cities, four events!

hey all,

this is a quicky email to let folks know about a handful of out-of-town events I will be doing over the next few weeks:

April 22nd (this Tuesday!) I will be giving a talk entitled “Transsexual and Trans Feminine Perspectives on Sexism” at California State University @ Sacramento. At University Union Ballroom III, 7 to 9 p.m. More info can be found here:
http://www.csus.edu/bulletin/mondaybriefing/041408mondaybriefing.stm

May 3rd I will be presenting a paper entitled “A Bio-Experiential Model of Transsexuality” at the Transsomatechnics: Theories and Practices of Transgender Embodiment conference, Vancouver Canada, SFU Harbour Centre, May 1-3. More info can be found here:
http://www.sfu.ca/womens-studies/rwwp_conference/index.html

May 9th I will be performing spoken word at University of California @ San Diego as part of their Out and Proud Week. Eucalyptus Point, 4:00pm, with reception immediately following. More info can be found here:
http://lgbt.ucsd.edu/

and finally...May 15th I will be giving a talk entitled “Transsexual and Trans Feminine Perspectives on Sexism” at Northwestern University in Chicago. More details to come...

in other news...

Out Magazine recently invited me to interview Candis Cayne for their April 2008 transgender-themed issue. Look for the issue in your local bookstore or you can read the article here:
http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=23534

and finally, for you website aficionados, this past weekend I updated a couple of pages on juliaserano.com – it is now only partially (rather than mostly) out of date. Of particular interest to some, I finally compiled a number of podcasts & video clips with me on the “AV” page – feel free to check it out:
http://www.juliaserano.com/av.html

that’s it for now...
-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know about a few upcoming events I’ll be a part of:

1) Julia does Michigan! (no, not *that* Michigan)

Later this week I’ll be in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the following 2 events:

-- Thursday April 3rd I’ll be performing spoken word at the ShAut Cabaret. Also reading is UM Creative Writing M.F.A. candidate Randa Jarrar, author of the forthcoming novel A Map of Home. The event is at 8pm, 325 Braun Court across from the Aut Bar. $5 admission. A portion of the proceeds will to go Camp Trans.

--Friday April 4th I’ll be giving a talk entitled “Transsexual and Trans Feminine Perspectives on Sexism,” at University of Michigan. 3pm in 2239 Lane Hall, 204 S. State St. Light refreshments will be served. Sponsored by Women’s Studies, American Culture, The Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and the Lesbian-Gay Queer Research Initiative.

2) On tax day (aka, Tuesday, April 15th) I’ll be performing at UC Berkeley:

Acting the Part: Exploring Gender Identity in Performance: Queer Awareness Days

In addition to my spoken word set, there will be performances by local drag kings and queens followed by a Q&A panel.

6-8 p.m. at the Student Union, Naia Lounge

Sponsor: Gender Equity Resource Center

3) in the next few months it looks like I have performances/presentations coming up at CSU Sacramento, UC San Diego and Northwestern University. And in June I will be performing in three National Queer Arts Festival shows, so stay tuned for details...

-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com/

i posted this to my YahooGroup earlier today...

Hi everyone,

it’s been a few months since my last update. this one will be very short – just one upcoming event and a few odds and ends. but stay tuned for future updates, because i have a number of out of town/university gigs coming up in the spring, plus i’ll have some news about new writing projects that i am embarking on! but in the meantime, here’s what’s going on right now:

---------

here’s a reading i’ll be doing this week:

My Sucky Valentine
a benefit for the Women's Community Clinic and the St. James Infirmary
this Thursday February 14th (Valentine’s day, of course)
at Artwork SF, 49 Geary, (San Francisco) -- doors 7, show 8.
 
it’s an awesome line-up:

carol queen
sherilyn connelly
simon sheppard
thea hillman
julia serano
lori selke
charles gatewood
thomas roche

hope you can make it!

---------

here are a few odds and ends:

Whipping Girl recently received an honorable mention in Alternet's best progressive books of 2007! you can check it out here:
http://www.alternet.org/stories/75534/?page=3

also, two more Whipping Girl-related interviews have appeared on the web since my last update:

here’s me on the fabulous podcast SRS-online:
http://www.srs-o.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76&Itemid=1

and here is an interview Velvet Park did with me when I was in NYC last summer:
http://www.velvetparkmedia.com/?p=516

also for Whipping Girl fans, I’ve begun a series of frequently asked questions I’ve received about the book. here are the first two installments:

http://juliaserano.livejournal.com/5394.html
http://juliaserano.livejournal.com/6195.html

two new-ish pieces I’ve written now appear on the web:

the first is called “Performance Piece” – for those who were at Fresh Meat last year, it’s the piece I performed there. it now appears as part of the “Gay Utopia” project:
http://gayutopia.blogspot.com/2007/12/julia-serano-performance-piece.html

Also, last TG Remembrance day, I contributed another guest post to Feministing.com called “There’s Something About Deception”:
http://feministing.com/archives/008112.html

And finally, the Queer Cultural Center has recently made available a video snippet(s) of my performance at the 2005 TransForming Community show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qw2cb6Jcjg
for those interested in that piece (called “On the Outside Looking In”), a written version can be found here:
http://www.juliaserano.com/outside.html#outside
also, video clips of other people’s amazing TransForming Community performances can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dzbuoa

that’s it for now...more later!
-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com/
 

Hi everyone,

just wanted to let folks in the Wisconsin area know that I have a few upcoming appearances in your neck of the woods this weekend!

Friday, November 9, 2007 6:00 PM
Whipping Girl Book Reading
Location: A Room of One's Own Feminist Bookstore
307 W. Johnson St.
Madison, WI 53703
http://www.roomofonesown.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

Saturday, November 10, 2007
for those of you attending the Women's Leadership Conference 2007 at UW-Oshkosh, I will be speaking at 12:30
http://www.unitedcouncil.net/wlc/schedule.htm

Monday, November 12, 2007
I will be at UW Milwaukee giving a workshop 
This event is FREE and Open to the public
held in the UWM Union Wisconsin Room Lounge,
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
from 7pm-9pm

also, for those who are interested, there are a few more interviews/poscasts you can check out:

Seal Press Podcast
http://www.sealpress.com/podcasts.php

OurChart
http://www.ourchart.com/node/154585

GirlSpeak
http://youngchicagoauthors.org/girlspeak/interviews_trans_activism_with_julia_serano_by_alice_costas.htm

that's it for now...
-julia

...but now I'm back!

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while. since getting back from my vacation/tour in August, I've been swamped with personal issues that thwarted my attempts to blog regularly. First, my home computer's internet/airport connection began failing and it took a couple weeks to fix (I am still super-behind on my emails). I was also dealing with sadness (our oldest cat and one of our birds passed away in the last month) and fear (as it looked like I might have skin cancer on my face again, but luckily this time it was benign). But now everything seems to be going much better...

Anyway, here is my monthly update (sorry for being too lazy to set up all of the links properly) ...enjoy! -j.

julia update for october 2007!

1)    October readings
2)    new pieces I’ve written
3)    more Whipping Girl press and reviews

hi everyone,

so it’s been about 2 months since my last email update. I spent September mostly in “hermit-mode” dealing with a couple personal matters and recovering after a hectic summer. The northeast tour went great - I was going to do a big blog post about it, but then life got in the way... Anyway thanks again to everyone who helped set up and/or who came out to those readings - I had a blast and am looking forward to doing it again soon!

anyway, here’s what’s going on this month:

1) October readings

here are some upcoming events that I will be appearing in:

October 10, 2007 -- I will be appearing at TRANSforming Gender 2007: Conference on Transgender Activism at University of Colorado Boulder. At 11:30am I will present a workshop called Transsexual and Trans Feminine Perspectives on Sexism and at 5:15pm I will participate in a panel discussion; other presenters include Helen Boyd, Matt Kailey, Dylan Scholinski and a showing of the film "Call Me Malcolm". The 10am - 5pm presentations will be at Dennis Small Cultural Center, University Memorial Center Rm 457, and the 5:15 - 9 p.m presentations will be at UMC Second Floor Senior Dedication Lounge.
http://www.colorado.edu/glbtrc/transschedule.html

October 13, 2007 -- I will be reading at Seal Press’s annual LitQuake event. Other readers will include Rachel Kramer Bussel, Jenesha “Jinky” De Rivera, Daphne Gottlieb, Samara Halperin, Victoria Zackheim. Modern Times Bookstore (888 Valencia Street), 7pm.
http://www.litquake.org/the-festival/lit-crawl/

October 19, 2007 -- I will be reading at make/shift magazine’s issue 2 Release Reading/Celebration! Hosted by the editorial and publishing collective, with additional readings by Irina Contreras, Myriam Gurba, Nomy Lamm, Kaya Oakes, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. At Mama Buzz Cafe and Gallery (2318 Telegraph, Oakland, CA), 7:00 p.m.
http://www.makeshiftmag.com/

hope you can make it out!

2) new pieces I’ve written

So there are two – count'em, two! - anthologies coming out in the next month that include pieces I’ve written:

the first one (I believe) is out already:
Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution
edited by Alix Olson
foreword by Eve Ensler
published by Seal Press, 2007
it includes two of my spoken word pieces (“Sleeping Sickness” and “Vice Versa”) and a new essay called “Exceeding Expectations”
http://sealpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781580052214

The second one (I believe) comes out at the end on this month:
Desire: Women Write About Wanting
edited by Lisa Solod Warren
published by Seal Press, 2007
it includes a new personal essay of mine called “At Odds” in which I describe the way I experienced my desire to be female when I was younger.
http://www.lisasolodwarren.com/desire.html

also, back in August, I had the opportunity to post an article that I wrote about ongoing J. Michael Bailey controversy on the feminist blog Feministing.com. you can read it here:
http://www.feministing.com/archives/007609.html
also, if you’re interested in this topic, you can read two articles about this issue that either quote or mention me:
-Bay Area Reporter:
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2274
-Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid48612.asp

FYI, I am currently writing a long piece about this controversy that I hope to put up on my website by the end of the month, so stay tuned...

3) more Whipping Girl press

so most recently I was interviewed by Helen Boyd on her My Husband Betty blog:
http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/?p=1682

some of these other articles/reviews came out back in August when I was on tour, but here they are anyway for those who are interested:

Washington City Paper, August 15, 2007
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=2321

Toronto Xtra, August 16, 2007
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=3469&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=1

Capital Xtra, Thursday, August 16, 2007
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=2&STORY_ID=3486&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2

Now Toronto, August 23, 2007
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-08-23/books_reviews2.php

Curve magazine, Volume 17 #8, August, 2007
http://www.curvemag.com/Detailed/830.html

There are also a couple radio interviews of me from the summer on the web that you can stream/download:

Strictly Confidential, July 19, 2007
http://server2.whiterosesociety.org/content/SC/StrictlyConfidential-(19-7-2007).mp3

Out in the Bay, June 28, 2007
http://www.outinthebay.com/archives.htm
(scroll down that page to find it)

Radio Free Transburgh
http://www.transburgh.com/emilia/media/1/transburghjuliaserano.mp3

Also, Seal Press (who published Whipping Girl) has a new podcast series – my interview should be added there soon...
http://www.sealpress.com/podcasts.php

ok, that’s it for now...
-julia
http://www.juliaserano.com