Full Description
Hundreds of years of ridicule, persecution, erasure, misunderstanding, and institutionalization could put anyone in a bad mood. Killjoy invites you into her kastle for a queer exorcism and celebration of the past.
Lesbian feminist histories can have a haunting effect on the present. This book explores the making and experience of Killjoy's Kastle, an immersive walk-through installation and performance artwork (by Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue) that materializes the frightfully acrimonious past for today. Inspired by Evangelical Christian hell houses, the exhibition has been staged in four cities so far - Toronto, London, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia - inviting visitors to interact with humorous and frightening manifestations of the spirits that haunt feminist and queer history.
Whereas traditional hell houses set out to scare and convert, Killjoy's Kastle cheekily aims to provoke and pervert, giving expression to old and new anxieties and creating a space for critique, affect, and discussion. Inside Killjoy's Kastle fills this space by exploring the kastle's theoretical and political legacies in chapters by queer and feminist scholars and in vignettes by artists who participated in the project. The many colourful photos in the book also bring Killjoy's Kastle to life, offering an important visual context. By taking the kastle as a starting point, the contributors consider the role of lesbian feminist histories and direct-action aesthetics in contemporary communities, particularly the ways in which political artwork can produce new ways of knowing about the past.
Contents
Lesbian Rule: Welcome to the Hell House / Cait McKinney and Allyson Mitchell
RISING FROM THE DEAD: INCEPTION
1 Scaling Up and Sharing Out Dyke Culture: Killjoy's Kastle's Haunted Block Party / Heather Love
Lesbianizing the Institution: The Haunting Effects of Killjoy Hospitality at the Art Gallery of York University / Emelie Chhangur
2 Feminist Killjoys (and Other Wilful Subjects) / Sara Ahmed
Killjoy in the ONE Archives: Activating Los Angeles's Queer Art and Activist Histories / David Evans Frantz
THE KASTLE: EXECUTION
3 Inside Job: Learning, Collaboration, and Queer-Feminist Contagion in Killjoy's Kastle / Helena Reckitt
Valerie Solanas as the Goddamned Welcoming Committee / Felice Shays
Valerie Solanas Script
4 Playing Demented Women's Studies Professor Tour Guide, or Performing Monstrosity in Killjoy's Kastle / Moynan King
Demented Women's Studies Professor Tour Guide Script
The Sound of White Girls Crying / Nazmia Jamal
Paranormal Killjoys / Ginger Brooks Takahashi
Menstruating Trans Man / Chase Joynt
A Ring around Your Finger Is a Cord around Your Genitals! / Chelsey Lichtman
Once upon a Time I Was a Riot Ghoul / Kalale Dalton-Lutale
Riot Ghoul / Andie Shabbar
Inconvenienced / Madelyne Beckles
On the Cusp of the Kastle / Karen Tongson
5 Processing Killjoy's Kastle: A Deep Lez Performance / Ann Cvetkovich
THE CRYPT: ARCHIVING AND REFLECTION
Facebook Statements: "We Learn More Every Time We Do This"
6 Reflections of a Real-Life Feminist Killjoy: Ball-Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer-Feminist Life / Kyla Wazana Tompkins
R.I.P. Little Frida's / Chris E. Vargas
7 Home Sick: Horror, Gothic Storytelling, and the Queers Who Haunt Houses / S. Trimble
8 The Graveyards of Community Gathering: Archiving Lesbian and Feminist Life in London / Catherine Grant
Leave Britney Alone! and Other Ghostly Feelings / Tobias B.D. Wiggins
Index
