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53 J u s t o u t • november 7.2003
PEOPLE
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The rest of us
Genderqueer activist Kate Bornstein
will set Portland’s identity in motion
by
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T he A rt
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YEAR S O N
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Kate Bornstein joins San Francisco poet Katastrophe and members of the Sexual Minority
Youth Resource Center in two dynamic and personal performances Nov. 21 and 22
A r te L a t in a
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W o o d b l o c k P r in t b y S e v e r in o B o r g e s , B r a z il
Thank you, Marly, for carrying on lay s vision
so magnificently, anil for being so gracious
to our family over the years!
With ilttp appreciation,
Kaite ami Susie
A Class Act 2004
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Editor's note: Rejecting the vernacular personal
pronouns o f “he” and “she ” because o f their inherent
gender and sex specificity, Kate Bornstein prefers the
alternative gender-neutral pronoun “ze." The
possessive pronoun ”htr” replaces “his" or “her."
or lack of a single term that reflects the
complexity of hir identities, Kate Bornstein
describes hirself as a “high femme, sado-
masochistic, anorectic, transsexual dyke."
Bomsteins professional credentials list hir as
an internationally renowned performance artist,
author and gender/sex activist. But for the trans
and genderqueer communities, ze has attained
an almost iconic status.
As one of the few openly trans public faces
of the queer movement, Bornstein has done a
great deal to move discussions of gender and
sex nonconformity into the queer conscious
ness. Hir first, and perhaps most well-known,
Hxik, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the
Rest o f Us, offers a critical hut humorous per
sonal look at our cultural understandings of
gender and sex— and what happens to those
who exist outside rigid definitions.
My Geruier W orkbook is an interactive
project that encourages the reader to ask ques
tions about the constructs ot gender identify.
Most recently, in a departure from the overt
sex and gender toe us. Nearly Roadkill (co-
authored hy Caitlin Sullivan) is a cvber
thriller novel.
Bomstein’s htxiks are taught at more than
ICO U.S. colleges and universities. Ze lives in
New York City with hir partner and their pets.
And as a trans man who recognizes the value
ot hir contribution to the rising consciousness
of trans identity, 1 was pretty thrilled to talk
with hir.
Bornstein is, over the phone, just what ze
is in hir text: charming, funny and accessi
ble, spiking the conversation with moments
of theoretical poignancy and personal hon
esty that convey hir unique brand of infec
tious energy.
F
lo m stein will visit Portland this month
I for the first tune in more than six years
as a featured performer in 2 Gyrlz
Performative Arts’ Enteractive Language
Festival. Zes very excited about participating
in the monthlong event, noting: “I love the
girls from 2 Gyrlz. W e have a sort of mutual
admiration society.”
The festival consists of performances and
interactive theater all tied together through
the theme of “language.” Bomstein’s Nov. 21
and 22 performances, titled Language o f Para
dox, will he a collaborative effort with San
Francisco-based hip-hop/slam poet Katastrophe
and a group of kids from Portland’s Sexual
Minority Youth Resource Center.
The actual content of the piece will he
determined hy a weeklong workshop with
SM YRC youth. “We will talk about the para
dox that is our lives and why we continue liv
ing paradoxical lives. For example, I am nei
ther a man nor a woman. Thar is one paradox
that 1 live within.”
Roughly half rhe evening will he Bornstein
and Katastrophe and rhe other half pieces hy
SM YRC performers. “1 intend to leam a lot hv
working with the youth," Bomsrein savs. “They
•ire the real outlaws.”
I heard Bornstein read from M\ Gender Work
book about five years ago in New York, hut 1 have
never seen hir in pertonnance. Everv artist has a
specific and dynamic medium, and Bornstein is
quite sure that if you only knew hir through the
writing, there is lots more to experience.
“I started writing when there was no fund
ing tor the performing arts, hut my primary art
form is performance,” :e explains, emphasizing
that the difference between reading hir work
and watching it is substantial. “In performance
you get the tire, the passion. There is a
cadence to performance that is me, me, me.
You get it unfiltered.”
Ze also admits performance allows her to flirt
(with hundreds of people all at once). “The bril
liance of performance is the interactivity, the
unpredictability, the facial expressions...there is
a more total communication. In writing we only
have underline, bold or italics, hut we have
many more options when speaking."
Her books, though, can seem as personal as
all that, too. “I try to write my hooks in the
most interactive way possible. That is why Gen-