Cornell University

Olin Library, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/booktalks
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Join us for a Chats in the Stacks book talk with Sara Warner, author of Acts of Gaiety (University of Michigan Press, June 2013) about the importance of pleasure, humor, and frivolity in shaping LGBT lives and activism.  Her new book explores the cultural idea of “acts of gaiety,” which she defines as “playful methods of social activism and mirthful modes of political performance that inspire and sustain deadly struggles for revolutionary change.” These acts include pageants, parades, spectacles, kiss-ins, camps, kitsch, drag, guerrilla theater, and zap actions.  Acts of Gaiety includes the lively, feminist histories of artists, activists and collectives such as the Lavender Menace, Valerie Solanas, the Five Lesbian Brothers, and Hothead Paisan, just to name a few.

Sara Warner is associate professor in the department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University and a Faculty Fellow at Harvard's Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History (2012-2013). She has published widely in journals and anthologies on feminist and queer studies, prison theater, affect theory, and academic labor. Acts of Gaiety received the 2013 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) in addition to being named a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

Light refreshments will be available throughout the event, and books will be available for purchase and signing.

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