Claire Finch is a touring member of the Paris-based queer, dyke, non-binary and trans author’s collective RERQ.ĭouglas A. Most recently, she wrote the introduction and editorial notes for Kathy Acker 1971-1975 (Editions Ismael, 2019), the first substantial English publication of Kathy Acker’s early typescripts, which she presented at the ICA London. She works on her PhD research in Gender Studies at the University of Paris 8, her performative readings (festival Extra! Centre Pompidou, Le Magasin CNAC Grenoble, Mimosa House London…), and her literary piracy workshops (Ecole Supérieur d’art et design Valence, Khiasma Lilas, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts Bordeaux…). Her hybrid practice focuses on queer poetic protocols and their possible links with feminist activism. The gallery will also screen the rarely seen film short Blue Tape Untitled Tape 2 by Kathy Acker and Alan Sondheim.Ĭlaire Finch is a writer and researcher based in Paris. This dialogue between international and local respondents, curated by Noa/h Fields, highlights Acker’s line of influence on Chicago’s queer undergrounds. Martin from New York (Acker, Nightboat Books), alongside six emerging Chicago artists. Re: Acker features visiting Acker experts and New Narrative writers Claire Finch from Paris (Kathy Acker (1971-1975), Editions Ismael) and Douglas A. In recent years, Kathy Acker has attracted renewed critical attention and new audiences, drawn to and sustained by her continued political resonance. Acker subversively cut through respectability politics to narrate the interlocking violences of abuse, capitalism, colonialism, misogyny, and biopolitics.

Through cult classics like Blood & Guts in High School, Great Expections, and My Mother: Demonology, and Empire of the Senseless, Acker’s name has become shorthand for punk, postmodern feminist killjoy. LeBlanc presents Re: Acker, a reading and screening centering the legacy of experimental writer and artist Kathy Acker (1947-1997).

Acker by Douglas A. Martin