Book Launch and Readings ONE ARCHIVES AT THE USC LIBRARIES

Saturday, February 22 | 6:00–9:00 p.m.
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
909 West Adams Boulevard | Los Angeles, CA 90007

Book launch with editors ALLYSON MITCHELL and CAIT McKINNEY

Readings by artists DEIRDRE LOGUE and NAO BUSTAMANTE,
scholars KYLA TOMPKINS, KAREN TONGSON, and JENNIFER DOYLE,
and curator DAVID FRANZ

Pop-up feminist gift shop by OTHERWILD

Inside Killjoy’s Kastle features articles by artists and scholars exploring the eponymous immersive exhibition inspired by evangelical Christian “hell houses.” Designed by ALLYSON MITCHELL and DEIRDRE LOGUE, the traveling installation invites 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 (pictured below) cheekily aims to provoke and pervert. Costumed characters appear throughout the kastle—including polyamorous vampiric grannies, a demented women's studies professor, and lesbian zombie folksingers. Using the kastle as a point of departure, the contributors to this volume consider the role of lesbian feminist histories and direct-action aesthetics in contemporary queer and feminist communities, particularly the ways in which political artwork can produce new ways of knowing about the past.
At this event, artists and contributors to the volume will read and/or perform selections from the book, which will be on sale at a pop-up gift shop operated by the feminist art collective OTHERWILD. For more information, visit one.usc.edu.