BENT MENTOR SHOWCASE 2008 :: FEATURING KATE BORNSTEIN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :: October 17, 2008
Bent Writing Institute & Kate Bornstein
Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Ave. E, Seattle, WA
Friday November 14 & Saturday November 15
Doors 7:00pm / Curtain 7:30pm
Kate Bornstein Mentor Writing Workshop
Lifelong AIDS Alliance, 1002 E Seneca, Seattle, WA
Saturday, November 15
1pm-3:30pm
Tickets: brownpapertickets.com
Bent is one of the best parts of autumn in Seattle. Kate Bornstein, author, playwright and performance artist extraordinaire joins a fabulous line up of Bent writers for the annual Showcase. Bent Writing Institute is America’s only writing institution for queers.
Tara Hardy has once again assembled the comic, the tragic, the downright magical and life-changing Bent writers who join Bornstein on the Museum of History and Science stage November 14 and 15th.
Bornstein is well worth the price of admission with her witticism and insights told from the perspective of a grand performance artist. Bornstein, author of “Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws” is also a well-received American playwright. Her play with co-author Caitlin Sullivan entitled “The Opposite Sex is Neither” has toured nation wide. She has just launched a new solo performance piece titled “Kate Bornstein Is A Queer and Pleasant Danger,” that plays in over 120 colleges and universities around the globe.
Bornstein, born in Fargo, North Dakota, lives and writes in New York City. Her creative work is inspirational with critical insights peppered about life, queerness and teen suicide.
The annual Showcase production is a wonderful opportunity to experience great writing before it hits national tours. Each of the Bent writers brings a unique voice, history and insight to the stage. For the uninitiated, this is the 7th annual showcase and the little gem of a performance that grew from Tara Hardy’s living room to main stage spotlights is always a winner.
“More and more people who come on the first night, come back on the second,” Hardy explains. Tara Hardy, former Seattle poet populist and finalist on Seattle’s Slam Team delivers her own brand of gutsy vocal passion from the mic.
KATE BORNSTEIN:: Kate Bornstein is an author, playwright and performance artist. Her latest book, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws, hits the bookshelves in July, 2006. Kate's published works include the books Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us; My Gender Workbook; and the cyber-romance-action novel, Nearly Roadkill with co-author Caitlin Sullivan. Kate's plays and performance pieces include Strangers in Paradox, Hidden: A Gender, The Opposite Sex Is Neither, Virtually Yours, and y2kate: gender virus 2000.
Kate's books are taught in over 120 colleges and universities around the world; and ze has performed hir work live on college campuses and in theaters and performance spaces across the USA, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria. She is currently touring colleges, youth conferences and high schools, speaking and leading workshops on the subjects of sex, gender, and alternatives to teen suicide.
Kate has two new projects ready to launch in the spring of 2007: a memoir and new solo performance piece, both with the same title: Kate Bornstein Is A Queer And Pleasant Danger.
Kate was born outside of Fargo, North Dakota in a log cabin ze helped hir parents build. Hir father was a Lutheran minister, and hir mother was Miss Betty Crocker, 1939. Kate has lived in the queer ghettos of Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. Ze currently lives with hir partner--sex pioneer, writer and performance artist Barbara Carrellas--in New York City, along with their two pugs, two cats, two turtles, and a thriving well-populated ant farm.
More information on Kate at www.katebornstein.com
BENT: Bent, a non-profit organization, is the only queer writing institute in the nation. The mission of Bent is to promote and encourage written and spoken word among LGBTIQTS people and in our communities. The concept and work of Bent began August 2000, in the living room of Tara Hardy, Seattle-based writer, performer, and Slam Champ. Since, Bent has grown to a full institute, having served over 200 students, offering a variety of weekly classes and local and regional performances.
MENTOR SHOWCASES: These annual spoken word showcases are a chance to see Bent students, whose works are generating much attention both locally and nationally, perform alongside a writer whose work they look up to and have chosen to honor. Moreover, they are a chance to bring underrepresented voices to our greater communities. The showcases are Bent’s largest annual fundraiser. There have been six other sold-out showcases and workshops since June 2003, with standing-room-only crowds and growing student rolls. The last showcase was housed at Piggot Hall at Seattle University, met with two packed nights and critical acclaim. In these prior showcases, Bent has honored queer writers and mentors: D. Blair, Dorothy Allison, Buddy Wakefield, Juba Kalamka, Justin Chin, Michelle Tea, Ivan Coyote, and Sini Anderson.