How innocent and sweetly smiling she is in this picture. You would never think from it that little Miss Michelle Tea is a raucous raunchy writer with lengthy and lecherous literary history. And now she’s moved into the realm of (somehwat more) fiction. But if she is a bit of a scene queen, a little fireball that might make your head reel, her writing is intense and interesting, if not always finely crafted. But to see her read it is worth the trip. She certainly breathes life into the menagerie of characters she presents. And the comic like illustrations of Rent Girl also served her story well. I can’t wait to see what television will do with it.
All of this is why she is so worth seeing at an already fascinating Lewis & Clark College Gender Studies Symposium, March 8-10, called Body Language, Sexualities, Identities and Time. Michelle will be appearing Wednesday the 8th at 3:45 but several others have caught my eye as well. Glitter princess and gender outlaw Kate Bornstein will be following Tea at 7:30. There’s talks about East German lesbianism, transgendered sex work and The West Wing. You can even make your own tampons. How can a symposium be better?
