2011 RADAR Lab artists- It’s Tania Katan!

Tania Katan won me over forever when, after crushing her competition in round 1 of San Francisco’s Literary Death Match, she extended her hand to her squashed opponent and -just as he humbly reached toward her- she drew drew back in the Welcome Back, Kotter tough guy hair swipe. Humiliation for the guy! I was smitten! She’s an excellent writer, a stellar comedian, and a terrific performer. We’re excited to have her join us on the playa!
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RADAR Productions: Tania, what are you working on at the Lab?

Tania Katan: A book about a 16 year-old misfit whose ambition to become a famous stand-up comedian almost drives her passed the real comedy and tragedy in her life.

R: What are you reading these days?

TK: Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I HEART this book so much!

R: What’s interesting about a queer artists retreat?

TK: I didn’t know it was a queer retreat. Well, in that case…the queer part.

R: What’s harder: writing a book or the first time you did stand up?

TK: The initial process of writing involves vomiting up as many memories/ideas/themes as I can, then picking through the vomit to find chunks of clarity, stories, and threads that start to connect the pieces, make them part of a larger whole. Standing up in front of an audience involves vomiting before going on stage. So, I guess I’m really proficient in throwing up.

R: What’s amazing about Phoenix?

TK: The best thing about Arizona is that it invests no money in education. Na-da. That’s Spanish for Arrest me. This means that we get government officials who are uneducated, which means that we, the residents of Arizona, feel way smarter then we ever done!

R: Why are ex-Mormon girls hotter?

TK: I’m not a planner, so I love being with women who are serious about the future. Whether it’s a One-Year Supply of food, or prepping for the Celestial Kingdom, I like my ladies hungry and thinking ahead. Oh, and you should see what my Mormon lady can do with a bonnet; there is nothing sexier! Check it out:http://www.lisasettegallery.com/a-ellsworth.htm

2011 RADAR Lab Artists- Whoa, it’s Andrea Lawlor!

I had the pleasure of meeting Andrea Lawlor in April 2011 during the Sister Spit national tour’s U Mass Amherst stop. Andrea read a poem she’d recently written in response to Ali Liebegott’s call-for-submissions for her upcoming “Faggot Dinosaur” journal. Andrea surprised us with the paleontological-correct poem and blew us away with the reading!

She is the creator of Pocket Myths, a series of zines based on mythology. This is a massive undertaking and the edition entitled “The Odyssey” is comprised of both an impressive art and print zine with an accompanying DVD featuring shorts by 24 filmmakers tackling Homer’s epic. WHOA, Mary.

I can’t wait to talk Modern Jackass astrology with her!
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What are you working on at the Lab?

I plan to work on my novel, which is about a young queer shapeshifter in the early 90s. My dream is to see the end of this novel, to write my way there. I’m also working on a series of poems (see here <http://mipoesias.com/2011/04/05/andrea-lawlor> and here <http://www.scribd.com/doc/53201841/OCHO-31>), a sort of busman’s holiday from the novel. I’m pretty excited about poetry right now, after taking workshops this year with Dara Weir and James Tate.

What are you reading these days?

I’m re-reading Siddhartha right now, out loud, which is such a good way to read it. I read it first when I was 30 and it had its trademark profound effect on me even then. But now! I am appreciating how carefully Hesse uses language, how he tells the story of a spiritual quest in a way that’s both gripping and true to its subject. I’m very interested in quests, and also in fiction that isn’t depressing or coming from a cynical worldview. Plus, Siddhartha and Govinda? Total boyfriends.

I’m also re-reading Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, which both address the question of how to be an artist in this world. I love this thing Thoreau says: ”It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man’s shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too.” So great, right? And Virginia Woolf, for all her blind spots, breaks down the economic conditions of possibility for art-making under capitalism.

Other books I’ve recently loved: Eileen Myles’ Inferno, Heather Christle’s The Trees The Trees, Malinda Lo’s Huntress and Ash, China Mieville’s Embassytown, Ali Liebegott’s The IHOP Papers, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I got Just Kids for the plane. I could go on forever here, maybe a leftover from working at Dog Eared Books.

What’s interesting about a queer artists retreat?

I love being around queer people! It’s so relaxing. And of course I’m excited to talk about writing with queer writers. For instance, how are other people addressing issues of representation, gender, language? In a group of queer artists, there are higher odds of finding people who are facing similar challenges, who share culture and values.

How’s Western Mass’s writing community?

So great! Everyone should come here. I’ve heard people say Western Mass is a poet’s paradise–because of the UMass MFA Program, Flying Object <http://www.flying-object.org>, the Smith Poetry Center, etc., etc.–but I have to say it’s a writer’s paradise. It’s beautiful, fairly easy to live cheaply, and there are tons of writers of all sorts. And also queers! Northampton used to be called Lesbian-ville, USA, and you really can’t walk down the street without seeing a bazillion lesbians. But I think they might need to start calling it Translad-ville, USA now. What else? There are tons of local writers who aren’t part of the Five Colleges, like the novelist Susan Stinson, who organizes lots of literary events. There’s even an Experimental Queer Writing Workshop for undergrads at UMass. I’ve been lucky enough to co-teach that for two years, and those young writers are so ridiculously talented. Watch out, world!

What astrologically do you bring to a group?

I generally bring the fire (Aries Sun, Aries Rising, Leo Moon) but I’ve got Mars in Capricorn and Mercury in Taurus, so hopefully that will calm the fears of people who are scared of Rams. I also bring over 20 years of low-level exposure to astrology (part of my queer cultural heritage), so I’m always ready to chat about people’s charts with a knowing air and little actual information.

What art are you really into right now?

My favorite painter is Xylor Jane <http://www.canadanewyork.com/Artists/xylor-jane>. I love looking at her paintings and also I find talking to her about her creative process fascinating and inspiring.

Radar LAB Beach Reads!

Maybe you wonder what the brainacs who come to the Radar LAB read while lolling on the beach between writing hours and board meetings? Here is but a smattering! Check it:

One of my most favorite books! I have been moaning and groaning for YEARS that in a fair and just world, Wanda Coleman would have Charles Bukowski’s career and Jennifer Egan would have, like, Jonathan Franzen’s. So I am really, really happy that she just won a big award for Welcome to the Goon Squad, which is a great book, as his her novel The Keep, but my all-time fave is this wildly meta book about a disfigured model, a scholar on the brink, and waaaaaay more.

What a great cover! This book just won a Lambda Literary Award, congratulations!

Know what a book about running sounds like to me? BORING. But two of RADAR’s board members were raving about it, and insisting that you don’t even have to be a runner to get totally wrapped up in this story of a Native Mexican people who have a tradition of extreme barefoot running whilst fortified by energy shakes made of chia seeds. Chia seeds are the new flax seeds, so this book feels timely in that way at the very least.

You guys, I have to cry all the time in totally inappropriate situations! I should totally read this book. Word is she’s super into the Goddess, too.

This is what I’m reading! Kamikaze Girls is one of my favorite movies, and the book is really entertaining, I love the snarky teenaged voice of Momoko, a gothic lolita with an intense Rococo life philosophy who is trapped in the sticks hours from Tokyo, and the frenemyship she strikes up with Ichiko, a scooter-riding sukeban gangster who comes to buy the trashy counterfeit Versace Momoko’s wanna-be yakuza father was making.

This is not the edition I’ve seen lying under the palapa, but hello – High Risk! I pulled it off Dennis Cooper’s awesome blogsite, DC’s, where there is a whole essay about the author, Herve Guibert.

Elsa Gidlow was a dapper lez with hot style from back in the day. And oh yeah she was a poet. And a writer. Her memoir has been lying around the Lab, much to the delight of many. Ali Liebegott wrote an amazing epic manifest- tribute to Elsa Gidlow for a RADAR event at last year’s National Queer Arts Festival. Know her!

Okay I am NOT DONE, there are still more Beach Reads to share, and a whole new crew of writers coming sometime next week! Stay tuned as we help you build your reading list!