Kyle Lukoff and Luciano Lozano, Call Me Max (New York, NY: Reycraft Books, 2019). Cotsen Childrens Library.
It is a coincidence that our upcoming webinar at 2:00 EST on Friday, February 26, 2021, comes just as the Murray School District in Utah has suspended their diversity book program due to the inclusion of an LGBTQ+ friendly title [above]. We hope you can join us for a timely conversation entitled Acrobatics: Moving Through the Trans Archives, meant to be a scholarly look at resources here in the Princeton University Library and elsewhere. Register here: https://libcal.princeton.edu/calendar/events/transarchives
We are thrilled to be joined by RL Goldberg (they/them), English Department and Associate Director, Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows, in dialogue with queer book dealer, collector, and historian Gerard Koskovich (he/him); along with Sara Howard (she/her), Librarian for Gender and Sexuality Studies and Student Engagement, and Julie Mellby (she/her), Graphic Arts Curator.
Our title refers to the celebrated career of the 19th-century gender-fluid acrobat Mademoiselle Lulu (Sam Wasgott), with whom we begin our discussion. From there we will move through 20th and 21st century materials that define the trans archive, with an emphasis on race as well as gender.
From anonymous photo albums to publications both global in scope and origin, we will discuss our collections and the history of writers and publishers within the field of Trans Studies. What are the larger stories behind these materials that share with us lives as they were lived in the past and might be lived in the future?
As always, these monthly webinars are free and open to the public using Zoom but registration is required, here again is the link: https://libcal.princeton.edu/calendar/events/transarchives
Read more about what is happening in Utah:
Photographs top to bottom:
Unidentified photographer, Photograph of Lulu (El Nino Farini) as a child in costume, late 19th century. Guy Little Theatrical Photograph collection, V&A Museum.
E[dward] Gregson, Photograph of Lulu (El Nino Farini) as a man, late 19th century. Guy Little Theatrical Photograph collection, V&A Museum.
Claude Cahun (1894-1954), “I am in training, don’t kiss me,” Self-Portrait, ca. 1926.
You might be interested in listening to several Princeton oral histories here, such as Nancy Lamar’s recording: https://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/AC465?v1=transgender&f1=kw&rpp=10&start=0
or a Princeton Alumni Weekly article: https://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW05-06/12-0419/features_nadeau.html