Description
Blacklips: Her Life and Her Many, Many Deaths is an essential and breathtaking archive of one of New York City’s most provocative, short-lived, and influential underground performance groups. For lovers of performance art, queer cultural history, drag, experimental theatre, and the raw creativity of the 1990s, this book is both a document and a resurrection.
Between 1992 and 1995 — at the height of the AIDS crisis, when queer communities were navigating grief, protest, survival, and explosive self-expression — the Blacklips Performance Cult emerged from the shadows of the Pyramid Club on Avenue A. Initiated by ANOHNI and shaped by a constellation of drag queens, punks, nightlife figures, artists, students, and misfits, Blacklips staged a brand new play every Monday at 1 a.m. Their performances blended hysterical drag, surreal horror, political unease, ritual, humour, violence, tenderness, and the fiercely handmade. They never sought mainstream approval; they sought experience, immediacy, and transformation.
In this extensive volume, ANOHNI and co-editor Marti Wilkerson open the doors to the collective’s archives. The book includes:
• Newly digitised footage and stills from the original performances
• Scripts, posters, and hand-assembled ephemera
• Reflections from performers, audience members, and collaborators
• More than 120 original Blacklips plays
• An introduction by art historian Lia Gangitano
Together, these materials restore the voice of a queer, punk, night-time theatre phenomenon that shaped the people who lived it and influenced the artists they inspired.
The book also situates Blacklips within the larger artistic careers of its two leading figures. ANOHNI, now an internationally celebrated musician and visual artist, has created a body of work steeped in vulnerability, defiance, and queer lineage. Marti Wilkerson, a photographer and performance artist, has documented and shaped underground art scenes for decades, appearing in films, plays, and musical projects that speak to the restless, boundary-breaking ethos from which Blacklips emerged.
Blacklips is ideal for:
• Collectors of queer and underground performance archives
• Students and scholars of performance art, drag, and experimental theatre
• Readers interested in NYC’s subcultural history
• Fans of ANOHNI’s artistic legacy
• Anyone drawn to raw, defiant, collaborative creative work
This is a vital preservation of a cult theatre movement that burned brightly, lived fiercely, and died many beautiful, chaotic, unforgettable deaths.
