Exploding Appendix Podcast 14: Mattilda Berstein Sycamore on Sketchtasy, Queer Radicalism and the Limits of Inclusion

In this Exploding Appendix Podcast, Bradley Tuck is joined by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, who is a profound and fascinating artist, writer and activist. She is the editor of many of our favourite anthologies such as Tricks and Treats: Sex Worker Talk About Their Clients, Dangerous Families: Queer Writings on Surviving, That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification and the Desire to Conform. She is the author of novels such as So Many Ways To Sleep Badly and Pulling Taffy, and her memoir The End of San Fransisco. Her most recent novel, Sketchtasy is out with Arsenal Pump Press. In this podcast we discuss the importance of exploring challenging ideas in the process of creating an oppositional culture, her new novel Sketchtasy, her involvement in ACT UP, the importance of a queer politics that fights for universal access to need and services, and the limitations of LGBT activism that focuses on consumer empowerment, gay marriage, gays in the military, more diverse CEOs and tougher hate crime laws. In this podcast you will hear David Wojnarowicz reading Memories That Smell Like Gasoline and a clip from Jim Hubbard’s United In Anger: A History of ACT UP.