Yevgeniy Fiks, “Poetry of the Queer International”, lecture performance

For the closing event of Lavender Languages Institute program at the lecture-performance artist Yevgeniy Fiks will discuss two of his recent books “Mother Tongue” and “Dictionary of the Queer International”. “Mother Tongue” is a project “about” and “in” the Soviet-era Russian gay argot/defense language. “Tematicheskiy” language (the language for those “in the know”) is treated as a complete, self-sufficient, and distinct language, separate from the standard Russian. The book “Dictionary of the Queer International” proposes a vision of international, intersectional, and non-hierarchical queer culture via imaginary queer defense fusion-language. The dictionary is a collection of words and phrases from local queer languages around the world. The event will also include reading of conceptual poetry that Fiks wrote in the Soviet-era Russian gay argot and in the Language of the Queer International.

With participation of Giorgi Rodionov for the poetry reading of Queer International at Pickle Bar.