Interview with Holly Hughes : what is performance studies?.

Interview with Holly Hughes, conducted by Diana Taylor, founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. This interview is a part of a series curated by the Hemispheric Institute, articulated around the question 'What is Performance Studies?' The series aims to provide a multifaceted approach to the often difficult task of defining the coordinates of both a field of academic study as well as a lens through which to assess and document cultural practice and embodied behavior. The contingent definitions documented in this series are based on the groundbreaking experiences and the scholarly endeavors of renowned figures in contemporary performance studies and practice. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics

Holly Hughes (1955) is an internationally acclaimed performance artist with a flair for telling outrageous stories of everyday lesbian life, touching off controversy and challenging complacency at every turn. Her combination of poetic imagery and political satire has earned her wide attention and placed her work at the center of America's culture wars. Hughes is Associate Professor of the School of Art & Design and the Department of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan and an activist for lesbian issues. She is the recipient of two Village Voice Obie awards, a Lambda Book Award, a GLAAD media award, and a Distinguished Alumni Award. Hughes has performed at venues across North America, Great Britain and Australia. She has published two books: Clit Notes: A Sapphic Sampler; and O Solo Homo: The New Queer Performance, co-edited with Dr. David Roman. In addition, her work has been widely anthologized and has served as foundational material for performance studies, queer studies and feminist performance studies. Hughes is currently co-editing, with Alina Troyano, 'Memories of the Revolution,' an anthology of scripts, interviews and photographs from the first ten years of the New York City's Wow Café. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics