Author, playwright and performance artist Kate Bornstein addresses the factors that makes one an outsider — race, religion, weight, sexual preference — and offers way to avoid suffering as one in the presentation “Hello Cruel World: Survival Tips for Outsiders” Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 8:15 p.m. in the Lawrence University Wriston Art Center auditorium. The program is free and open to the public.
A transsexual who was born male and underwent gender reassignment surgery, Bornstein is the author of the book “Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws,” an unconventional approach to teenage suicide prevention for marginalized youth.
In her other books — “Gender Outlaw,” “Nearly Roadkill” and “My Gender Workbook” — Bornstein deconstructs all ideas about gender and challenges the “inherent oppression of a binary gender system.”
Bornstein’s appearance is sponsored by the Gender Studies department and the Lawrence University Campus Suicide Prevention Project, which is supported by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant.
