VIRTUAL- Film Discussion: "Queer As Punk - A Conversation"

“Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution” filmmaker Yony Leyser in conversation with punk historian David Ensminger on punk queer and trans worlds.
Join us for a conversation with filmmaker Yony Leyser and Houston punk historian David Ensminger as they discuss LGBTIQ+ punk worlds past and present. Their conversation will include a look at the Queercore movement of the 1980s and 1990s featured in Leyser’s 2017 documentary Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution.

This event takes place September 27, 2020 at 1PM CST via Zoom. Please register beforehand to join the Zoom session.

Stream Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution for free from September 25-27. Click here to receive the streaming link and more information. We invite you to also join us on September 24 for the release of David Ensminger’s video production Queer Punk Breakout on queer punk scenes in Texas and beyond.

About the participants:

Yony Leyser was born in Chicago in 1984 as the descendant of a German-Iranian-Jewish family. He studied at CalArts and The New School in New York. He has lived as an author and director in Berlin since 2010. He made a name for himself with his award-winning feature films, which focus on queer stories beyond social norms: William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (2010), Desire Will Set You Free (2015) and Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution (2017). His book Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution: An Oral History (2020) is forthcoming from PM Press.

David Ensminger is a Humanities, Folklore, and English Instructor at Lee College in Baytown, TX. As a writer covering music, art, and contemporary issues, he has authored Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generations, coauthored  Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin’ Hopkins, and contributed to Popmatters (where he publishes a monthly column), Maximum Rock’n’Roll, Houston Press,  Art in Print,  M/C Journal,  The Journal of Popular Music Studies,  Artcore,  Postmodern Culture,  Trust, and others. He is also a longtime drummer, including a stint in the Texas Biscuit Bombs with Biscuit of the Big Boys, and a digital archivist of punk and vernacular culture.

This event is part of  Queer as German Folk, a project celebrating the multilayered histories of Germany’s and America’s diverse LGBTIQ+ communities. A digitally modified version of the exhibition Queer as German Folk and a full program of virtual events is presented by the  Goethe-Institut  in North America in collaboration with its Goethe  Pop Ups  and the Schwules Museum Berlin (SMU).

© David Ensminger / Gorki