Out Here Reading List
Out Here is a bold new musical from Leslie Buxbaum, David J. Levin, and Erin McKeown that celebrates queerness, what it takes to build a family, and the unexpected freedom in relinquishing control.
We are proud to present a suite of public programs that explore the themes of this work and place it in conversation with local queer movements, history, and—perhaps most importantly—joy. We are sharing two Community Reads events in partnership with the Blackstone Branch and the Rainbow Committee of the Chicago Public Library, along with Female Gays: Liberation Through Lesbian Misadventure, a film series curated by Jane Keranen at the University of Chicago’s Film Studies Center.
To complement these events, our partners have compiled a list of literary selections that respond to themes of Out Here, provide crucial context, and offer modern insights. Happy reading!
Blackstone Branch and Rainbow Committee Reading List
- Family Meal; Bryan Washington
- Fun Home; Alison Bechdel
- A Family Matter; Claire Lynch
- Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line; Elizabeth Lovett
- The Irish Goodbye; Heather Aimee O’Neil
- Palm Meridian; Grace Flahive
- The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali; Sabina Khan
- Ordinary Love; Marie Rutoski
- Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives; John D’Emilio
- Outwrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture; Eds. Julie R. Enszer and Elena Gross
- Less; Andrew Sean Greer
- Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories; Torrey Peters
- Punch Me Up to the Gods; Brian Broome
Jane Keranen’s Reading List
- Lesbian Narratives and Queer Characters in Monika Treut’s Virgin Machine; Chris Straayer
- Now You See It: Studies in Lesbian and Gay Film; Richard Dyer
- Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory; Judith Butler
- Triangulated Visions: Women in Recent German Cinema; Eds. Ingeborg Majer O’Sickey, Ingeborg Von Zadow
- Women and the New German Cinema; Julia Knight
- Queer Cinema: The Film Reader; Eds. Harry Benshoff, Sean Griffin
- Particular emphasis on the articles ‘Transgressive Cinema’ by Andrea Weiss and ‘New Queer Cinema’ by B. Ruby Rich
- Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities; Teresa de Lauretis
- Chelsea Girls; Eileen Myles
- Rubyfruit Jungle; Rita Mae Brown
- Olivia; Dorothy Strachey
- Stone Butch Blues: A Novel; Leslie Feinberg
- The Well of Loneliness; Radclyffe Hall