Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction

The 21 artists, who share their stories of madness, trauma, addiction, abuse and self-destruction, and their relationship to art, leave no vulnerable detail unwritten.-Shameless



A visceral look at the bizarre entanglement of destructive and creative forces, Live Through This is a collection of original stories, essays, artwork, and photography. It explores the use of art to survive abuse, incest, madness and depression, and the often deep-seated impulse toward self-destruction including cutting, eating disorders, and addiction. Here, some of our most compelling cartoonists, novelists, poets, dancers, playwrights, and burlesque performers traverse the pains and passions that can both motivate and destroy women artists, and mark a path for survival. Taken together, these artful reflections offer an honest and hopeful journey through a woman's silent rage, through the power inherent in struggles with destruction, and the ensuing possibilities of transforming that burning force into the external release of art.



With contributions by Nan Goldin, bell hooks, Patricia Smith, Cristy C. Road, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Elizabeth Stephens, Carolyn Gage, Eileen Myles, Fly, Diane DiMassa, Bonfire Madigan Shive, Inga Muscio, Kate Bornstein, Toni Blackman, Nicole Blackman, Silas Howard, Daphne Gottleib, and Stephanie Howell.

SABRINA CHAPADJIEV is a playwright, spoken word artist, and singer-songwriter originally from the suburbs of Chicago. She is founder of the all-woman songwriter series Chicks that Kick, and editor of the zine Cliterature: 18 Interviews with Women Writers. Her plays, including perhaps merely quiet, have been produced in the United States and Europe.

Live Through This

Edited by Sabrina Chap

ISBN:978-1-60980-436-7



Foreword Amanda Palmer



Preface Sabrina Chap



Long, Long Thoughts Carol Queen





Lady Lazarus: Uncoupleting Suicide and Poetry

Daphne Gottlieb





Fighting Fire with Acid Rain: A Story on Coming Down

Cristy C. Road





A Little Hell Breaks Loose Patricia Smith





Total Disaster: Sketching Sanity Fly





Slash an' Burn Inga M. Muscio





SHE'S LOST CONTROL AGAIN (Or How Alice

Learned to Drive) Nicole Blackman





Double Trouble in the Love Art Lab: Our Breast Cancer

Experiments Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle





Friends as Heroes Silas Howard



Rappin' My Wounds Toni Blackman





The Artful Art of the Role of Art in the Ugly Art of Survival

Diane DiMassa





Weight Watcher Stephanie Howell





Rewriting the Script Carolyn Gage





Cello Speak: Exploring New Languages for Madness

Bonfire Madigan Shive





no more crying bell hooks





Self-Portraits Nan Goldin





Silent Body, Speaking Body Anonymous





Art as Prayer Kate Bornstein





Live Through That?! Eileen Myles



Creating Your Own World Swoon



2 pm Margaret Cho



Artist Resource List





Resources





Acknowledgments

Table Of Contents

About Sabrina Chapadjiev