A CELEBRATION IN THE RIGHTS OF ALCHEMY: FURY & AFFILIATION IN 'BORN IN FLAMES' - a lecture by Jayna Brown

Lizzie Borden’s 1983 film Born in Flames is set in a post-utopian future. Ten years after a socialist revolution in the US, the voices of queer/poor/women of color are still not heard, their demands not recognized by the state.  Led by radical lesbians, a Women’s Army is formed, despite the protests of socialist feminists, and thwarting the covert surveillance of the state. Hijacking the airwaves through two unlicensed radio stations, djs Honey and Isabelle broadcast the revolution–this time anarchistic, not grounded in a politics of recognition or redress but in forms of affiliation based in collective rage and love. The pirated radio transmission of music and message creates an alternate bandwidth, signaling the porousness between this world and the world that is possible. This talk is dedicated to a feminism that dances, and screams and blows things up.

Jayna Brown, Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside