Past and present of Russian Queer Poetry: how does personal become political?

What usually comes to mind when talking about political protest? Actions, performances, manifestos — anything that allows to transparently and clearly express the protester’s disagreement. Less often we apply to painting, cinema, theater, or music. Nevertheless, for a very long time, it was poetry that was considered one of the most effective means of problematizing reality and consolidating dissenting groups. And it has not lost its protest potential. Poems today remain one of the artistic ways of comprehending human experience and transforming public consciousness.

Andrey Filatov is a poet, linguist and member of the editorial board of the literary project "F-Letter". He will present a lecture, where he will touch upon the following topics: Russian-language queer poetry until the second half of the 20th century (not only Marina Tsvetaeva!), Post-war queer poetry (Mironov and Kharitonov as two directions in the development of gay writing), feminist writing, queer theory and queer poetry. And that's not all!