Episodes

  • Still Brazen Episode 6: “‘Femme Persists’: Andi Schwartz in Conversation with Anna Camilleri and ChloĂ« Brushwood Rose about the Evolution of Femme through Time, Place, and Friendship”

    In this final episode of Still Brazen, Andi Schwartz askseditors Chloë Brushwood Rose and Anna Camilleri how they came to be friends and collaborators, and what was the driving force behind "Brazen Femme." Chloë and Anna talk about femme life and culture from the 90s to now, touching on themes of violence, care, heritage, spirituality, and femmeships before smartphones.

    Check out the transcript here: https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/wp-content/uploads/sites/255/2023/06/Still-Brazen-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-6.pdf

    Links: Chloë Brushwood Rose: https://edu.yorku.ca/edu-profiles/index.php?mid=81471

    Anna Camilleri: https://arsenalpulp.com/Contributors/C/Camilleri-Anna

    ReDefine Arts: https://www.facebook.com/ReDefineArtsTO/

    Brazen Femme: https://www.autostraddle.com/read-a-fcking-book-brazen-femme-queering-femininity-141217/

    Boys Like Her: Transfictions: https://quillandquire.com/review/boys-like-her-transfictions/

    Strange Sisters: https://buddiesinbadtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/1990_StrangeSistersTheGargoyle.pdf

    Toronto Women's Bookstore: https://riseupfeministarchive.ca/activism/organizations/womens-bookstore-toronto/

    Montreal Massacre: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/polytechnique-tragedy

    Sistering: https://sistering.org/

    Mira-Soleil Ross: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirha-Soleil_Ross

    Podcast Credits:

    Created and produced by: Dr. Andi Schwartz

    Recorded by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Edited by: Dr. Andi Schwartz, Rafia Naz, and Maykel Shehata

    Music by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Supported by: The Centre for Feminist Research and the Media Creation Lab at York University

    Sponsored by: The Graduate Program in Gender,Feminist and Women's Studies (York); The Sexuality Studies Program (York); The School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (York); The Institute for Research in Digital Literacies (York); The Digital Scholarship Centre at the Scott Library (York); and the Joint Program in Communication and Cultural Studies (York & TMU)

  • Still Brazen Episode 5: “I’m So Ready to Not Be Brave for Putting on Clothes”: Zoe Whittall and Allison Taylor in Conversation About Fat Femme-ininities

    In this episode, award-winning novelist Zoe Whittall and fat studies femme scholar Allison Taylor revisit Whittall's contributions to Brazen Femme: "Fat is a Femme-inine Issue" and "Fevers, Fallouts, and Fast Foods." In conversation about Taylor's research on fat femmes andWhittall's recent essays on femme, they discuss fat hatred, fat activism, and evolving fat femme-ininities, as well as the possibilities of low femme as it intersects with disability and aging.

    Check out the transcript here: https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/wp-content/uploads/sites/255/2023/10/Still-Brazen-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-5.pdf

    Links:

    Zoe Whittall: https://linktr.ee/Zoewhittall

    Allison Taylor: https://revisioncentre.ca/about/who-we-are/revision-team/allison-taylor

    “Femme Fatale” essay in Harper’s Bazaar: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a37258757/femme-fatale/

    “Send Me to Love Femme Paradise” essay in Autostraddle: https://www.autostraddle.com/send-me-to-low-femme-paradise/

    Pretty, Porky, and Pissed Off: https://bodiesintranslation.ca/pretty-porky-and-pissed-off/

    Clit Lit & Elizabeth Ruth: https://xtramagazine.com/culture/we-the-people-45433

    Allyson Mitchell: http://allysonmitchell.com/

    Mariko Tamaki: https://www.instagram.com/marikotamaki/?hl=en

    Podcast Credits:

    Created and produced by: Dr. Andi Schwartz

    Recorded by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Edited by: Dr. Andi Schwartz, Rafia Naz, and Maykel Shehata

    Music by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Supported by: The Centre for Feminist Research and the Media Creation Lab at York University Sponsored by: The Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies (York); The Sexuality Studies Program (York); The School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (York); The Institute for Research in Digital Literacies (York); The Digital Scholarship Centre at the Scott Library (York); and the Joint Program in Communication and Cultural Studies (York & TMU)

  • Missing episodes?

    Click here to refresh the feed.

  • Still Brazen Episode 4: “‘I Don’t Want to Be Pretty, But I Do Want to Be Brown’: Anurima Banerji and Jade Da Costa in Conversation about Constructing South Asian Femme-ness through Poetry”

    In this episode, Dr. Anurima Banerji and Dr. Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa revisit Banerji’s poems “Ephemera” and “Summer, Or I Want the Rage of Poets to Bleed Guns Speechless with Words” from Brazen Femme as well as a piece of Da Costa’s creative non-fiction titled “Motherland.” They discuss: South Asian femme identity, decolonial politics, and the possibility that poetry can bring it all together.

    Check out the transcript here: https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/wp-content/uploads/sites/255/2021/09/Still-Brazen-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-4.pdf

    Links:

    Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa: https://www.jadecrimson.com/

    Anurima Banerji: https://www.wacd.ucla.edu/people/faculty/anurima-banerji

    "Motherland" by Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa: https://relocationsutoronto.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/motherland/

    Vivek Shraya: https://vivekshraya.com/

    Nadiya Ali: https://www.nadiyaa.com/

    Ali, N.N. (2018). Emancipation in an Islamophobic age:Finding agency in ‘nonrecognition,’ ‘refusal,’ and ‘self-recognition. Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 5(1), pp. 1-26. https://jcri.ca/index.php/CRI/article/view/6567

    Podcast Credits:

    Created and produced by: Dr. Andi Schwartz

    Recorded by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Edited by: Dr. Andi Schwartz, Rafia Naz, and Maykel Shehata

    Music by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Supported by: The Centre for Feminist Research and the Media Creation Lab at York University

    Sponsored by: The Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies (York); The Sexuality Studies Program (York); The School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (York); The Institute for Research in Digital Literacies (York); The Digital Scholarship Centre at the Scott Library (York); and the Joint Program in Communication and Cultural Studies (York & TMU)

  • Still Brazen Episode 3: “Being a Good Erotic Citizen": Kathryn Payne and Sarah York-Bertram in Conversation about Sex Worker-Femme Solidarities and Sex Work Activism in Canada

    In this episode, Kathryn Payne and Sarah York-Bertram revisit Payne's piece in Brazen Femme titled "Whores and Bitches Who Sleep With Women." They discuss: femme culture in the '90s and early aughts as it intersected with sex work and kink cultures and communities; sex work activism and histories in Canada; and making sex work visible within educational institutions.

    Check out the transcript here: https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/wp-content/uploads/sites/255/2021/09/Still-Brazen-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-3.pdf

    Corrections: The history of sex workers and lace curtains is from Edmonton/Treaty 6 territory (not Calgary/Treaty 4). Check out more about the story here: http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/EDB/1914/07/22/7/Ar00702.html?query=newspapers%7Clace%7C%28date%3A1914%2F07%2F22%29+AND+%28publication%3AEDB%29%7Cscore

    Links:

    Sarah York-Bertram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-york-bertram-92b4a3213/?originalSubdomain=ca

    Longing At least is Constant, by Kathryn Payne: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Longing_at_Least_Is_Constant.html?id=ds9L0ZQysVwC&redir_esc=y

    Joan Nestle: https://www.joannestle.com/

    Becki Ross: https://sociology.ubc.ca/profile/becki-ross/

    Carol Leigh: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/us/carol-leigh-dead.html

    Feminist Porn Awards (Toronto): https://www.feministpornawards.com/

    Toronto Women's Bathhouse Raid: https://arquives.ca/latest-news/the-pussy-palace-raid-a-brief-herstory

    Spread ($pread) Magazine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$pread

    Rethinking Class in Lesbian Bar Culture, by Elise Chenier: https://prezi.com/4iprsaeq_ajm/rethinking-class-in-lesbian-bar-culture/

    Pioneer Ladies [of the Evening], by Laurie Bertram: https://platformgallery.org/exhibition/pioneer-ladies-of-the-evening/

    Cindy Gladue: https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/cindy-gladue

    Stormy Daniels: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43334326

    Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network: https://www.butterflysw.org/

    Maggie's (Toronto): https://www.maggiesto.org/

    Stella (Montreal): https://chezstella.org/en/home/

    On the Bedford case: https://equitableeducation.ca/2013/bedford-decriminalization-sex-work

    On the 'Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act'(PCEPA): https://globalnews.ca/news/6073593/canadas-sex-worker-laws-bill-c36/

    On the ongoing challenges to PCEPA (2022): https://ricochet.media/en/3891/canadian-sex-workers-challenging-the-law-in-court-this-week

    Podcast Credits:

    Created and produced by: Dr. Andi Schwartz

    Recorded by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Edited by: Dr. Andi Schwartz, Rafia Naz, Maykel Shehata, Michael Fong, and Alan Peng

    Music by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Supported by: The Centre for Feminist Research and the Media Creation Lab at York University Sponsored by: The Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies (York); The Sexuality Studies Program (York); The School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (York); The Institute for Research in Digital Literacies (York); The Digital Scholarship Centre at the Scott Library (York); and the Joint Program in Communication and Cultural Studies (York & TMU)

  • Still Brazen Episode 2: "Rendering the Radical Contemporaneity of Femme": Trish Salah and Leah Horlick in Conversation about the Femme Poetics of Ethnicity and Sexuality, the Fascist Politics of Transmisogyny, and Creating Culture At the Bar, On the Internet, and Beyond

    In this episode, poet/academic Trish Salah and poet Leah Horlick discuss femme cultures centred both on the internet and in the bar, and the common issues and possibilities that arise in both contexts. They discuss the femme figurations sketched in Salah's poetic contributions to Brazen Femme, "Medusa" and "Red Like a Femme" and Horlick's earlier works, Riot Lung and For Your Own Good. Themes of femme, fascism, ethnicity, and transmisogyny emerge in the conversation surrounding their books Wanting in Arabic and Moldovan Hotel, and the current political moment.

    Check out the transcript here: https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/wp-content/uploads/sites/255/2023/10/Still-Brazen-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-2-.pdf

    Links:

    Leah Horlick: http://www.leahhorlick.com/

    Trish Salah: https://www.queensu.ca/gnds/people/trish-salah

    The Legacy of Mirha-Soleil Ross: https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/43093/1/mirha-soleil-ross-morgan-m-page-chelsea-manning-trans-art

    Counting Past 2 Festival: https://www.mediaqueer.ca/artist/counting-past-two

    Amber Dawn: http://www.amberdawnwrites.com/

    Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha: https://brownstargirl.org/

    Mariko Tamaki: https://www.instagram.com/marikotamaki/?hl=en

    Bent on Writing, edited by Elizabeth Ruth: https://canadianscholars.ca/book/bent-on-writing/

    The Pussy Palace was more than the raid: https://xtramagazine.com/power/pussy-palace-archival-project-237095

  • In this episode, Dr. Andi Schwartz explains the context for the podcast: celebrating 20 years of the book "Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity" edited by ChloĂ« Brushwood Rose and Anna Camilleri (2002). Dr. Schwartz discusses the personal importance of the text, and how it has shaped her own work in femme theory and critical femininity studies.

    Find out more about Dr. Schwartz's work here: https://www.andischwartzwrites.com/

    Read the transcript here: https://www.yorku.ca/cfr/wp-content/uploads/sites/255/2023/06/Still-Brazen-Podcast-Transcript-Episode-1.pdf

    Podcast Credits:

    Created and produced by: Dr. Andi Schwartz

    Recorded by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Edited by: Dr. Andi Schwartz, Rafia Naz, and Maykel Shehata

    Music by: Dr. Andi Schwartz and Michael Fong

    Supported by: The Centre for Feminist Research and the MediaCreation Lab at York University Sponsored by: The Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies (York); The Sexuality Studies Program (York); The School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (York); The Institute forResearch in Digital Literacies (York); The Digital Scholarship Centre at the Scott Library (York); and the Joint Program in Communication and Cultural Studies (York & TMU)