Papercuts Presents: Memoir Talk with Adele Bertei, in Conversation with Jenny Hubbard
Jul 14, 5:30 PM EST • Jamaica Plain, MA: Loring Greenough House • 12 South St.
Papercuts is delighted to host an evening with trailblazing rock musician, filmmaker, and memoirist Adele Bertei, for a conversation about her latest book, Twist. This event will take place on Sunday July 14 at 5:30 p.m., outdoors in the garden of the Loring-Greenough House (or inside, in case of inclement weather), located at 12 South St, Jamaica Plain, just a few blocks down the street from our shop! Bring your own lawn chairs or blankets for sitting!
Adele Bertei's band, the Bloods, based out of NYC during the early 1980s, is recognized as the first-ever band comprised entirely of publicly out gay women, and one of the U.S.'s first all-girl bands in general. She was also an original member of the Contortions, a no wave band featured on Brian Eno's seminal No New York album. Bertei's music career has also included frequent collaborations with Thomas Dolby including his international dance pop hit "Hyperactive!", and providing backing vocals for artists ranging from Whitney Houston to Culture Club to Tears for Fears.
Bertei was a lead actor in Lizzie Borden's underground cult classic film Born in Flames, and in experimental filmmakers Beth and Scott B'sThe Offenders, which is now a part of the Museum of Modern Art's film collection. Reading prose and poetry, she opened for writers such as William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Kathy Acker among others. Her stories and essays have been included in the compilations The New Fuck You; Adventures in Lesbian Reading edited by Eileen Myles, It’s So You edited by Michelle Tea, and Evelyn McDonnell’s Women Who Rock.
Twist, Bertei's new memoir, is a harrowing and electric story of transforming trauma through art, pluck, and imagination, as told through her young alter ego, Maddie Twist. Twist is both a personal personal history of queer culture from a working-class view, and an argument against the concept of the “misery memoir.”
“One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read” (Mary Gaitskill), iconic rock-and-roll musician Adele Bertei’s memoir Twist is her harrowing and electric story of transforming trauma through art, pluck, and imagination, as told through the inimitable voice of her young alter ego, Maddie Twist.
US Release: Mar 14, 2023 • UK Release: May 22, 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 9781736309339 • $28 • 256 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9798988670049 • $18 • 264 pages
© Rosdiana Ciaravolo_Getty
Adele Bertei began playing music in Cleveland with Pere Ubu’s legendary Peter Laughner, and as an original member of the Contortions, produced by Brian Eno on No New York. She was the pioneering creator of The Bloods—the first out, queer, all-women-rock band. Her singing and songwriting career includes recording, performing live, and writing for such diverse acts as Thomas Dolby, Tears for Fears, Culture Club, Whitney Houston, Scritti Politti, Sheena Easton, Jellybean Benitez, Lydia Lunch, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, the Pointer Sisters, and John Lurie. Bertei played a lead role in Lizzie Borden’s seminal feminist sci-fi film Born in Flames. She is the author of two previous books: Peter and the Wolves (a memoir) and Why Labelle Matters, a finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards. Twist: An American Girl is her origin story.