Sarah Schulman
Encyclopedia
Sarah Miriam Schulman is an American
novelist, historian and playwright. An early chronicler of the AIDS crisis
, she wrote on AIDS and social issues, publishing in The Village Voice
in the early 1980s, and writing the first piece on AIDS and the homeless, which appeared in The Nation
. She is openly
a lesbian.
Schulman's early novels were set in the artistic, bohemian
, lesbian
subculture of the Lower East Side
of Manhattan
. Books such as The Sophie Horowitz Story and Girls, Visions and Everything were published by small presses. After Delores was published by E. P. Dutton
in 1988, and received a favorable review in The New York Times
, was translated into eight languages, and was awarded an American Library Association
Stonewall Book Award
in 1989.
Schulman's subsequent novel, 1990's People in Trouble described the lives of AIDS activists. In 1992, Empathy was released, an experimental novel about lesbian existence. The 1995 novel Rat Bohemia was listed as one of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels by The Publishing Triangle. Her 1998 historical novel Shimmer
was set in New York City during the McCarthy era
and features a black male protagonist and a white lesbian protagonist.
An early nonfiction book was My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life During The Reagan/Bush Years (Routledge, 1995) - a collection of journalism that begins before Reagan's election in 1980 and provides on-going coverage as the AIDS crisis began, includes some information about the early days of the AIDS crisis, which Schulman covered for a range of newspapers and magazines.
In her 1998 book Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America, which also won the Stonewall Book Award, Schulman shows that significant plot elements of the successful 1996 musical Rent
were lifted from her novel People in Trouble. The heterosexual plot of Rent is based on the opera La Bohème
, while the gay plot is similar to the plot of Schulman's novel. However, both parties agree that Larson used her "settings, themes, characters, plot, and ideas" but that these are not copyrightable. Though a separate plagiarism
charge brought by Rent's dramaturge
was settled out of court, Schulman never sued, but critiqued in Stagestruck the way the musical depicted AIDS and gay people.
In 1999 she completed her 8th novel, The Child, which was published by Carroll & Graf in 2007. One week after the novel appeared, Carroll & Graf was purchased by Perseus Books, and the imprint was folded. The paperback edition of The Child was published by Arsenal Pulp Press
in fall 2008 and nominated for the Lambda Literary Award
and the Publishing Triangle Fiction Prize.
An anniversary critical edition of Empathy, with articles by Kevin Killian and John Weir, was published by Arsenal Pulp in 2007, followed by a new edition of Rat Bohemia in spring 2008, with a cover by Nan Goldin
.
In fall 2009, Arsenal Pulp published her ninth novel, The Mere Future, a futuristic dystopia about a New York City in which the only remaining career is marketing
. The paperback appeared in Fall 2011.
That same month, The New Press published Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences, which received widespread praise and appreciation and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. The paperback will appear in May 2012.
Her 15th book, The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, was published by the University of California Press in February 2012.
A new nonfiction book Israel/Palestine and the Queer International will be published by Duke University Press in Fall 2012.
A novel, The Cosmopolitans, set in New York in 1958 is forthcoming.
from 1976-1978. From 1979-1982, Schulman was a member of CARASA (Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse) and participated in a notorious act of early direct action
, where she and five others (called The Women's Liberation Zap Action Brigade) disrupted an anti-abortion
hearing in Congress
that was being broadcast on live TV.
In 1987, Schulman and filmmaker Jim Hubbard founded the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, now called MIX
and in its twenty-fourth year.
Also in 1987, Schulman joined ACT UP, and was an active member for five years. She participated in many small and key actions, including "Seize Control of the FDA", "Stop the Church", and "Storm the NIH", and participated in the founding of Housing Works. She was arrested during "The Day of Desperation" when ACT UP occupied Grand Central Station protesting the First Gulf War
"Money for AIDS, Not for War."
In 1992, Schulman and five others co-founded the Lesbian Avengers
, a direct action organization. On her 1992 book tour for Empathy, Schulman visited gay bookstores in the South
to start chapters. The organization's high points included sending groups of young organizers to Maine
and Idaho
to assist local fights against anti-gay ballot initiatives that were being funded by national right-wing organizations. They also organized the first Dyke March
, which is now an international tradition.
From the late 1980s through the early 1990s, Schulman was a principal organizer for the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization's efforts to march in the New York Saint Patrick's Day Parade. She was arrested five times, but never convicted. The organization collapsed, and to this day, Irish Gays and Lesbians are not allowed to march in the parade under their own banner.
Since 2001, Sarah and Jim Hubbard have been creating the ACT UP Oral History Project and are now producing a feature documentary, United in Anger: The History of ACT UP.
In recognition of her contributions to her communities, Schulman was made a Revson Fellow for the Future of New York City at Columbia University
and received a Stonewall Award for Contributions Improving the Lives of Lesbians and Gays in the United States. In 2009 Schulman was awarded the Kessler Prize for sustained contribution to LGBT Studies, given by CLAGS: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University Graduate Center. Previous awardees include Judith Butler
, Adrienne Rich
and Monique Wittig
. In 2009 she was also appointed to the Advisory Council of the Harvard Kennedy School
's Carr Center for Human Rights and Social Movements.
In 2010, Schulman declined an invitation to Tel Aviv University
in recognition of the requests of Israeli and Palestinian
academics to support "boycott/divestment/sanctions" and instead went on a solidarity visit. She spoke in alternative venues in Tel Aviv
, Ramallah
and Haifa
, and was able to talk to Israeli and Palestinian LGBT audiences who oppose the occupation. On this trip she met leaders of two Palestinian Queer organizations: Aswat and alQaws, and organized a six city tour of the US for them, which took place February 1–20, 2011 featuring Haneen Maikay of alQaws: For Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, Ghadir of Aswat:Palestinian Lesbian Women and Sami from Palestinian Queers for Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions. In Spring, 2011 Sarah appeared on Laura Flanders GRIT TV with Omar Barghouti of Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel in which he called for full LGBT rights in Palestinian society. She is currently organizing the first US LGBT delegation to Palestine for Winter 2012, the lead delegates are Dr Tim McCarthy of the Harvard Kennedy School and Dr Jasbir Puar of Rutgers University.
In 2011 she was named to the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace.
. Collaborators included Robin Epstein and Dorothy Cantwell of More Fire! Productions
, Jennifer Monson, Zeena Parkins
, Scott Heron, Jennifer Miller, John Bernd, Susan Seizer, Mark Owen, Maggie Moore, Holiday Reinhorn, Melinda Wade, Bina Sharif, and Mark Ameen. Venues included The University of the Streets, PS 122, La Mama, King Tut Wah-Wah Hut, The Pyramid Club, 8BC, Franklin Furnace, The Kitchen, Ela Troyano and Uzi Parness' Club Chandelier, Here, the Performing Garage
, and others.
and Schulman developed a play version of The Child. It had many readings and workshops, but artistic directors objected to the content and the point of view, and the play was never produced.
She was admitted into the Sundance Theater Lab in 2001 with the play Carson McCullers. The workshop starred Angelina Phillips and Bill Camp and was directed by Craig Lucas. The play had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons
in 2002, directed by Marion McClinton
, starring Jenny Bacon with Rick Stear, Michi Barall, Leland Gantt, Barbara Eda-Young, Tim Hopper, Rosalyn Coleman. Carson McCullers has been published by Playscripts Inc.
This was followed by a commission from South Coast Repertory
for which she wrote two plays: Made in Korea, based on the memoirs of Mi Ok Bruining, and Mercy. Mercy had three readings with the actress Jessica Hecht at Rattlestick (directed by Michael Mayer), The Vineyard (directed by Jo Bonney) and at Women's Expressive Theater, and one reading at Michael Imperioli's Studio Dante with Elisabeth Marvel. It had a workshop in March 2009 with Jessica Hecht and Patrick Breen, directed by Rebecca Taichman and produced by Sasha Eden and Victoria Pettibone. Made in Korea had a workshop at the Cleveland Playhouse, directed by Seth Gordon, and a reading at New York Theater Workshop, directed by Leigh Silverman.
In 2001 Schulman won a Guggenheim Fellowship
in Playwrighting. Through the efforts of actress Roberta Maxwell
, Schulman won a commission from the La Jolla Playhouse
to do the play The Burning Deck. By the time the Playhouse was ready to develop a workshop of the play, Maxwell was no longer available, and Diane Venora
performed 28 public workshop performances in the summer of 2003. In 2009, the play had a reading at Primary Stages with Jennifer Van Dyke, Keith Randolph Smith, Miriam Schor, and Jesse Pennington. It has not yet received a world premiere.
In 2003, her play Conjugation had readings at Playwrights Horizons and Rattlestick theater, both directed by Michael Greif
, the director of Rent. The play has not yet been produced.
In 2005, Tim Sanford, artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, produced Manic Flight Reaction. Director Trip Cullman developed the work at New York Stage and Film, and it opened at Playwrights that winter, starring Deirdre O'Connell with Molly Price, Jessica Collins, Austin Lysy, Michael Esper and Angel Desai.
In collaboration with lyricist Michael Korie
and composer Anthony Davis, Schulman has been developing her novel Shimmer for the musical stage. This project has been on-going for eight years. With significant support from the MacDowell Colony
, the trio have been able to prepare full book/lyrics and score, and recorded a demo of six songs.
Schulman received the rights, wrote an adaptation, and received a world premiere for her version of Isaac Bashevis Singer
's Enemies, a Love Story
, which premiered at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia in February 2007, directed by Jiri Ziska, starring Elisabeth Rich, Morgan Spector, with Laura Flanagan, Katie Brazda, Barbara Spiegel, Bob Ari, Tom Teti. It most recently had a New York reading at New York Theater Workshop, directed by Jo Bonney, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Jessica Hecht, Miriam Schor, Lisa Joyce, and Lynn Cohen.
She is currently working on two new plays: Choice, about the plaintiff and the attorney in the Roe v. Wade
case, and The Lady Hamlet - a 1920s backstage comedy about two great female stage divas competing to play the role of Hamlet
on Broadway.
FILM
In fall 2009, Sarah and Cheryl Dunye wrote the screenplay for Cheryl's film The Owls, starring Guenivere Turner, Lisa Gornick, Cheryl Dunye, and V.S. Brodie. The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival
in the Panorama in January 2010. She and Cheryl then wrote an X-rated film Mommy Is Coming, which was produced in Germany by Jurgen Bruning and selected for the 2012 Berlinale. Their 3rd feature, Adventures in the 419, about Nigerian email scammers in Amsterdam, was developed at the Tribeca Film Festival
Lab and then optioned by the DehneLima company - a Dutch/German co-production.
She is producer, with Jim Hubbard of a feature length documentary UNITED IN ANGER: A History of ACT UP, to premiere in Winter 2012.
Her first novel, The Sophie Horowitz Story, has been optioned for film and is being developed by Claude Mangold for a Swiss/German production.
Novels
Nonfiction
The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination (2012)
Plays
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist, historian and playwright. An early chronicler of the AIDS crisis
AIDS pandemic
The acquired immune deficiency syndrome pandemic is a widespread disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus .Since AIDS was first recognized in 1981, it has led to the deaths of more than 25 million people, making it one of the most destructive diseases in recorded history.Despite recent...
, she wrote on AIDS and social issues, publishing in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
in the early 1980s, and writing the first piece on AIDS and the homeless, which appeared in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
. She is openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
a lesbian.
Writer
Sarah Schulman is the author of fifteen published or soon to be published works: nine novels, four nonfiction books, and a play.Schulman's early novels were set in the artistic, bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
subculture of the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Books such as The Sophie Horowitz Story and Girls, Visions and Everything were published by small presses. After Delores was published by E. P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1986, the company was acquired by Penguin Group and split into two imprints: Dutton Penguin and Dutton Children's Books.-History:Edward Payson Dutton founded...
in 1988, and received a favorable review in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, was translated into eight languages, and was awarded an American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
Stonewall Book Award
Stonewall Book Award
Sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association , the Stonewall Book Award is for LGBT books...
in 1989.
Schulman's subsequent novel, 1990's People in Trouble described the lives of AIDS activists. In 1992, Empathy was released, an experimental novel about lesbian existence. The 1995 novel Rat Bohemia was listed as one of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels by The Publishing Triangle. Her 1998 historical novel Shimmer
Shimmer (novel)
Shimmer is a novel from Unbridled Books. Eric Barnes is an American author of the novel Shimmer as well as the author of numerous short stories, including stories published in North Atlantic Review, Prairie Schooner, The Northwest Review, Raritan and other publishers of short literary fiction...
was set in New York City during the McCarthy era
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
and features a black male protagonist and a white lesbian protagonist.
An early nonfiction book was My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life During The Reagan/Bush Years (Routledge, 1995) - a collection of journalism that begins before Reagan's election in 1980 and provides on-going coverage as the AIDS crisis began, includes some information about the early days of the AIDS crisis, which Schulman covered for a range of newspapers and magazines.
In her 1998 book Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America, which also won the Stonewall Book Award, Schulman shows that significant plot elements of the successful 1996 musical Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
were lifted from her novel People in Trouble. The heterosexual plot of Rent is based on the opera La Bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, while the gay plot is similar to the plot of Schulman's novel. However, both parties agree that Larson used her "settings, themes, characters, plot, and ideas" but that these are not copyrightable. Though a separate plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
charge brought by Rent's dramaturge
Dramaturge
A dramaturge or dramaturg is a professional position within a theatre or opera company that deals mainly with research and development of plays or operas...
was settled out of court, Schulman never sued, but critiqued in Stagestruck the way the musical depicted AIDS and gay people.
In 1999 she completed her 8th novel, The Child, which was published by Carroll & Graf in 2007. One week after the novel appeared, Carroll & Graf was purchased by Perseus Books, and the imprint was folded. The paperback edition of The Child was published by Arsenal Pulp Press
Arsenal Pulp Press
Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, and is noted for founding the annual Three-Day Novel Contest .Authors who have been published by Arsenal Pulp ...
in fall 2008 and nominated for the Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
and the Publishing Triangle Fiction Prize.
An anniversary critical edition of Empathy, with articles by Kevin Killian and John Weir, was published by Arsenal Pulp in 2007, followed by a new edition of Rat Bohemia in spring 2008, with a cover by Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin
Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
.
In fall 2009, Arsenal Pulp published her ninth novel, The Mere Future, a futuristic dystopia about a New York City in which the only remaining career is marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
. The paperback appeared in Fall 2011.
That same month, The New Press published Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences, which received widespread praise and appreciation and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. The paperback will appear in May 2012.
Her 15th book, The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, was published by the University of California Press in February 2012.
A new nonfiction book Israel/Palestine and the Queer International will be published by Duke University Press in Fall 2012.
A novel, The Cosmopolitans, set in New York in 1958 is forthcoming.
Activism
Schulman was active in the Women's Union while a student at the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
from 1976-1978. From 1979-1982, Schulman was a member of CARASA (Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse) and participated in a notorious act of early direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
, where she and five others (called The Women's Liberation Zap Action Brigade) disrupted an anti-abortion
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
hearing in Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
that was being broadcast on live TV.
In 1987, Schulman and filmmaker Jim Hubbard founded the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, now called MIX
MIX NYC
MIX NYC is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City and dedicated to queer experimental film. It is also known as the "MIX festival," for its most visible program, the annual New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival.- History :...
and in its twenty-fourth year.
Also in 1987, Schulman joined ACT UP, and was an active member for five years. She participated in many small and key actions, including "Seize Control of the FDA", "Stop the Church", and "Storm the NIH", and participated in the founding of Housing Works. She was arrested during "The Day of Desperation" when ACT UP occupied Grand Central Station protesting the First Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
"Money for AIDS, Not for War."
In 1992, Schulman and five others co-founded the Lesbian Avengers
Lesbian Avengers
The Lesbian Avengers began in New York City in 1992 as "a direct action group focused on issues vital to lesbian survival and visibility." Dozens of other chapters quickly emerged worldwide, a few expanding their mission to include questions of gender, race, and class.Though some groups continue...
, a direct action organization. On her 1992 book tour for Empathy, Schulman visited gay bookstores in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
to start chapters. The organization's high points included sending groups of young organizers to Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
to assist local fights against anti-gay ballot initiatives that were being funded by national right-wing organizations. They also organized the first Dyke March
Dyke March
Dyke March is a mostly lesbian-led and inclusive gathering and protest march much like the original gay pride parades and marches. They usually occur the Friday or Saturday before LGBT pride parades and larger metropolitan areas have related events both before and after the event to further...
, which is now an international tradition.
From the late 1980s through the early 1990s, Schulman was a principal organizer for the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization's efforts to march in the New York Saint Patrick's Day Parade. She was arrested five times, but never convicted. The organization collapsed, and to this day, Irish Gays and Lesbians are not allowed to march in the parade under their own banner.
Since 2001, Sarah and Jim Hubbard have been creating the ACT UP Oral History Project and are now producing a feature documentary, United in Anger: The History of ACT UP.
In recognition of her contributions to her communities, Schulman was made a Revson Fellow for the Future of New York City at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and received a Stonewall Award for Contributions Improving the Lives of Lesbians and Gays in the United States. In 2009 Schulman was awarded the Kessler Prize for sustained contribution to LGBT Studies, given by CLAGS: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University Graduate Center. Previous awardees include Judith Butler
Judith Butler
Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.Butler received her Ph.D...
, Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...
and Monique Wittig
Monique Wittig
Monique Wittig was a French author and feminist theorist who wrote about overcoming socially enforced gender roles and who coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". She published her first novel, L'Opoponax, in 1964...
. In 2009 she was also appointed to the Advisory Council of the Harvard Kennedy School
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
's Carr Center for Human Rights and Social Movements.
In 2010, Schulman declined an invitation to Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
in recognition of the requests of Israeli and Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
academics to support "boycott/divestment/sanctions" and instead went on a solidarity visit. She spoke in alternative venues in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
and Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, and was able to talk to Israeli and Palestinian LGBT audiences who oppose the occupation. On this trip she met leaders of two Palestinian Queer organizations: Aswat and alQaws, and organized a six city tour of the US for them, which took place February 1–20, 2011 featuring Haneen Maikay of alQaws: For Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, Ghadir of Aswat:Palestinian Lesbian Women and Sami from Palestinian Queers for Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions. In Spring, 2011 Sarah appeared on Laura Flanders GRIT TV with Omar Barghouti of Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel in which he called for full LGBT rights in Palestinian society. She is currently organizing the first US LGBT delegation to Palestine for Winter 2012, the lead delegates are Dr Tim McCarthy of the Harvard Kennedy School and Dr Jasbir Puar of Rutgers University.
In 2011 she was named to the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Off-Off-Broadway and the Downtown Arts Movement 1979-1994
Schulman has pursued an active career in the theater. From 1979-1994 she had 15 plays produced in the context of the avant garde "Downtown Arts Movement" based in New York City's East VillageEast Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
. Collaborators included Robin Epstein and Dorothy Cantwell of More Fire! Productions
More Fire! Productions
More Fire! Productions was a women's theatre collective active in New York City from 1980 to 1988. It was founded by Robin Epstein and Dorothy Cantwell and based in the East Village section of lower Manhattan, New York City...
, Jennifer Monson, Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion...
, Scott Heron, Jennifer Miller, John Bernd, Susan Seizer, Mark Owen, Maggie Moore, Holiday Reinhorn, Melinda Wade, Bina Sharif, and Mark Ameen. Venues included The University of the Streets, PS 122, La Mama, King Tut Wah-Wah Hut, The Pyramid Club, 8BC, Franklin Furnace, The Kitchen, Ela Troyano and Uzi Parness' Club Chandelier, Here, the Performing Garage
Performing Garage
The Performing Garage is an off-Broadway theater in SoHo, New York City. Established in 1968, it is the permanent home of the experimental theater company originally named The Performance Group that morphed in 1980 into The Wooster Group , and their primary performance venue.Since 1978, it also...
, and others.
Off-Broadway and regional theater 1994-present
For two years Craig LucasCraig Lucas
Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.-Biography:...
and Schulman developed a play version of The Child. It had many readings and workshops, but artistic directors objected to the content and the point of view, and the play was never produced.
She was admitted into the Sundance Theater Lab in 2001 with the play Carson McCullers. The workshop starred Angelina Phillips and Bill Camp and was directed by Craig Lucas. The play had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
in 2002, directed by Marion McClinton
Marion McClinton
Marion McClinton is a theatre director and playwright. He was nominated for the Tony Award for King Hedley II. He won the 2000 Vivian Robinson Audelco Black Theatre Awards, Director/Dramatic Production and the 1999–2000 Obie Awards, Direction, for Jitney, and was nominated for the Drama Desk...
, starring Jenny Bacon with Rick Stear, Michi Barall, Leland Gantt, Barbara Eda-Young, Tim Hopper, Rosalyn Coleman. Carson McCullers has been published by Playscripts Inc.
This was followed by a commission from South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
for which she wrote two plays: Made in Korea, based on the memoirs of Mi Ok Bruining, and Mercy. Mercy had three readings with the actress Jessica Hecht at Rattlestick (directed by Michael Mayer), The Vineyard (directed by Jo Bonney) and at Women's Expressive Theater, and one reading at Michael Imperioli's Studio Dante with Elisabeth Marvel. It had a workshop in March 2009 with Jessica Hecht and Patrick Breen, directed by Rebecca Taichman and produced by Sasha Eden and Victoria Pettibone. Made in Korea had a workshop at the Cleveland Playhouse, directed by Seth Gordon, and a reading at New York Theater Workshop, directed by Leigh Silverman.
In 2001 Schulman won a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in Playwrighting. Through the efforts of actress Roberta Maxwell
Roberta Maxwell
-Background:Roberta Maxwell began studying for the stage at the age of 12. She joined John Clark for 2 years as the child co-host of his Junior Magazine series for CBC Television, before becoming the youngest actress apprentice at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario,to pursue...
, Schulman won a commission from the La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre-in-residence on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. -Background:...
to do the play The Burning Deck. By the time the Playhouse was ready to develop a workshop of the play, Maxwell was no longer available, and Diane Venora
Diane Venora
Diane Venora is an American stage, television, and film actress.-Early life:Venora was born Diana Venora in East Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Marie and Robert P. Venora, who owned a dry cleaning establishment. Diane graduated from East Hartford High School, class of 1970. During her...
performed 28 public workshop performances in the summer of 2003. In 2009, the play had a reading at Primary Stages with Jennifer Van Dyke, Keith Randolph Smith, Miriam Schor, and Jesse Pennington. It has not yet received a world premiere.
In 2003, her play Conjugation had readings at Playwrights Horizons and Rattlestick theater, both directed by Michael Greif
Michael Greif
Michael Greif is a stage director and producer, born in Brooklyn, New York. He has received three Tony Award nominations and won the Obie Award....
, the director of Rent. The play has not yet been produced.
In 2005, Tim Sanford, artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, produced Manic Flight Reaction. Director Trip Cullman developed the work at New York Stage and Film, and it opened at Playwrights that winter, starring Deirdre O'Connell with Molly Price, Jessica Collins, Austin Lysy, Michael Esper and Angel Desai.
In collaboration with lyricist Michael Korie
Michael Korie
Michael Korie is an American librettist and lyricist. Korie's works include Grey Gardens , Harvey Milk and The Grapes of Wrath . He also wrote the lyrics to Doctor Zhivago Michael Korie (born Michael Cory Indick) is an American librettist and lyricist. Korie's works include Grey Gardens...
and composer Anthony Davis, Schulman has been developing her novel Shimmer for the musical stage. This project has been on-going for eight years. With significant support from the MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
, the trio have been able to prepare full book/lyrics and score, and recorded a demo of six songs.
Schulman received the rights, wrote an adaptation, and received a world premiere for her version of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer – July 24, 1991) was a Polish Jewish American author noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978...
's Enemies, a Love Story
Enemies, a Love Story
Enemies, a Love Story is a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer first published serially in the Jewish Daily Forward in 1966. The English translation was published in 1972.-Plot summary:...
, which premiered at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia in February 2007, directed by Jiri Ziska, starring Elisabeth Rich, Morgan Spector, with Laura Flanagan, Katie Brazda, Barbara Spiegel, Bob Ari, Tom Teti. It most recently had a New York reading at New York Theater Workshop, directed by Jo Bonney, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Jessica Hecht, Miriam Schor, Lisa Joyce, and Lynn Cohen.
She is currently working on two new plays: Choice, about the plaintiff and the attorney in the Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
case, and The Lady Hamlet - a 1920s backstage comedy about two great female stage divas competing to play the role of Hamlet
Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet is a fictional character, the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and...
on Broadway.
FILM
In fall 2009, Sarah and Cheryl Dunye wrote the screenplay for Cheryl's film The Owls, starring Guenivere Turner, Lisa Gornick, Cheryl Dunye, and V.S. Brodie. The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
in the Panorama in January 2010. She and Cheryl then wrote an X-rated film Mommy Is Coming, which was produced in Germany by Jurgen Bruning and selected for the 2012 Berlinale. Their 3rd feature, Adventures in the 419, about Nigerian email scammers in Amsterdam, was developed at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
Lab and then optioned by the DehneLima company - a Dutch/German co-production.
She is producer, with Jim Hubbard of a feature length documentary UNITED IN ANGER: A History of ACT UP, to premiere in Winter 2012.
Her first novel, The Sophie Horowitz Story, has been optioned for film and is being developed by Claude Mangold for a Swiss/German production.
Teaching
Schulman is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and a Fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.Novels
- The Mere Future (2009)
- The Child (2007)
- Shimmer (1998)
- Rat Bohemia (1995) - traduzido para o português (Boêmia dos Ratos)
- Empathy (1992)
- People in Trouble (1990)
- After Delores (1988)
- Girls, Visions and Everything (1986)
- The Sophie Horowitz Story (1984)
- Collected Early Novels of Sarah Schulman (1998)
Nonfiction
The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination (2012)
- Ties that Bind: Familial HomophobiaHomophobiaHomophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
and Its Consequences (2009) - Stagetruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (1998)
- My American History: Lesbian and GayGayGay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
Life During the Reagan/BushGeorge H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
Years (1994)
Plays
- Enemies, A Love Story (adapted from Isaac Bashevis Singer) (2007)
- Manic Flight Reaction (2005)
- Carson McCullers (2002) (publicado por Playscritpts Inc., 2006)