INTERVIEW WITH NOMY LAMM NOMY LAMM IS A DIVA

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Questions for Nomy Lamm

Interview with Nomy Lamm


Nomy Lamm is a diva, a goddess, a bad-ass (Nomy’s words) woman who cross-cuts many different issues and who represents many different constituencies: Jews, dykes, women of size, folks struggling with body image issues, and people with disabilities. Though she speaks of these things, she makes it clear she is speaking for Nomy. We had the privilege of inviting her to George Mason University as the final event for a very successful Pride Week and also to culminate Positive Body Image and Eating Disorders Programming. A graduate of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and a recent transplant to Chicago, Nomy is a self-employed full-time artist, performer, singer, activist and writer. Her performance, Gender Apocalypse, combines political songwriting with a succinct and engaging “lecture” (complete with overheads) on body image and facts about dieting. She magically engages her audience into the land of Princess Pooftah Una Cornea where we all get to shout the magic word “fuckeroo!!!” (a word that means “to cast off old assumptions AND create new and more compelling options). Nomy is part spiritual, part intellectual, part activist and part performance artist at once. She lets us into her experiences and pain by talking of her transformation as a disassociated person to someone who is fully present in, comfortable with and loves her own body. Nomy is a gem, a treasure and a testimony to all of us that we can make a difference in the world and in our own lives. She exemplifies Audre Lorde’s message “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House” by providing a living example of someone who is building her own house with her own tools. She encouraged us all to do the same. Below is the interview that transpired between us and Nomy.



*How did you come to feminism?


My senior year of high school I was taking a comp 101 class at the community

college and I chose to do my project on feminism. I didn’t really know

anything about feminism but while working on this project, which ended up

being a zine, I had lots of interesting conversations with people about

resources and ideas. One girl on the bus was like “you should go to a riot

grrrl meeting.” I knew about riot grrrl cuz I was a punk but I was

intimidated by what seemed like “the popular girls.” I went to my first

riot grrrl meeting on Halloween of 1993. Riot Grrrl was a network and

support system for feminists in the punk scene, that’s where I first started

learning about identity politics, interlinking oppressions, non-hierarchical

organizing and DIY ethics.


*What do you most enjoy about the work you do?


I enjoy the freedom to define my own life. I like making decisions about

how I’m going to do things, and collaborating with people whose opinions I

respect, and doing work that I love and am good at, and being appreciated

for it.



*What are some of your current projects?


Right now I am working on putting together a touring stage production of my

new cd, “Effigy.” It’s a multi-media pop music spectacle complete with

lights, costume changes, headset mikes and backup dancers. I’ll be touring

10-15 cities around the country, I’m looking for old vaudeville theaters to

do the show in. All the shows will be sliding scale, wheelchair accessible,

and ASL interpreted.


I also co-host a queer open mike called “The Finger” with my roommate, Jae

Crue. It happens monthly at “Early to Bed,” Chicago’s woman-owned sextoy

store, and our next one is on easter, featuring Sini Anderson of Sister

Spit. The Finger is a super comfortable space for people to share

work/ideas with each other, there’s nothing else in Chicago with this kind

of freaky queer sex-positive socially conscious feel to it. It pushes

boundaries and people are loving it.




*What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?


I think that in ten years I will be living with my chosen family on land

either in the northwest or the south. We will probably sing songs and write

stories together and I’m sure we’ll all be dealing with the serious health

effects of global disaster and lack of health care. I’ll probably also be a

traveling performer and spiritual leader.



*Would you call yourself a "third wave" feminist? Why or why not?


“Third wave” is an academic term, it’s the label academics give to feminists

of my generation. So yes, in terms of understanding feminism in the context

of global capitalism, sex-positivity, intersecting oppressions, reclamation

of language, I am a part of the movement and thinking that has been labeled

third wave. But I’ve never really used the term.



*What do you think are some of the most important issues facing young people

today?


I think most people of my generation grew up knowing that we would have to

deal with the effects of pollution, overconsumption, nuclear waste, racism

and world war when we grew up. This is some pretty intense shit to have to

face. Right now I think the most important issue is learning to pull

ourselves out of denial and see what’s happening globally and how we’re

connected to it.



*If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead), who would it be

and why?


Well I really wanna have a conversation with Marilyn Manson, I think he’s

fascinating and brilliant and also ignorant and irresponsible and I think we

could have some interesting conversations. I’d like to know where he thinks

things are heading and what his role is in it. Oh I’d also like to have

dinner w/ Jesus and ask the same thing.



*Who were/are you role models?


Cyndi Lauper! When I was eight she gave me an example of girls as defiant

and in control of our own fun/ pleasure.


I know that Kathleen Hanna doesn’t like being called a role model but she

was one for me. When I was seventeen, she seemed like the smartest person

in the world, she said what she thought, rocked out, screamed about shit

that wasn’t “appropriate,” and was active in her (my) community.




*How were you told you were you were one of Ms. Magazines' women of the

year? How did you react?



I had actually been arguing with someone at MS. because of some fat-phobic

shit they had printed. We were in contact about that and some money they

owed me and an article I was gonna write for them, and then suddenly she’s

like “We had a meeting last night and decided we want you to be one of our

six ‘women of the year.’” She told me they would do a photo shoot and write

an article, that Rosie O’Donnell was one of the other ones, and she said

that they were gonna fly us all out to New York for a dinner or something.

I was excited about meeting Rosie O’Donnell, but that part of it never

happened.


I had fun doing the interviews with Anastasia Higgenbotham, who wrote the

article. I had met her before because we both had essays in “Listen Up,” I

think she’s a great writer and I liked the article she wrote. I didn’t like

the photos. The photographer did not get me, and the makeup artist shaped

my lips wrong.



*What bands (in your opinion) have made the most impact on the punk/indie

scene?



In crowds I run in, I would say Bikini Kill, Team Dresch, the Need.



*What 3 cds are in your cd player now?


1 – Juha, Polari (queer arab hip hop from Hawaii)

2 – The Beatles, Greatest Hits

3 – a mix cd my friend made me called “eat a dick party pack”



*What is one of the most interesting *legal* things you've ever done!

(Besides the many that we know about you!!!)


I peed in a pitcher on stage in front of 300 people at a Sister Spit show in

Seattle. Is that legal?



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