Mexican Summer & Anthology

From June 1992 to March 1995, in the midst of the AIDS crisis in NYC, an extraordinary theatrical collective emerged from the underground called the Blacklips Performance Cult. Co-founded by ANOHNI with collaborators Johanna Constantine and Psychotic Eve and joined by a cabal of fellow artists, drag queens, punks, nightlife veterans and students, they performed a new play every Monday night at 1:00am at the now-closed Pyramid Club on Avenue A. Blacklips never courted mainstream attention, however, the group left a sustaining impression within New York’s late night subculture by melding hysterical drag, surreal horror, and disconcerting tenderness. Anthology is honored to present a book and double LP compilation offering an immersive dive into Blacklips Performance Cult: Blacklips: Her Life and Her Many, Many Deaths, co-authored by ANOHNIand Marti Wilkerson, and its companion compilation by ANOHNI, Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995.

In Blacklips: Her Life and Her Many, Many Deaths, ANOHNI and Wilkerson lay bare the collective’s archives in photographs, scripts, and the assembled ephemera from more than one hundred and twenty original plays. Featuring images from newly digitized film and video recordings, texts from participants and audience members, and an introduction by Participant, Inc’s Lia Gangitano, this expansive collection introduces to the twenty-first century the short-lived and ruthlessly creative phenomenon that was Blacklips.

The Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 compilation combines original recordings and select DJ tracks from the Blacklips vaults. The double album vinyl edition is illustrated and designed by ANOHNI, and includes previously unseen ephemera and extensive liner notes by the artist.