Barbara Hammer, Jasper Johns, Akihiro Miwa, Gloria Anzaldúa, Emily Dickinson
Born: Barbara Hammer (1939), Jasper Johns (1930), Akihiro Miwa (1935)
Died: Gloria Anzaldúa (2004), Emily Dickinson (1886)
Born on this day
Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer made lesbian experience a source of cinematic invention. Her films connect touch, memory and the physical properties of the image with a continuing search for lives excluded from conventional histories.
15MayBorn 193096th birthdayJasper Johns
An artist whose flags, targets and numbers changed the relationship between familiar signs and painting.
15MayBorn 193591st birthdayAkihiro Miwa
Akihiro Miwa moved between chanson, experimental theatre, film and television. An openly gay performer and atomic-bomb survivor, he combined an elaborate public image with songs about ordinary people's dignity.
Died on this day
Gloria Anzaldúa
A Chicana writer whose work made the border a way of thinking about language, identity and power.
15MayDied 1886140th anniversary of deathEmily Dickinson
Her poems travelled through an intimate network of readers long before publication, with Susan Gilbert Dickinson occupying a central place in her literary and emotional life.