Time & Date
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Event Location
The Brattle Theatre40 Brattle St. Cambridge, MA 02138Open in Google Maps
WBUR senior arts and culture reporter Cristela Guerra moderates a conversation with author Jennifer Finney Boylan about her new memoir, "Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us." Boylan is a 2022-23 Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University and author of nineteen books, including "Mad Honey," coauthored with Jodi Picoult.
This event is hosted by Harvard Bookstore at The Brattle Theatre.
About "Cleavage"
Jennifer Finney Boylan’s "She’s Not There" was the first bestselling work written by a transgender American. Since its publication twenty years ago, she has become the go-to person for insight into the impact of gender on our lives, from the food we eat to the dreams we dream, both for ourselves and for our children. But "Cleavage" is more than a deep dive into gender identity; it’s also a look at the difference between coming out as trans in 2000—when many people reacted to Boylan’s transition with love—and the present era of blowback and fear.
How does gender affect our sense of self? Our body image? The passage of time? The friends we lose—and keep? Boylan considers her womanhood, reflects on the boys and men who shaped her, and reconceives of herself as a writer, activist, parent and spouse. With heart-wrenching honesty, she illustrates the feeling of liminality that followed her to adulthood, but demonstrates the redemptive power of love through it all.
With Boylan’s trademark humor and poignancy, "Cleavage" is a sharp, witty, and captivating look at the triumphs and losses of a life lived in two genders. "Cleavage" provides hope for a future in which we all have the freedom to live joyfully as men, as women and in the space between us.