Artist and folklorist Kay Turner has been making feminist, lesbian, and queer performance, music for over 40 years. Her current performance and writing project, ongoing since 2012, is called What a Witch and explores various witch figures in folklore and history. She is particularly interested in a practice of unstitching and reversing the damage done by demonization of the witch figure, and consequently of women generally. The What a Witch series looks at maligning, misogynistic interpretations of the witch and performs reversals of their negative misapprehensions.

Before and After, her book with photographer Zini Lardieri, was just released for A.I.R.’s participation in the 2021 edition of Printed Matter’s Virtual Book Fair. The artist book documents a performance held at A.I.R. in 2017 exploring the radical power of the witch’s nose. Additional performances in the What a Witch series include “As the crow flies….” (2019); “When the Virgin Met the Witch” (2019); ”Muses of Malta: Witch, Goddess, Madonna” (performed in Malta, 2018); “Night Hags: Visitation” (Parsons, 2018); “Hansel and Gretel Queered (Devouring)” (OUTsider Fest, Austin, TX 2017); and “The Black Kiss” (with Mary Beth Edelson), Brittany, France, 2014.

Turner holds a PhD in folklore from the University of Texas at Austin. She is the past president (2015-2018) of the American Folklore Society. Since 2002 she has been an Adjunct Professor in Performance Studies at NYU where she teaches courses on gender and queer theory, temporality, ghosts and their ontologies, fairy tale performance, and oral narrative theory. Turner’s books include Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women’s Altars (NY and London: Thames and Hudson); Baby Precious Always Shines: Love Notes Between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas(NY: St. Martin’s Press); Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms (with Pauline Greenhill, Wayne State University Press); and I Dream of Madonna ( Harper Collins). She was the founder, editor, and designer of the second wave feminist art and spirituality journal Lady Unique Inclination of the Night, published between 1976 and 1983.