Emily Rapp Black: Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg

Emily Rapp Black: Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg

Emily Rapp Black is a New York Times-bestselling author. Her most recent book, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, is a personal exploration of how the Mexican Surrealist’s artistic practice and experiences has shaped her own life.

At first sight of Frida Kahlo’s painting The Two Fridas, Emily Rapp Black felt a connection with the artist. An amputee from childhood, Emily grew up with a succession of prosthetic limbs and learned that she had to hide her disability from the world.

Kahlo sustained lifelong injuries after a horrific bus crash, and her right leg was eventually amputated. In Kahlo’s art, Rapp Black recognized her own life, from the numerous operations to the compulsion to create to silence pain. Here she tells her story of losing her infant son to Tay-Sachs, giving birth to a daughter, and learning to accept her body. She writes of how Frida Kahlo inspired her to find a way forward when all seemed lost.

Bio

Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir and The Still Point of the Turning World (Penguin Press), a New York Times bestseller and an Editor’s Pick. Her work has appeared in VOGUE, the New York Times, Die Zeit, The Times-London, Lenny Letter, The Sun, TIME, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, O the Oprah Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and other publications and anthologies. She is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside, where she also teaches medical narratives in the School of Medicine. She is the mother of two children: Ronan (2010-2013), and Charlotte (age 6).

Purchase your copy of Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg here: https://www.nottinghilleditions.com/product/frida-kahlo-and-my-left-leg/

This event is curated and hosted by Rachel Ashenden, co-founder of The Debutante, a magazine which explores the continued legacies and relevance of women surrealists, and is Communications Officer at the National Galleries of Scotland. There will also be the opportunity to ask Emily questions about her book and writing practice.

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