Q&A with Director Kim McKean
Along with Tennessee Williams’ memories, A Supply of Summer presents an anthology of words and images of other visionaries—Anaïs Nin among them — who reported on (and fantasized about) the same fishermen, tourists, lovers, and sand dunes as Williams. In 1941, Nin, famous for her diaries, wrote “Life in Provincetown” erotica at the rate of a dollar a page.
“Provincetown was no ordinary fishing town for summer tourists. It became the landscape of rebirth, a bridge from the withering effects of uprooting to the gold-dust sand dunes painted by so many artists … I came back with its sand of crushed glass, some of the whiteness of its beacons, the fever of its sun, reshaped, remolded by the waves, resoldered by its heat. Provincetown deposited in me not its ordinary gifts, antiques, shells, fish, sailors' lanterns, nets, glass bowls, paintings, but a supply of summer to last through the winter.” -- The Diaries of Anaïs Nin, Summer 1941.
The Director of the Festival’s presentation of A Supply of Summer, Kim McKean, recently shared some thoughts with us about Anais Nin.
Q: What does Anais Nin mean to you?
Nin is one of the first writers I was exposed to who explored her identity, femininity, and sensuality in such a nuanced, honest, and complex way. Her fearless (re)examination of self encourages me to delve deeper into my own vulnerabilities and express them with the same authenticity and courage in my creative work.
Q: Why do you think people should know about her now?
Nin’s work challenges societal norms and encourages women to embrace their full, authentic selves, making her voice especially resonant in a world where freedom of gender expression and reproductive rights are contested, even non-existent in some parts of our country. Her writing inspires us to live authentically and fight for bodily autonomy in all of its forms—an imperative that is more critical now, especially in this election cycle, than ever before.
Q: What makes something "feminist erotica"? Is there such a thing? (this is a leading question because she wrote about it herself, that she didn't think she had written such a thing and then someone pointed out to her that she had).
In the winter of 1941, Nin wrote a letter to the collector (commissioner) of her erotica: "Sex loses all its power and magic when it becomes explicit, mechanical, overdone, when it becomes a mechanistic obsession. It becomes a bore. You [the collector] have taught us more than anyone I know how wrong it is not to mix it with emotion, hunger, desire, lust, whims, caprices, personal ties, deeper relationships which change its color, flavor, rhythms, intensities..." I strongly believe Nin did not write 'feminist erotica' because she wrote from the male gaze for a primarily male audience. For me, if there is such a thing as 'feminist' erotica, it would shift the gaze from the male to the female; it would elucidate the many shades of feminine desire. It would relish in exploring the "hunger, desire, lust, whims" Nin mentions.
BONUS Q
Q: What do you think relates to us in Ptown to Nin's experience in Ptown?
Nin's writing about Provincetown makes the reader feel as though they are walking the same streets and breathing the same sea air as all of the artists, fisherman, free-thinkers, and lovers who have spent time there. It captures Ptown as a sanctuary for creativity and artistic expression.
You can purchase tickets to A Supply of Summer here.
