Ru Marshall and Laura Parnes in conversation
Sunday, June 28, 7pm

To celebrate the publication Ru Marshall, American Trickster, The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda by OR Books, artist Laura Parnes, whose recently premiered video Magic Thinking, a meditation on cults and contemporary politics, joins Marshall in conversation.

Ru Marshall, the author of American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda (OR Books, 2026), which reveals for the first time the secret cultic world of the once famed countercultural anthropologist, is the recipient of the Hazel Rowley Prize from the Biographers International Organization. They are also the author of the novel A Separate Reality (Carroll & Grad, 2006) which was nominated for a Lambda Award for debut fiction. Kirkus calls American Trickster “A project of epic proportions, pulled off with remarkable élan,” and The Spectator describes it as “an extraordinary amalgam of investigation, reportage, psychology, sociology and cultural studies.” Ru is a visual artist as well as a writer, and their work has been exhibited at Participant Inc., White Columns, Art in General and at numerous venues throughout the US and Europe. They have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for their fiction, and their writing has appeared in N +1, The Evergreen Review, The Kenyon Review, The Barcelona Review, The Michigan Quarterly, Your Impossible Voice and numerous other publications.

Laura Parnes' multiplatform installations fuse comedy with pathos to probe social and political trauma. Informed by traditions and genres in narrative film, video art and queer theater, her work blurs the lines between conventions of storytelling and experimentation. Her works have been screened and exhibited widely in the US and internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; MoMA/PS1, NY; Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, FL; The Brooklyn Museum; Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; and Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Her recent solo exhibitions include: LAXART, LA, Participant Inc, and Pioneer Works, and solo screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and The Kitchen.

Images:
Ru Marshall, American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda, 2026, OR Books, book cover. [A color image of the cover of a book, in which a closely cropped image of a human face, centered on the left eye, emerges from a dark background. The title and author's name appear at the bottom, with a brief blurb from Kirkus Reviews at the top that reads: "A project of epic proportions, pulled off with remarkable élan." ]

Laura Parnes, Magic Thinking, 2023-present, archival digital print, 60”X40", pictured L to R, Laine Rettmer and Becca Blackwell, Photo: Laura Parnes, photo technician: Raimond Koch. [A color photo of two people with closely overlapping bodies floating in a swimming pool face up. A number of sunflower blooms surround them, floating in the pool alongside a number of disembodied faces cast from the two actors]