Artist Eleanor Antin was born a “red-diaper baby.” Her mother was a Stalinist, her “wimpy” father a socialist. So she says in her semi-fictional, forthcoming memoir, Conversations With Stalin, in which she describes growing up in love with the Soviet Union. She also describes loving Greek statues, and skipping school to see them in the art museum, caressing their white marble thighs when guards turned away. If a guard caught her and threw her out, she'd change her hairstyle before returning. But when she heard Stalin call ancient Greeks “slave-holding aristocrats,” she started playing hooky by going to the movies. Antin will read from this memoir, parts of which she has used in her performances over the years, at Blum & Poe on Saturday. Simone Forti will read, too. She's another performance artist who writes and who, like Antin, came into her own in the 1970s and treats the written word like a physical, all-consuming medium.

Sat., May 26, 6 p.m., 2012

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