Kris Kovick (September 10, 1951 – October 26, 2001) was an American writer, cartoonist, and printer based in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Early years

Kovick was born in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

and attended

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...

in the early 1970s. She moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

for five years, and then settled in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1980. In San Francisco, she lived in the Bernal Heights neighborhood, where she became known as "The Mayor of Norwich Street", a take-off on San Francisco activist

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised i ...

's nickname "The Mayor of Castro Street". In San Francisco, she worked as an etcher and scanner operator for a printing company—and was the first woman to become a member of the printing trade union in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

Artistic influences and works

Kovick was well known as a cartoonist in lesbian and feminist publications. Her book of essays and cartoons ''What I Love About Lesbian Politics Is Arguing With People I Agree With'' was published in 1991 by Alyson Books. Her writings and cartoons were also published in such anthologies as ''Glibquips: Funny Words by Funny Women'', and in

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

publications such as ''OUT/LOOK'', the ''

San Francisco Bay Times The ''San Francisco Bay Times'', the first LGBTQ newspaper founded jointly by gay men and women, launched in 1978 and remains one of the largest and oldest LGBTQ newspapers in Northern California. The business includes the 24/7 live-streaming Cas ...

'' and ''Gay Comics''. Kovick was friends with other writers and cartoonists such as sex columnist

Susie Bright Susannah Bright (born March 25, 1958) is an American feminist, author and journalist, often writing on the subject of politics and sexuality. She is the recipient of the 2017 Humanist Feminist Award, and is one of the early writers/activists ref ...

, and cartoonist

Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel ( ; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her Graphic novel, graphic memoir ''Fun ...

, the artist behind the popular "

Dykes to Watch Out For ''Dykes to Watch Out For'' (sometimes ''DTWOF'') was a weekly comic strip by Alison Bechdel. The strip, which ran from 1983 to 2008, was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture and has been called "as importa ...

" series, who memorialized Kovick in cartoon form in 2008. Kovick was also known as a writer and performer. She is credited with launching the lesbian spoken-word scene in San Francisco. She hosted a monthly performance night at Red Dora's Bearded Lady Cafe from 1991 to 1993, and continued to perform for years afterwards. In one locally famous performance, she officiated at the mock-wedding of drag performers

Elvis Herselvis Elvis Herselvis is the stage name of the American actor and singer Leigh Crow, whose rise to international exposure was performing as a female Elvis Presley impersonator. Crow still performs as Elvis Herselvis on occasion as well as sings, acts and ...

and

Justin Bond Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor, who is transgender. Described as "the best cabaret artist of heir!-- MOS:GENDERID --> generation" and a "tornado of art and activism", they first achieved prominen ...

. She toured nationally with

Sister Spit Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members i ...

, a group of women writers that also included such well-regarded authors as

Michelle Tea Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik, 1971) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, sex work, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachuse ...

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is an American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. Novelist Dennis Cooper has des ...

Lynn Breedlove Lynn Breedlove (also known as Lynnee Breedlove) is an American musician, writer, and performer who was born in Oakland, California. Early life Lynn Breedlove was born in and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during early childhood and then l ...

Sini Anderson Sini Anderson (born November 6, 1969) is an American film director, producer, performance artist, choreographer, dancer and poet, from Chicago, Illinois. Anderson is widely known for directing '' The Punk Singer'' (2013), a documentary about riot ...

and others. In 2000, she founded a reading series at the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts, called "San Francisco in Exile." Selected performances from the San Francisco in Exile series are archived on the internet.

Death

She died of

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

at age 50 in 2001.

Posthumous

In 2005, Kovick was the subject of a short documentary by director Silas Howard entitled "What I Love About Dying," which screened at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovick, Kris 1951 births 2001 deaths Place of death missing American women cartoonists Deaths from breast cancer American lesbian writers American LGBTQ artists LGBTQ comics creators Writers from Fresno, California Writers from San Francisco American magazine cartoonists 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American artists 20th-century American LGBTQ people LGBTQ people from California American female comics writers American female comics artists