Town Hall Seattle Arts & Culture Series

At first sight of Frida Kahlo’s painting The Two Fridas, author Emily Rapp Black felt an instant connection with the artist. An amputee from childhood, Rapp Black grew up with a succession of prosthetic limbs, and learned she had to hide her disability from the world. Kahlo sustained lifelong injuries after a horrific bus crash and her own right leg was eventually amputated. In Kahlo’s art, Rapp Black recognized her own life. In this astoundingly personal presentation, Rapp Black joined us with fellow author Lidia Yuknavitch to explore her own story and her attachment to Kahlo. With candor and vulnerability, she chronicled how Kahlo’s art reflected her own, from numerous operations, to the compulsion to create, to silent pain. She told the story of losing her infant son to Tay-Sachs, giving birth to a daughter, and learning to accept her body.  Rapp Black examined how the experiences and art of another can help shape our own lives—and inspire us to find a way forward when all seems lost. Emily Rapp Black is