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On Thursday, Stamps School of Art and Design welcomed actor, writer and director John Cameron Mitchell to the packed Michigan Theater<\/a> for \u201cIs This My Story to Tell?,<\/a>\u201d a lecture on Mitchell\u2019s career and activism. The talk was part of the Penny Stamps Speaker Series<\/a>, a weekly art and design lecture intended to expose students to different creative fields and respected speakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mitchell is known for his role in the musical \u201cHedwig and the Angry Inch<\/a>,\u201d the story of a genderqueer singer who escapes occupied East Berlin to the United States, which he later adapted for the screen<\/a>. Mitchell has also directed many other films, such as \u201cRabbit Hole<\/a>\u201d and \u201cShortbus<\/a>.\u201d He is also a podcaster, creating the podcast musical \u201cAnthem: Homunculus<\/a>\u201d as well as a fictional podcast \u201cCancelation Island<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n While speaking, Mitchell had a picture behind him of Claude Cahun<\/a>, a Queer French artist from the 1920s, citing the impact Claude and her wife, Marcel Moore, had on the art community in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is Claude Cahun, who, with her wife, Marcel \u2014 they took gender non-specific names \u2014 and they kind of busted out of the scene in Paris,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cWhen they came in there in the \u201920s, (it was) a boy\u2019s club.\u201d<\/p>\n