Lena Dunham’s Lenny IRL Tour, with Waxahatchee & more, cancelled

Waxahatchee are releasing Out in the Storm via Merge on July 14, and they're going on a full band tour in support of it, with openers, varying by date, including Cayetana, Snail Mail, Palehound, and Outer Spaces. Before that tour kicks off in July, Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield was scheduled to join the Lenny IRL tour, with Lenny cofounder, writer, actress, producer, and director Lena Dunham, comedians Sasheer Zamata, Morgan Murphy, Charla Lauriston, and Jacqueline Novak, and writers Jenny Zhang, Chloe Caldwell, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and Rachel McKibbens. The tour was conceived as a variety show, with readings, comedy, music, and questions from a live audience, and a portion of the proceeds were to go to LGBTQ charities local to the the midwestern cities the tour stopped at. However, the tour has now been cancelled, due to health issues from Lena Dunham, and tickets will be refunded in full. Read the full letter from Dunham about the flair-up of her endometriosis below.

Meanwhile, this weekend Katie Crutchfield joins forces with her sister Allison Crutchfield for an "Afternoon Jam Session" on May 21 at Milk Studios (450 W 15th St) from 4 – 5:30 PM. It's part of Vulture Festival. (tickets).

I have been so excited to see you all on our Lenny IRL tour. During these dark political days, this has been a ray of sunshine for me. While we knew our traveling variety show couldn't fix a divided nation, we would sure do our part and try.

I've always been open with you all about the challenges I've been dealt with my health, even when it's scary and embarrassing, even when it makes me feel weak or less than. So I'm not going to stop now, even though part of me really wants to, cuz enough is enough. My body, which I've worked through all kinds of pain for many years, just doesn't have what it takes to do this tour. Lenny is about giving 100 percent of ourselves, 100 percent of the time, and I couldn't bear to limp through this. Not for you, our favorite people, and not for the women giving their time to join me on the road.

To be perfectly honest, I'm in the greatest amount of physical pain that I have ever experienced. After being told I was endometriosis-free after my last procedure, more disease was found in deeper spots that required immediate surgery and now physical therapy. This disease is wily and unrelenting, and I'm really blessed to have a community, both online and IRL, who let me express how hard that is. Inspired by you, I'm gonna say "Eff you" to embarrassment and walk the walk of a woman who really takes care of herself. My goals have to be simplified for this moment: to write and to heal.

Lenny is about giving 100 percent of ourselves, 100 percent of the time, and I couldn't bear to limp through this.

I want to thank Katie, Sasheer, Rachel, Morgan, Charla, Jacqueline, Jenny, Kaitlynand Chloe for agreeing to take this trip. I want to thank all the charities that agreed to partner with us (we won't let you down, and I'll be making personal donations to let you know you're loved and needed). But most of all, I want to thank YOU for wanting to join us in this grand experiment. Obviously, your tickets will be refunded in full — we're not monsters! — and we hope to be back when my uterus has taken a chill pill. (But not my spiritual uterus. She'll never chill. She's incapable of chill.)

In the meantime, I encourage you all to gather your girls for evenings of dissent and laughter and wine and analysis and bingeing of Fleabag and Chewing Gum. Holding each other close and giving of ourselves is the most radical thing we can do right now.