Join us for a dynamic reading sponsored by Lambda Literary + Nat. Brut, hosted by Kay Ulanday Barrett during AWP 2019.
Come and enjoy a dynamic night that centers the work for/by Sick, Disabled, Chronic Pain, & Mad Queer writers! We recognize that writing on disability and ability are not mutually exclusive of other trappings of oppression and experience. Here, we want to honor and celebrate writing where Disabled and Sick people take the charge, spoon out, seek solace, amplify craft & care! This reading uplifts Black, Indigenous, & People of Color Queer perspectives so please honor & celebrate this nuance and brilliance.
FEATURES INCLUDE:
– Natalie Sharp
– Cyree Jarelle Johnson
– Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes
– Zahra Noorbakhsh
– Aurielle Marie
– Rachel McKibbens
Door open:
6pm, Event starts 6:15pm
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NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY
* The space is wheelchair accessible. Ramp is available on side entrance.
* All Gender bathroom on-site.
* We strongly encourage all participants of the space/event to be scent-free. The Ori Gallery is a scent-free space.
* There will be priority seating for Deaf as well as Disabled community.
* ASL translation is TBA & will be updated.
If you all have any other specific questions about accessibility, please email Kay at info@kaybarrett.net with any questions.
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ABOUT FEATURES:
Natalie Sharp is a Black queer writer, dancer, and educator hailing from Savannah, GA and based in Denver, CO. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Natalie was a 2016 and 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2017 Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow in poetry, a finalist for the 2017 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets and was the 2018 Denver Mercury representative for the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Her poetry and nonfiction have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, Puerto del Sol, BOAAT Press, Juked, The Shade Journal, and elsewhere. If you propose to her in a Waffle House, she will probably say yes. You can follow her on Instagram @short_sharp_shock or visit her website at www.staysharpstudio.com.
Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a writer and librarian living in NYC. SLINGSHOT, their first book of poems, will be published by Nightboat Books in autumn 2019.
heidi andrea restrepo rhodes is a queer, femme, sick/disabled, Colombian/Latinx poet, artist, scholar, & activist. Her first full-length collection The Inheritance of Haunting (2019) was chosen by Ada Limón for the 2018 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize for a first book by a Latinx poet, awarded by Letras Latinas, the literary initiative based out of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her poetry has been published in As/Us, Pank, Raspa, Word Riot, Feminist Studies, Huizache, & Nat.Brut among other places. A 2018 VONA alum, she is currently a doctoral candidate in political theory at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She grew up in California and lives in Brooklyn. Instagram: Vessels.we.are
Zahra Noorbakhsh is a comedian and cohost of the award-winning podcast, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim. The podcast was listed as a “must listen,” by Oprah Magazine and was invited to the Obama Whitehouse to record an episode. She is a Sr. Fellow on comedy for social change with the Pop Culture Collaborative. Her solo performance, “All Atheists are Muslim: A Romantic Comedy,” was originally directed by W. Kamau Bell and dubbed a highlight of the Int’l New York City Fringe Theater Festival by the New Yorker Magazine. Her new show, “On Behalf of All Muslims: A Comedy Special,” directed by Lisa Marie Rollins and produced by Golden Thread Productions, is slated for world premiere at the historic Brava Theater in San Francisco, this June.
Aurielle Marie is a Black and queer poet, activist, and cultural strategist forever repping the Southwest side of Atlanta. As an organizer for racial justice, a moving performer, and skilled facilitator, she focuses on creating artistic spaces charged by justice, equity, and accessibility. She’s received invitations for fellowships from the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for LGBTQ writers, Tin House, VONA Voices, and Kopkind Colony. She was chosen by Safiya Sinclair as the winner of Blue Mesa Review’s 2017 Poetry Prize. Her essays and poems have been featured in or are forthcoming from the Adroit Journal, VINYL, BOAAT Magazine, Black Warrior Review, NBC, ESSENCE, Allure, and the Huffington Post. Her inaugural collection, Gumbo Ya Ya, won the 2017 Poetry Prize from Write Bloody Publishing and is scheduled for release September 2019.
Rachel McKibbens is a two-time New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and author of three books of poetry, blud, Into the Dark & Emptying Field and Pink Elephant. In 2012, McKibbens founded The Pink Door Writing Retreat, an annual event open exclusively to women, trans & non-binary writers of color. McKibbens is a member of Latinas Unidas and co-owns The Spirit Room in Rochester, NY.
Kay Ulanday Barrett aka @brownroundboi is a poet, performer, and cultural strategist. They are a fellow of VONA, The Home School, Lambda Literary Review, and Drunken Boat retreats. They are 2018 Guest Faculty for The Poetry Foundation, 2018 Writer-in-Residence for Poetry at Lambda Literary Review, and Co-curator at Asian American Writers workshop. K. has featured on stages like The Lincoln Center, Princeton University, UC Berkeley, Chicago Historical Society, Brooklyn Museum, The NY Poetry Festival, The Dodge Poetry Foundation, Tucson Poetry Festival, The Hemispheric Institute, and National Queer Arts Festival. They have featured in Vogue, PBS News Hour Poetry, Asian American Literary Review, VIDA, RaceForward, The Deaf Poets Society, NYLON, Apogee, Entropy, among others. Kaybarrett.net
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