upcoming queer open mic performers

[emchy]

it's happened again - we are planned out for what feels like WAAAAAY in advance
if you keep a calendar
mark it now :)

5/26
Elizabeth Chavez

Fierce Latina poet who also runs Monkey Press - a poetry publishing house devoted to promoting the work of women of color.

and
 
Treina Alexander (bio pending)

guest hosted by Meliza Bañales

69
Meliza Bañales

Meliza Bañales is the author of Girl With the Glass Throat, Scratching a Surface, and Say It With Your Whole Mouth 
(nominated for a Poetry Center Book Award in 2004).  Her work has been featured in the anthologies Revolutionary Voices 
(ed., by Ami Sonny) and Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing-Up Working-Class  as well as in Transfer, Lodestar 
Quarterly, and Laundry Pen.  She was the 2002 Oakland Grand Slam Champ and the first Latina on the west coast to win a poetry 
slam championship and was the 2002 winner of the People Before Profits Poetry Prize.  She has fiction in the upcoming anthology 
Baby, Remember My Name: New Queer Girl Writing (ed., by Michelle Tea), four entries in the first ever 
Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, a short film, Do the Math, with Mary Guzmán in Frameline 2006 and a
 second book of poems, 51 Poems About Nothing At All, out in June from Monkey Press.  

6/23

Atypcl: Joel A. Brown

Raised in Milwaukee, Joel A. Brown has been writing since the age of 7, but did not consider it a vocation until the age of 17. Joel approaches his craft from a spiritual perspective instead of as an academic discipline. In a word, he describes his poetry as "authentic."

His poetry is a unique blend of urbanism, sensuality, and spirituality, which speaks to life and its varied nuances. "I don't know what I don't feel," says Joel, "so my poetry is strictly my truth being revealed."

He has 300+ poems to date, and spends his time traveling and performing at poetry events, schools, civic celebrations, and spiritual gatherings, both locally and nationally. In 2003, Joel launched a community arts project called "Souletry”: an enterprise which provides poetry workshops and offers young people-particularly African-American, LGBT and at-risk youth-the opportunity to express themselves in creative space

He has been published in various urban magazines and literary publications, and usually performs under his stage name, "Atypcl," which is largely indicative of his multi-cultural identity. In June 2005, he released his first CD of poetry, “Lucid Intervals,”

Peter Anthony Pizzi

Peter Pizzi is an Independent Filmmaker and Photographer. He is from Boston, Mass. In 1999 he formed his production company – Magic Club Productions.  

Peter works mainly with Digital Video. He also tells stories with the use of 35mm slides and photos.

His work deals with issues of identity, sexuality and gender. His work has been described as both comical and poignant.

His work has been featured in Art Galleries and Film Festivals across the country.

7/14
Chrystal Wang - *GUEST ARTIST FROM SINGAPORE*

Chrystal Wang was born in Singapore in 1984; for about five years she lived and studied in Anaheim Hills and Temecula, CA, but now resides in her native country.

 
Chrystal is an undergrad at the National University of Singapore, where she is majoring in Philosophy and doing a minor in English Literature. She maintains in her studies a keen interest and focus on identity, gender, and sexuality issues. These issues--along with the politics of herself being young and queer in a small society and amidst Asian culture--have centered the content of her writing.

 
Spoken word poetry has been a bit of a new direction for Chrystal--an interest turned serious past-time, which all started around March 2005 at the Word Forward Poetry Slam in Singapore. Since then she's been to as many more slams as she's been able to afford, participated in a showcase youth slam at the Esplanade, and featured at Ladyfest Singapore's first poetry event. She is the first out and proud queer spoken word artist in Singapore, and the summer of 2006 will mark the first time she is reading her work outside her native country. 

Random facts: Chrystal also sings for a local band, The World According To (jim), named after a chapter out of Lynn Breedlove’s novel Godspeed; likes the color gray; would kill if Pearl Jam is dissed to her face; doesn't read as much as she should but drinks more than she should; loves her mom's cooking; and plans to eventually make the short films that she scripts.

Kisha Montgomery

Kisha is an emerging spoken word artist who had her my first performance at the 12th AnnualRadical Performance Festival. She recently recorded a spoken word album in Africa.

7/28
Fran Varian

Fran Varian was a member of Seattles National Poetry Slam team in 2000, and has subsequently performed on numerous stages across the country, including the Seattle Poetry Festival.  Her work appears in Without A Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class, edited by Michelle Tea. Her independently published collection of poems tsunmai is currently available.

Aug 11
Maceo Cabrera Estevez

Local(SF) queer/trans of color poetic superstar.

August 25
Heathen Machinery

there is a girl who goes by the name of heathen machinery who is currently talking about herself in the third person.  regardless of this, she is a rather nice girl (calls her mother often, votes accordingly).  she has always been a writer, though only in the most masturbatory ways, for as long as she could remember.  well, maybe she was more of a liar, but age has taught her to write everything down and change the names.  so, yeah, long history of writing.  never much of a reader-out-louder, though, so she apologizes in advance for any mutual embarassment this might cause the both of us, ah, you.  in addition to this, she has been published by lodestar quarterly.  thank you for reading.