#We- Queer perspectives

#We- queer perspectives

#we presents four powerful writers from marginalized segments of the queer spectrum, including trans, intersex, and poets of color, will present their perspectives and very likely change yours.

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Dena Rod is a non-binary poet and essayist whose work has been highlighted in My Shadow is My Skin: Voices from the Iranian Diaspora, Autostraddle, and The Rumpus. Their debut poetry collection Scattered Arils is now in its fourth print run from Milk and Cake Press. Dena writes to illuminate their experiences in the Iranian American diaspora and queer communities. They're currently at work on their first novel. Connect with Dena at their website, denarod.com.

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LD Green (they/them) is a queer and non-binary writer, performer, and community college professor living in Richmond, California on Ohlone Land. They have been published on Salon, The Body is Not an Apology, Foglifter, and elsewhere. They co-edited We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health with Kelechi Ubozoh (North Atlantic Books, 2019) and authored Phoenix Song (Nomadic Press, 2022). Their queer and trans rom com fantasy screenplay Journey to the Enchanted Inkwell has been a finalist in the Script2Comic Contest and Screencraft Virtual Pitch Contest in 2023 and earned them a spot at a Stowe Screenwriting Retreat. They are working on adapting this script into a graphic novel with artist Ana 'Vee' Valdez.

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Julian Mithra hovers between genders and genres, border-mongering and -mongreling. Winner of the 2023 Alcove Chapbook Prize, Promiscuous Ruin (WTAW, 2023) twists through labyrinthine deer stalks in the imperiled wilderness of inhibited desire. Unearthingly (KERNPUNKT, 2022) excavates forgotten spaces. Read recent work in Paperbark, Heavy Feather Review and newsinews.

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Tom Odegard is a gender-fluid empath, a non-binary two-spirit, builder, sailor, retired firefighter, jack of many trades and in order to remain sane, a poet. He learned he was intersex (47 xxy/KS) when he was 65. It was a vindication for all the struggles he'd endured until then. Since that time he has been an outspoken advocate for all intersex folk. He lives variously in Oakland, CA and Friday Harbor, WA.

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#we was a bi-monthly talk and reading series of queer perspectives curated by Richard Loranger in Oakland, CA. Each installment featured two presenters from various segments of the queer spectrum, each of whom gave a prepared talk on their perspective on or experience of queerness, followed by a reading or performance of their creative work. The series had an emphasis on marginalization from without and/or within the queer community, though did not require that exclusively. The series ran from November 2018 through January 2020, then preferring an in-person experience, shut down due to the pandemic. We hope to start it up again sometime soon.

Leg 2: 5:30-6:30p  Venue: Awaken Cafe 1429 Broadway

ABOUT AWAKEN CAFE:
Awaken Cafe
Rocking it in downtown Oakland since 2008, Awaken Cafe & Roasting is a community coffee-house, espresso bar, best-in-class coffee gear retailer, restaurant, beer & wine bar, and event venue. But mainly we are here to help bring people together to launch what's next for Oakland and the world, and we might as well #drinkgoodcoffee while we're at it. We roast our coffee regularly at Pulley Collective in West Oakland.