Browsing Tag

poet

What’s in a Name?: Poet Danez Smith Tackles Race, Queerness, Xenophobia, and Diagnosis

Posted on January 30, 2020
A photo of poet Danez Smith.

Arguably the greatest stanza ever written? Nah, I dare to say screw Shakespeare. There’s a new poet on the block. Enter Danez Smith, a Black, queer, HIV-positive poet whose works, Don’t Call Us Dead and Homie, center the true power in naming, the exploration of racism, the intimacy of queerness, and the reality of xenophobia. Smith is currently touring for the latter work, and stops in at Houston’s Brazos Bookstore on January 31.…

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Living Out Loud: Trans Activist Dee Dee Watters Rediscovers Passion for Poetry

Posted on March 19, 2018
A photo of Dee Dee Watters.

On a warm summer night in 2013, I walk by myself across the parking lot of the Montrose Center. My youth group peers have left me behind, chatting amongst themselves. Dee Dee Watters notices me walking alone, smiles, and waves a hand with long decorated nails. “I don’t know you, but I love you,” she says. “Have a good night. I’ll see you around.”…

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If Only We Could Remember: Being Queer and Indigenous in the South

Posted on November 15, 2017
A photo of queer indigenous activist Eydka Chilomé.

I am an unapologetic queer indigenous femme woman, activist, artist, and educator with hair on my legs and under my armpits. I currently live in a place called Texas where I bear witness to police killings, klan/neo-nazi rallies, confederate flags, and trump propaganda—essentially white supremacy wrapped in the violently-appropriated indigenous Mexican aesthetic of the “cowboy.” Today, the u.s. South yells the same war cry that my ancestors have heard over and over again—a proud declaration of settler colonialism. …

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