“The reality of art is the reality of the imagination. The charge laid on artists is bring back visions.” -Jeanette Winterson
Co-led by poets Julie Marie Wade & Maureen Seaton, “QUEER DEPOT 101: CREATIVITY & QUEERNESS”, the first in a series of literary salons produced by Reading Queer, explored queerness as a potent source for creativity for writers and artists.
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach. Maureen Seaton & Julie Marie Wade.
“Is all art-making inherently queer, particularly in a world that devalues art and consigns most artists to the margins of mainstream work? Maybe queerness is a kind of potential we all have to express ourselves creatively, apart from gender, race, orientation, etc.,” salon facilitators Julie Marie Wade & Maureen Seaton wrote. “What if it is? How can we tap into this potent energy source? The discussion begins: QUEER DEPOT 101.”
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach. Jose Porteal RQ Program Director.
Through two 2-hour creative writing & rap sessions, the inaugural Queer Depot 101 attempted to de-stigmatize the term queer and frame it as a potent source for creativity: We all have that queer potential in us, an energy potential, a dial, that can be turned up or down as we see fit to create art regardless of one’s sexual preference and/or gender identification. Queer breaks molds. It’s a creative force within all of us that alters our perception of ourselves and the world. It’s a force that allows us to view the world differently, to conceive of new ideas and recognize the value and potential in those ideas. That famous cliché ‘thinking out of the box’ is the embodiment of queer because we have to take ourselves outside of our cage to see a potential in the world that had never been thought of before.
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach.
Poet Denise Duhamel @ the inaugural Queer Depot Literary Salon.
Held at The Betsy Hotel South Beach and The Stonewall Museum & National Archive, Queer Depot 101 attendees free-wrote based on excerpt of Bernard Cooper’s “Burl” read aloud by Julie Marie Wade.
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach.
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach.
Queer Depot 101 @ The Betsy Hotel South Beach. Omar Figueras.
Queer Depot 101 is the first in a series of literary salons produced by Reading Queer that will provide a safe environment for marginalized voices to come together and talk about issues that impact the community from a queer perspective. For a listing of future Queer Depots, visit our salon page here.
Queer Depot 101 @ The Stonewall National Museum & Archives
Queer Depot 101 @ The Stonewall National Museum & Archives
Queer Depot 101 @ The Stonewall National Museum & Archives. (Maureen Seaton).