Achy Obejas
Join us for the READING QUEER LITERARY FESTIVAL @ MIAMI BOOK FAIR 2015, from Wednesday, November 18th – Sunday, November 22nd, 2015. This year, Reading Queer partnered with the Miami Book Fair to advance RQ’s mission to foster and promote queer literary culture in South Florida by bringing a diverse cross-section of locally, nationally and internationally recognized queer writers, poets and artists to Miami. Check out our schedule of events below and learn about each of our writers and artists here. And, yes, at the end of the fair there will be cake!
AUTHORS: Achy Obejas | Rigoberto González | Julie R. Enszer | Raymond Luczak |Lawrence Schimel | David Tomas Martinez | Dawn Lundy Martin | Danez Smith | Juleysi y Karla | Justin Phillip Reed | Houston Cypress | Denise Duhamel | Maureen Seaton | Y’señia Almaguer | Julie Marie Wade | Caridad Moro-Gronlier | Stephen Mills | Valerie Wetlaufer | Rick Barot
*Cost to enter the Miami Book Fair: $8. Free for MDC students. Parking: free. Simply head to the MDC garage, building 7. Here’s a parking map.
OFF-SITE EVENTS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH @ O CINEMA WYNWOOD @ 9:00 PM
Reading Queer & O Cinema partner to screen the documentary film Paris Is Burning. Paris Is Burning, a documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston, chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it.
Wednesday, November 11th 2015. Time: 9:00 pm. Location: O Cinema – Wynwood. 90 NW 28th Street, Wynwood, FL. Cost: $12. Purchase tickets here: http://goo.gl/5LzZvi.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH @ THE OLYMPIA THEATER @ 6:00 PM.
Reading Queer & Miami Book Fair co-present PARIS IS STILL BURNING with David Tomas Martinez, Dawn Lundy Martin, Justin Phillip Reed and Danez Smith In The Lobby Lounge at the iconic Olympia Theater. Wednesday, November 18th @ 6:30 pm.
Inspired by the legendary documentary film “Paris is Burning” and the queer counterculture it documents, Paris is Still Burning showcases some of the most prominent contemporary queer poets of color whose work reveals and explores various forms of social, racial and economic injustice. Originally produced by Patricia Smith at AWP 2015, PARIS IS STILL BURNING is a reading and performance by LAMBDA Literary Award Winner Danez Smith, Justin Phillip Reed, David Tomas Martinez & Dawn Lundy Martin.
The reading will be followed by a mini “ball”—a mix between a drag pageant and a queer performance competition—featuring members of South Florida’s own bourgeoning ballroom scene. Performers will compete for grand prizes in two categories–realness and voguing. Legendary entertainer Kitty Meow (Shawn Palacious) will judge the “Paris Is Still Burning” mini-ball immediately following the inaugural reading. Grand prizes have been generously donated by the Hotel Gaythering-South Beach.
Wednesday, November 18th 2015. Time:6:30 – 8:30 pm. Location: Olympia Theater. 174 E. Flagler Street. Miami, FL 33131 Cost: Free & open to the public. *NOTE: doorsopen at 6:00 pm. Event will start promptly at 6:30 pm. RSVP here. Parking: free. Simply head to the MDC garage, building 7. Here’s a parking map
ON-SITE EVENTS @ MIAMI BOOK FAIR @ MDC COLLEGE – WOLFSON CAMPUS
MORNING ITINERARY: Come caffeinated up because we’ll start off Sunday with a little CAPRICE (10:00am/building 3, center gallery), a reading by Reading Queer co-founder Maureen Seaton and her collaborator Denise Duhamel. After CAPRICE, we’ll head to CELEBRATING THE LAMMYS (11:00am, building 8, room 8303), a seminal reading with past winners and/or finalists of the Lambda Literary Awards.
AFTERNOON ITINERARY: For the next reading, we stay put. INTERSECTIONAL POETICS (12 noon/building 8, room 8303), which takes place in the same room as CELEBRATING THE LAMMYS, features a deaf gay author and anthologist, Lambda Literary Award winners & finalists, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a Guggenheim & NEA fellow. So, you know, they’re going to be awesome! After this reading, we’ll head back to the center gallery to support RQ Teacher & Mentor Julie Marie Wade read from her collection of poems–WHEN I WAS STRAIGHT (2:00pm/building 3, center gallery).
CLOSING EVENT: After all the literary dust settles, we’ll grab a bite to eat, maybe wander the book fair and then rest up for the big event. A QUEER QUINCEAÑERA (5:00 pm @ The Swamp Pavilion), hosted by Hialeah’s finest drag queens Juleysi y Karla, features a brief reading by graduates of the Reading Queer Writing Academy, followed by a performance, some dancing, frolicking and cake!
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2015 @ MIAMI BOOK FAIR @ 10:00 AM
Caprice: Collected, Uncollected, & New is the quirky love child of award-winning poets Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton, which exploits and explores feminism, gender, sex, witches, religion, and Olive Oyl.
Sunday, November 22nd 2015 Time:10:00 – 11 am. Location: Centre Gallery (Building 1, 3rd Floor, Room 1365) RQ @ MBF2015. 401 NE 2nd Avenue. Miami, FL 33132. Cost:Entry to fair.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2015 @ MIAMI BOOK FAIR @ 11:00 AM
Join Reading Queer & Miami Book Fair for QUEER VERSES/CELEBRATING THE LAMMYS: Winners & Finalists of the LAMBDA Literary Awards with Rick Barot, Dawn Lundy Martin, Stephen Mills and Valerie Wetlaufer. (*Please note that “The Lammys” is incorrectly titled “Queer Veses” on the official Miami Book Fair program.)
For the past 27 years, the LAMBDA Literary Awards—also known affectionately as “the Lammys”—have identified and celebrated the best LGBTQ books of the year. It’s time we celebrate them and their last influence with a reading of the very authors they’ve variously recognized. Four poets, all past Lammy winners and/or finalists, will read from their latest work followed by a short Q & A.
Sunday, November 22nd 2015 Time:11:00 – 12:00 pm Location:Room 8303 (Building 8, 3rd Floor) RQ @ MBF2015. 401 NE 2nd Avenue. Miami, FL 33132. Cost:Entry to fair. RSVP here.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2015 @ MIAMI BOOK FAIR @ 12 NOON
INTERSECTIONAL POETICS: MULTIPLE IDENTITIES, ONE READERSHIP with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Achy Obejas, Guggenheim and NEA fellow Rigoberto González, Julie R. Enszer, Raymond Luczak and hosted by Lawrence Schimel, founder of A Midsummer Night’s Press, the preeminent publisher of LGBT poetry in the United States. Sunday, November 22nd, 2015 @ 12:00 noon.
Whether mapping the rocky terrain of being gay in the deaf world or deaf in the gay world; exploring the convergences and divergences of sexuality and religion; looking at the lesbian experience through the lens of race or blackness through lesbian identity; or exploring the borderlands between nation and sexuality, all of these writers prove that an intersectional poetics, rather than fracturing their audiences into smaller and smaller groups, create new modes of universality. Hyphenated identities once thought as marginal and “not quite American” now appeal to broad communities of readers. Poets with intersectional identities, as these voices prove, redefine and help us to re-imagine what it means to be human, queerly.
Sunday, November 22nd 2015 Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm. Location: Room 8303 (Building 8, 3rd Floor) RQ @ MBF2015. 401 NE 2nd Avenue. Miami, FL 33132. Cost: Entry to fair. RSVP here.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2015 @ MIAMI BOOK FAIR @ 2:00 PM
NEW POEMS: A READING features RQ Writing Teacher & Advisory Board Member Julie Marie Wade. Wade will read from her poetry collection When I Was Straight–poems that are lush post-confessional poems, unabashed in their desire, tentative, and then bold in their knowledge.
Sunday, November 22nd, 2015 Time: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm. Location: The Centre Gallery (Building 1, 3rd Floor, Room 1365) 401 NE 2nd Avenue. Miami, FL 33132. Cost: Entry to the fair. RSVP here.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2015 @ MIAIM BOOK FAIR @ 5:00 PM
A QUEER QUINCEAÑERA with Juleysi y Karla & graduates of the RQ Writing Academy. Sunday, November 22nd, 2015 @ 5:00 pm.
Cruising the boundary between poetry and performance art, A Queer Quinceañera is a celebration of Miami’s literary coming of age. Selected graduates of the Reading Queer Writing Academy, Houston Cypress, Y’señia Almaguer and Caridad Moro-Gronlier, will read from their work followed by a performance by local drag legends Juleysi & Karla.
There will be cake, glitter galore, and dancing will be encouraged as the event leads into the Rhythm Foundation’s Dance Band Night–the official closing event of The Swamp @ Miami Book Fair.
Sunday, November 22nd, 2015 Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm. Location: The Swamp at RQ @ MBF2015. 401 NE 2nd Avenue. Miami, FL 33132. Cost: Entry to the fair. RSVP here.
