REVERB: A Queer Reading Series Spring 2016

Our first REVERB of 2016 is a real celebration – of spring, of all things queer, and especially the launch of VIVEK SHRAYA’s poetry debut “even this page is white” from Arsenal Pulp Press!

Doors at 7, show at 7:30 sharp!

The event will begin with a welcoming by Lorelei Hawkins.

***FEATURING***

CECILY NICHOLSON
Cecily Nicholson is the administrator of the artist-run centre Gallery Gachet and has worked since 2000 in the downtown eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver. She collaborates with the Joint Effort prison abolition group and is the author of Triage (2011) and From the Poplars (2014), winner of the 2015 Dorothy Livesay prize for poetry.

JENNIE DUGUAY
Jennie Duguay is a poet, writer and visual artist whose work engages the experiences of living with chronic physical and mental illness, the precarious labour of grief, and a persistent devotion to family and relationships. Jennie organizes a Community Care Collective, a radical form of community based care that centers values of service, interdependency and collaboration. She is eagerly awaiting the day she can adopt a dog.

MOLLY BILLOWS
Molly Billows is swift waters, secrets, and salal berries. Northern Coast Salish from the Homalco Nation, she was adopted-out and grew up in and around Victoria. She has been living as a visitor in Vancouver, on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations since 2011. She is a queer, mixed, urban, Indigenous feminist, a spoken word poet, and a youth worker. She hopes to weave together stories in ways that lift up her communities, and contribute to collective healing, rage, resurgence and love.

VIVEK SHRAYA
Vivek Shraya is a Toronto-based artist whose body of work includes several albums,films, and books. She is also one half of the music duo Too Attached and the Associate Editor of Heartbeats, a website that features racialized artists and stories. Her first novel, She of the Mountains, was named one of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2014, and will be followed by her debut collection of poetry, “even this page is white,” out this spring. Vivek has read and performed at shows, festivals and post-secondary institutions in­ter­nation­ally, sharing the stage with Tegan & Sara and Dragonette, and has appeared at NXNE, Word on the Street, and Yale University. Vivek is a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, a 2015 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award finalist, and a 2015 recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize Honour of Distinction. Vivek’s first children’s picture book, The Boy& the Bindi, will be published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2016. Her book on recording artist M.I.A. will be published in 2017 by ECW Press, as part of their Pop Classics series.

Our merch table this time around will include copies of Vivek Shraya’s new book “even this page is white,” art, zines, and chapbooks from past readers — bring your bucks! And of course, we’ll have some amazing give-aways for you — stay tuned!

All accessibility info available on our website: reverbqueerreadingseries.weebly.com

***ABOUT REVERB***

REVERB: A Queer Reading Series aims to support and showcase emerging and established LGBT2QI writers through a quarterly reading series with an anti-oppressive framework. We believe that writing is a radical act that can transform dominant narratives about whose lives and loves are important and valued, and that sharing that writing can empower, inspire and transform ourselves and our communities. We write and read on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land, and are committed to radical inclusion in our series, recognizing that access to the world of writing, literacy, and even queerness continues to be limited. As organizers, we endeavour to create a reading series where white-identified readers are always in the minority to ensure a space that centres the voices of Indigenous, Black, mixed writers and all writers of colour. All our writers self-identify on a spectrum of queerness that centres trans* and femme experiences. All of our events are held in physically and financially accessible spaces, and with every event, we make at least one change to ensure that REVERB becomes more and more accessible. We promise to do all we can to create a safer space — bring your suggestions! Check your assumptions at the door; REVERB is a body-positive, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and hella queer- and trans-positive event.

reverbqueerreadingseries@gmail.com
reverbqueerreadingseries.weebly.com
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