Performed at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul, MN

“How I see his guilt in every message after. More ashamed of being queer than of being a rapist.”

Don’t miss this poem from Daniel, performing at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul, MN

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Performed at Queen Bee’s Art and Cultural Center in San Diego, CA

“I’ve got a hamper that’s overflowing with really really loud mistakes.”

Don’t miss this poem from Rudy Francisco, performing at Queen Bee’s Art and Cultural Center in San Diego, CA

Get Rudy’s book, Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky.

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Performed their poem “My Mom Has the Sex Talk With Me While Driving to the Grocery Store”

“I realize that this is the grace with which my mother loves me.”

Don’t miss this poem from Kate Leddy, performing their poem “My Mom Has the Sex Talk With Me While Driving to the Grocery Store”

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Performed at IWPS 2019 in San Diego, CA

“Is this what they mean when they say, ‘behind every strong black man be a strong black woman.'”

Don’t miss this poem from Jael Benjamin, performing at IWPS 2019 in San Diego, CA

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Performed at the Button Studio

“”I stare at the mother I refuse to become.””

Don’t miss this poem from Blythe Baird, performing at the Button Studio

Get Blythe Baird’s book, Sweet, Young, & Worried.

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Performed at WoWPS 2020 in Dallas, TX

“I wear my Spanish not on my hip like a weapon against my American identity, but like a badge of honor on my chest.”

Don’t miss this poem from Chelsea Guevara, performing at WoWPS 2020 in Dallas, TX

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Performed at The Town Hall in New York, NY

“Saturday wash days with grandma became Saturday appointments at the salon. Coiled, curled, and cleansed became wash, rinse, relax.”

Don’t miss this poem from Mariam Dembele, performing at The Town Hall in New York, NY

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Topaz Winters is the Singaporean-American author of So, Stranger (Button Poetry 2022) & Portrait of My Body as a Crime I’m Still Committing (Button Poetry 2019 & 2024). She serves as editor-in-chief of Half Mystic Press, an independent, international, & interdisciplinary publishing project, & as co-editor of Kopi Break, a journal of new Singapore poetry. Her work has been published by Waxwing, The Drift, & Poets.org, profiled in Vogue, The Straits Times, & The Business Times, & performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre for Fiction, & the Singapore Writers Festival. She lives between New York & Singapore.

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Performed at The Strike Theater in Minneapolis, MN

“”Newly awakened grief has hands wrapped around his neck twisted like rosary beads tightening in prayer clinging to the last breath of his body like a final amen.””

Don’t miss this poem from Ollie Schminkey, performing at The Strike Theater in Minneapolis, MN

Get Ollie’s book, Dead Dad Jokes.

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Ollie Schminkey is a non-binary transgender poet and artist living in St. Paul, MN. They have spent the past decade coaching, mentoring, teaching classes, and running workshops for poets. They are the author of three chapbooks, as well as the full-length collection Dead Dad Jokes (Button Poetry, 2021) which was shortlisted for both the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. Their work has been featured everywhere from THEM to Upworthy, and they’ve performed poems in 19 states, with their work garnering over 2 million views on YouTube. When they’re not writing and performing poetry, they spend their time making creepy+cute pottery under the name Sick Kitty Ceramics. You can find them touring nationally, making music, or playing with their cat Pete, who is always trying to eat things he shouldn’t.

To take a class or to see more of their work, check out ollieschminkey.com.