We’re excited to join SOHO20 Gallery next Friday night for Writing at the Intersections of Feminism & Pop Culture!
Part of the gallery’s Rethinking Feminism series and program fellowship Home on the Page: towards a feminist public, Weird Sister will be taking over the gallery for a night of readings and discussion. Poets and journalists will share new work exploring feminism, gender, race, the media, pop culture and the everyday. Continue reading
Come to the launch party for Weird Sister contributor & editor Caolan Madden’s new chapbook VAST NECROHOL (Hyacinth Girl Press), tomorrow in Brooklyn! Continue reading
Filed under Books + Literature, Events
Weird Sister founder and editor-in-chief Marisa Crawford’s new poetry collection Reversible is now available from Switchback Books!
What people are saying about Reversible:
“Be prepared to be washed in nostalgia when you crack open Marisa Crawford’s new collection Reversible. Crawford’s work mixes pop culture, social commentary, and vivid memory in this this unabashedly feminist collection.” — Bustle
“Reversible is nostalgic, dark, surprising yet warmly familiar. I mourn for the girlhood of this book.” — Morgan Parker
“Crawford’s poems know, better than any I’ve ever read, that fashion is imagery; ditto for friendships and stickers and backyard pools and the things girls do to their bodies in their bedrooms late at night.” — Becca Klaver
“Reversible is the glossy mixtape of girl in becoming […]. I can relate to the poems’ ‘you’ or ‘we’ in ways mediated by the ‘trinity’ of race, class, & gender—as the poems here certainly locate themselves within—or in the other similarly dangerous trinity of: are you on your period, what’s your rising sign, & who’s your favorite Spice Girl.” — Jennifer Tamayo Continue reading
Filed under Books + Literature, Events
I’ve always understood the allure of the road. A chance to play at something else, something bigger, get swallowed up, get away.
My childhood was filled with curly lipped churchgoers who spoke in tongues, an aunt with curious hands, a stultifying fatphobia that ripped my tongue out of my mouth, and an unstable mother who liked meth houses.
I survived this through the pathological pursuit of achievement, a rabid dick-hunger that activated an ancient understanding of pussy as barter, and the most meticulously crafted isolation—a rococo house with no doorknobs. I built a road out of my past one trophy, one fuck, one stifled meltdown at a time. Roads—metaphorical and literal—are precious to me, representing motion, change, and the promise of a novelty that touches me and awakens my heart.
I’m about to hit the (literal) road with seven other writers and artists for the Sister Spit 20th Anniversary Tour. Started in 1997 by Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Sister Spit was a brazen response to the dude-saturated open mic scene of 1990s San Francisco. The tour is legendary for having started as an all-girl lineup traveling the country by road and bringing provocative observations about the strange world that had built itself around them—stories of sex and love and survival and the million ways a country can disappoint you. Continue reading
Filed under Books + Literature, Events
NYC poets: Join us for a strategic planning meeting to prepare for the literary activism of the year ahead.
Where: Bureau of General Services-Queer Division, 208 W 13th St, Rm 210, New York, New York 10011
When: TOMORROW, Saturday 2/25, 4-6 PM
From the event’s Facebook page:
“Tenative Agenda:
– What social/governmental issues do we want addressed in the coming year
– What literary activist issues do we want addressed in the coming year
– What strategies for activism have we seen be successful?
– Where and how do we focus our energy?” Continue reading
Filed under Events
Weird Sister is happy to be co-sponsoring a Candlelight Vigil for Free Speech on the last day of AWP in Washington DC next week:
“We invite writers assembled in DC for AWP to a Candlelight Vigil for Freedom of Expression. This basic freedom is threatened in new ways and with more intensity than in recent memory. As the nation’s poets and writers, editors and critics, we have a unique and vital obligation to stand watch over free speech and expression. May our candlelight vigil February 11 provide encouragement and focus to our watch in the coming years.”
When: Saturday 2/11; 6:15 – 7:30
Location: Lafayette Park, across from the White House. A 20-minute walk from the convention center. Close to the Farragut North Metro stop on the Red Line.
Speakers: Kazim Ali, Gabrielle Bellot, Melissa Febos, Carolyn Forché, Ross Gay, Luis J. Rodriguez, Eric Sasson.
Learn more on the event’s Facebook page.
Filed under Events
Last Thursday night, December 15th, Weird Sister joined Hyperallergic, Well-Read Black Girl, The Creative Independent, Lenny, VIDA, and many other arts organizations for ART AFTER TRUMP at Housing Works Bookstore. The night featured over 150 artists of all disciplines responding to the questions posed by the event organizers: “As an artist, how are you reacting to this uncertain future? What do you want to say or do?” Performances ranged from poems and essay excerpts to letters, speeches, and songs—you can listen to full audio from the event over on The Creative Independent. Below are the pieces that Weird Sister’s five performers—Merve Kayan, Christopher Soto/Loma, Naomi Extra, Cathy de la Cruz, and myself—shared that night:
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“In 1961, Fannie Lou Hamer went to the hospital to have a cyst removed and left with a hysterectomy. Forced hysterectomies on black and brown women were a common practice in Mississippi. One of many victims of gendered racial violence, Hamer’s body, as both woman and black was under siege by the state. Still, she fought. In 1963, Hamer and a fierce set of lesser known black women—June Johnson, Anelle Ponder, Dorothy Height—used their voices to fight against voter suppression and more broadly, the Trumps of their time.
I refuse to think of Trump as a threat located in a single body. I resist this as a mode of organizing and as a political stance. As a black woman in America, I reject anti Trumpness as a galvanizing energy in fighting oppression. It is contrary to my lived experience. It is contrary to the political work of black women radicals like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, and Ella Baker who fought against multiple forms of oppression. Who fought for women’s rights, labor rights, and civil rights. As a black feminist, I locate myself as part of a long history of fighting against the Trump-like terrors that have plagued poor people, women, the LGBTQ community, and people of color for centuries. Continue reading
Filed under Events, We Were There
NYC Weird Sisters! Join us at our holiday happy hour next week.
Come say hi, have a drink, and kiss 2016 goodbye.
When: Monday, December 19th. 6PM – 10PM
Where: Night of Joy, Brooklyn
More info is on the event page here.
❤️ ?❄️?✨
Filed under Events
Weird Sister is honored to be co-hosting the Housing Works event Art After Trump.
Thursday, December 15, 5:00pm
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, New York
Including Weird Sister performers Marisa Crawford, Cathy de la Cruz, Naomi Extra, Merve Kayan, and Christopher Soto (aka Loma)
Please save the date for a gathering and marathon-style reading of responses by and for artists and arts organizers. Line-up to be announced. Artists of all disciplines will read their short responses – of any form – to the results of election 2016 and the imminent administration.
Partner organizations will provide information and resources in addition to Housing Works’ bookstore and advocacy and healthcare departments.
Produced by:
Molly Rose Quinn, Director of Public programming, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
Brandon Stosuy, Editor-in-Chief, The Creative Independent
Glory Edim, founder, Well-Read Black Girl
Jillian Steinhauer, Senior Editor, Hyperallergic
Ben Sisto, Ace Hotel New York Continue reading
Come say HI to us at NYC Poetry Fest on Govenors Island!
On Saturday 7/30, three amazing poets will be reading as part of the Weird Sister showcase at the New York City Poetry Festival.
When: 4pm
Where: The Algonquin Stage
Featuring readings by:
Hosted by Marisa Crawford and Cathy de la Cruz
More info here.
Can’t wait to see you! <3 <3 <3
Filed under Events
