MOLAA is honored to host a reading and panel highlighting the talent of Southern California-based LGBTQ+ poets. Confirmed participants include Myriam Gurba, Féi Hernández, S.A. Smythe, and Christopher Soto. Free Webinar, Advanced registration is encouraged.
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-x6w3KB0RdiJGGKKHtHvwA
Christopher Soto (b. 1991) is a poet based in Los Angeles, California. He works at UCLA with the Ethnic Studies Research Centers and sits on the Board of Directors for Lambda Literary. He is currently working on a novel about indigo production in El Salvador, during the 19th century.
féi hernandez (they/them) was born in Chihuahua, México and raised in Inglewood, CA. They are a trans non-binary visual artist, writer, and healer. féi is the author of Hood Criatura, published by Sundress Publications, 2020. Their writing has been featured in Poetry, Oxford Review of Books, Frontier, NPR’s Code Switch, Immigrant Report, Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity (Columbia University Press, 2019), Hayden's Ferry Review Issue 64, BreakBeat Poets Volume 4: LatiNEXT, and PANK Magazine. They were a femmetor for the 2019-2020 Seeds of Liberación (SOL) leadership development program for young transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) people in Los Angeles. féi is a certified Reiki and Akashic Records practitioner who utilizes a decolonial approach to ancestral energetic healing. They collect Pokémon plushies. féi is the President of Gender Justice Los Angeles and is a Co-Founder of the ING Fellowship.
https://linktr.ee/feihernandez
Myriam Gurba is a writer and artist. She is the author of the true-crime memoir Mean, a New York Times editors’ choice. O, the Oprah Magazine, ranked Mean as one of the best LGBTQ books of all time. Publishers’ Weekly describes Gurba as having a voice like no other. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the Paris Review, TIME.com, and 4Columns. She has shown art in galleries, museums, and community centers. She lives in Long Beach, California, with herself.
SA Smythe (they/them) is a poet, translator, and assistant professor of Black European literary & cultural studies and Black trans poetics at UCLA. They are deeply invested in the coalitional project of Black life, Black study, and relishing other nonbinary experiences. Smythe is completing a collection of poetry, titled proclivity, about trans embodiment, emancipation, and a familial history of Black migration (between Jamaica, Britain, and Costa Rica). Their poetry and essays have been published or are forthcoming in Stranger’s Guide, We Have Never Asked Permission to Sing: Poetry Celebrating Trans Resilience, The Johannesburg Salon, Catapult, Feminist Wire, okayafrica, and elsewhere.