(CANCELED) why-not-be-all-you-can (for kari edwards)
On the anniversary of kari edwards’s birth and death, join us for a reading in homage to the experimental poet centering contemporary trans and disabled poets. Featuring Julian Talamantez Brolaski, torrin a. greathouse, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Trace Peterson, and TC Tolbert.
Active as an artist and a gender activist, kari edwards was the author of post/(pink), a diary of lies, a day in the life of p, iduna, obedience, and the posthumous Bharat jiva and succubus in my pocket. Her works often give the impression of not being fixed in position, while they capture the development and progression of thought. The title of this tribute event is taken from a line in edwards’s book succubus in my pocket.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Julian Talamantez Brolaski (it/xe/them) is a poet and country musician, the author of Of Mongrelitude , Advice for Lovers, and gowanus atropolis. Julian is a 2023 Bagley Wright lecturer, a 2021 Pew Foundation Fellow, and the recipient of the 2020 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry. With its band Juan & the Pines, it released an EP, Glittering Forest, in 2019; Julian’s first full-length album, It’s Okay Honey, came out in August 2023.
torrin a. greathouse is a transgender cripple-punk poet and essayist. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. They are the author of Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and DEED, which will be released in 2024. She teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop, the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University.
Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a poet from Piscataway, New Jersey. He is the author of Slingshot, winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. Johnson was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and served as the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Brooklyn Public Library. Watchnight, his forthcoming book of poetry considers ancestry as history in the context of the Great Black Migration of the twentieth century, familial estrangement, and queer family. He is a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.
Trace Peterson is a poet, literary scholar, and editor. She is the author of Since I Moved In, which was republished in 2019 by Chax Press with an introduction by Joy Ladin. She co-edited the groundbreaking anthology Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics as well as Arrive on Wave: Collected Poems, Gil Ott. She is also the editor/publisher of EOAGH, a literary journal and small press that has won two Lambda Literary Awards and a National Jewish Book Award. She is currently a visiting assistant professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.
TC Tolbert (he/him/hey grrrl) is a trans and genderqueer monkey-goat who lives in Tucson, Arizona, where s/he is the current poet laureate. Publications include Gephyromania and five chapbooks, including The Quiet Practices, winner of the 2023 Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize at Beloit Poetry Journal. TC is co-editor (along with Trace Peterson) of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. Learn more at www.tctolbert.com.
Curated by Noa Fields.
In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.
Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.