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MOUTH to MOUTH, Thursday, 2/25/2021, 7PM-8:30PM ET
Featuring Kay Ulanday Barrett, Ashna Ali, Jubi Arriola Headley, & Faylita Hicks

**This event will be captioned**

Mic Check! Are you a writer? Come share your work at our next edition of our open mic and showcase, Mouth to Mouth. Hosted by AAWW Fam poets Kay Ulanday Barrett and Ashna Ali, this edition of Mouth to Mouth features Faylita Hicks  and Jubi Arriola- Headley! Mouth to Mouth seeks to provide a safe community space for queer and trans BIPOC folx and and rising migrant artists. We seek to uplift these voices and ask all allies to step back & show your support by cheering our performers on. 

Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, performer, and cultural strategist. Barrett’s book More Than Organs received a 2021 Stonewall Book Honor Award by the American Library Association. They have featured at The Lincoln Center, The U.N., Symphony Space, The Poetry Project, Princeton University, NYU, The Dodge Poetry Foundation, The Hemispheric Institute, and Brooklyn Museum. They’ve received fellowship invitations from MacDowell, Lambda Literary, Drunken Boat, VONA, The Home School, VCCA, and Macondo. They are a 3x Pushcart Prize nominee and 2x Best of the Net nominee. Their contributions are found in The New York Times, The Advocate, Asian American Literary Review, Vogue, PBS News Hour, The Rumpus, Academy of American Poets, NYLON, WBAI Radio, NPR, and more. They have written two poetry books, When The Chant Comes (Topside Press, 2016) and More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020). They currently reside in Jersey City with their jowly dog.

ASHNA ALI (they/them) is a queer Bangladeshi poet raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn. Their poetry has been published in several independent journals including Nat. Brut., HeART Online, The Felt, No Dear, Ginger Mag, femmescapes, and Bone Bouquet. They serve as assistant professor of literature at Bard High School Early College. They are currently working on their first book manuscript. IG: @doctordushtu. Twitter: @doctordushtu

FAYLITA HICKS (she/her/they/them) is a queer Afro-Latinx activist, writer, and interdisciplinary artist. They are the former Editor-in-Chief of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize, and the 2019 Julie Suk Award. They have been awarded fellowships and residencies from Tin House, Lambda Literary, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Broadway Advocacy, and the Right of Return USA. Their work is anthologized in The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood and When There Are Nine, and has been featured in Adroit, American Poetry Review, the Cincinnati Review, HuffPost, Longreads, Palette Poetry, Poetry Magazine, The Rumpus, Slate, Texas Observer, VIDA Review, and others. Order Hoodwitch here.

JUBI ARRIOLA-HEADLEY (he/him or they/them) is a Black queer poet, storyteller, & first-generation United Statesian who lives with his husband in South Florida & whose work explores themes of masculinity, vulnerability, rage, tenderness & joy. He’s a 2018 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, holds an MFA from the University of Miami,  & his poems have been published with Ambit, Beloit Poetry Journal, Literary Hub, Nimrod International Journal,  Southern Humanities Review, The Nervous Breakdown, & elsewhere. Jubi’s debut collection of poems, original kink, is available now from Sibling Rivalry Press. Order original kink here.