Join us on November 19 at 7 PM ET for a Mouth to Mouth reading followed by an open mic!
Hosted and curated by Kay Ulanday Barrett, this month’s Mouth to Mouth celebrates writers SA Smythe and Mars. If you would like to perform during the open mic, please email msaleh@aaww.org by November 19 at 4 PM ET.
Mouth to Mouth provides a safer community space for queer and trans folx of the global majority 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, essayist, cultural strategist, & A+ Napper. They are a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry. They have attended residences at Tin House, Millay Arts, Baldwin For the Arts, Macondo, Baldwin for the Arts, and MacDowell. Their work has been published in The New York Times, Lit Hub, them., The Hopkins Review, The Rumpus, Vogue, Brevity, and more. Their book More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) was a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book and a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. For more info: Kaybarrett.net or @brownroundboi on social media.
SA Smythe is a transmedia storyteller, composer, critical theorist, and educator mostly based between Tkarón:to and the Mediterranean. They’re a 2024-25 artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity (Leighton Studios), 2023-24 MacDowell Fellow in Multimedia Installation, and a recipient of the 2022 Rome Prize for Modern Italian Studies. Smythe works as assistant professor of Black Studies & the Archive at the University of Toronto, where they direct the Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis. Their work has been featured in collaborative and solo performance exhibitions, film installations, anthologies, critical essays, festivals, therapy sofas, and dance floors. Beyond accolades and affiliations, Smythe deep roots in the Caribbean bush and Central American cordillera affords them the clarity of principle. Their work recognises kindred through a genealogy of living and ancestral kin struggling against dispossession for collective liberation, from every river to every sea.
Mars is a writer and cultural organizer born and raised in Detroit. Their work has been published in Obsidian Literature & Arts for the African Diaspora, Michigan Quarterly Review: The Mixtape, Foglifter Journal, Gertrude Press, and elsewhere. MARS is a 2021 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow in Poetry and a 2019 Lambda Literary Art Emerging Writers Fellow in Poetry. MARS. is a Nancy Craig Blackburn ’71 Fellow and MFA Candidate at Randolph College. Their debut chapbook, FLOWER BOI, is available via Gold Line Press.
__
COMMUNITY CARE & ACCESSIBILITY
This event will be streamed on Zoom Webinar. Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link via email in advance of the event. The event will be uploaded to the AAWW YouTube channel at a future date. This event will be streamed on Zoom Webinar. For other access needs, please contact msaleh@aaww.org. This event will be captioned and ASL Interpretation is provided by our friends at Pro Bono ASL.
At AAWW, the safety and comfort of our community is our top priority. We invite you to practice intentionality and care in your behavior and language when engaging with our programs and with each other. Violence of any kind, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, class or casteism, bigotry or bias toward religion or faith, or any action or assault against marginalized identities, is not tolerated. Those who bring harm to our community in person or online are not welcome, and will be asked to exit the space.
__
Event Image Description: The image is a promotional flyer or poster for an event titled “Mouth to Mouth Showcase & Open Mic.” It features portraits of three individuals who will be showcased or performing at the event. At left is a portrait of SA Smythe wearing a black shirt and black-rimmed glasses while holding a violin. Next to them is a portrait of Mars wearing a beige t-shirt and black-rimmed glasses while staring directly into the camera. At right is a portrait of Kay Ulanday Barrett speaking into a microphone, gesturing off camera with their right hand. The event details are displayed prominently above the portraits, stating it will be “hosted & curated by Kay Ulanday Barrett featuring SA Smythe and Mars.” It will take place on Tuesday, November 19 at 7 PM ET online, with auto-captioning and ASL provided. The background has a grey and blue gradient. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) logo and the Mouth to Mouth logo are displayed at the bottom.
__
Thank you to the incomparable team at Pro Bono ASL for providing interpretation for this event. Should you need ASL interpretation services for your own events, please email probonoasl@gmail.com.