Precarious Lives Literary, Curated by Audacious IAM

June 18, 2019
Creative Labor presents:
Precarious Lives: Literary Event
Curated by Audacious IAM
SOMArts, 7pm
$5 – 10 NOTAFLOF
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/precarious-lives-literary-event-tickets-60915650350

LITERARY

For Precarious Lives, Audacious IAM explores the fragility and resilience at the intersection of multiple identities. The featured writers open a dialogue about social change and transformation through the power of the written word. This program is part of the public programs being held in conjunction with the Precarious Lives exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center.

BIOGRAPHIES
	Audacious IAM was born and raised in Ruleville, Mississippi and now resides in Oakland, California. She holds her BA Degree from Rust College and MFA Degree from Mills College. Currently works as a Literary Arts faculty member and Poetry Slam Team Coach at the Oakland School for the Arts High School she is in love with teaching and assisting young people with navigating the world of creative writing. Audacious IAM has shared the stage with writers such as Sonya Renee Taylor, LadyB Smoove, Nicole Klaymoon, Mona Webb, Prudence TheAuset, Natasha Carrizosa, Trey Amos -as well as artist such as R&B Diva Monifah, Valerie Troutt’s MoonCandy, Kevin Sandbloom, Blue Nertiti of Les Nubians and more! Her art is exhibited through words on the page, performance and film in the attempt to transform, dissect and explore the intersection of blackness, queer identity, fragility and being a woman in America and beyond. As a queer black female artist, she has given and hopes to continue to provide her community with a platform for dialogue, social change and transformation through artistic creation.
Blues Arrival: Stories of the Queer Black South and Migratio Edited by Audacious IAM What do you know about the Black Queer South?Blues Arrival: Stories of the Queer Black South is about to take you on a road trip of southern Black Queer culture, identity and migration. Our stories are what connect us. “Blues Arrival” gives us the opportunity to take part in the stories of a marginalized community to create awareness and share knowledge about Black Queer culture in the South.This artistic anthology allows its readers to gain a collected appreciation of the journey and survival of the 21st Century Queer Black Southern migration to progressive cities while seeking liberation and self-expression. Through poetry, prose, and art we give a voice to so many that have been silenced.Contributors include Ajuan Mance, Orlando Taylor, Princess McDowell, Aisha White, Brandon L Jackson, P.D. Battle, Whitney Dean and many more.
	Vernon Keeve III is a Virginia born writer that California molded into an educator. He lives and teaches in Oakland, CA. His purpose is to teach the next generation the importance of relaying their personal narratives, sharing their experiences, and taking control of their destinies. He holds a MFA from California College of the Arts, and a Masters in Teaching Literature from Bard College. Southern Migrant Mixtape (Nomadic Press, 2018) is his first book.
Southern Migrant Mixtape relays the experiences and observations of a black, queer man from Virginia who thought he was leaving racism and sexual intolerance behind in the regions where he initially experienced them. Plunge heart first into this emotive journey of growth, transformation of pain into armor, and the lessons that can be learned when one is true to themselves.
	Evolve Benton (pronouns: they, them, theirs, or my name) is the Assistant Director to both the Multicultural and LGBT Resource Centers at the University of California, San Francisco. Evolve identifies as a black, queer, boi (born obviously incredible). Evolve is a prominent social & racial justice educator, writer, and consultant from Los Angeles, CA. In 2018 Evolve published their first poetry collection SIR: poetry dedicated to boihood & black queer love. Also, they co-produced their first independent film, “The BOI DOC”. Evolve describes themselves as an artistic spirit using creativity as a form of liberation. Evolve earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Dillard University and a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology with a LGBT Specialization and Master of Fine Arts from Antioch University of Los Angeles.
SIR: poetry dedicated to boihood & black queer love SIR sums up Evolve’s self-defined ‘boihood’ philosophy and includes personal wisdom that’s gathered over time; a chapbook that vividly describes the intersections of being masculine of center and black while transitioning all at once. ‘SIR’, in other words, is the perfect mixtape to the Queer B.O.I soul.
	Rose Gelfand is a twenty-year-old queer fat femme, poet, and dancer from Richmond, California. She is a sophomore at Scripps College and is a Sociology Major with a double minor in Feminist, Gender, Sexuality Studies and Dance. Rose learned everything she knows from the Bay Area poetry and spoken word community, working at Youth Speaks and attending Oakland School for the Arts for Literary Arts. As a senior in high school, she was the editor and curator of Straight Up: An Intergenerational Queer Anthology,published her debut collection To Carve A Person Out, and won the 2017 Unified District Poetry Slam with the Oakland School for the Arts Slam Team. Rose is currently a co-captain of Groove Nation Dance Crew and runs a bi-weekly workshop and open mic called Snaps, which aims to create an ever-growing community space for poets and writers at the Claremont Colleges. She also teaches poetry, dance, and stilts to kids at Camp Winnarainbow.
Shaking is a multimedia zine exploring fat bodies relationship to dance and movement. Through creative nonfiction and critical essays, poetry, visual art, interviews, and more Rose aims to interrogate and destabilize systems of bodily hierarchy and begin a conversation on how to make dance spaces more inclusive and accessible for all marginalized people. I Don’t Have the Juice is a brand new zine which circles all things internet. Through poetry and collage, it wrestles with the oddity and intensity of being a young person growing up preserved in the age of the all-consuming web— from Instagram self-portraits, to the eerie & bizarre nature of death on Facebook, to tinder found poems and beyond. Spitting Image is a chapbook of fifteen poems centered on desirability politics. It’s Rose’s ever-evolving exploration of the body and beauty and ugliness in all their manifestations. From Yom Kippur fasts to panic attacks in lingerie. From language crutches to new crushes to bike crashes and back.

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