The Octopus Literary Salon presents the third installment of #we, a talk and reading series of queer perspectives hosted by Richard Loranger. Each event features two writers from various segments of the queer spectrum, who each give a talk on their perspective on or experience of queerness, followed by a reading of their creative work. For our third event, blind performance poet Leah Gardner will give a talk and reading titled “Atypical Grit: A Poetic Exploration”, and educator and social justice writer Elaine Brown aka Poet E Spoken will speak on “A Triple Dose of Being Black, Woman, & Queer” and will read a selection of poetry. A Q&A and chat time will follow.
Absolutely all are welcome to this sharing of perspectives. The venue is wheelchair accessible, and ASL translation for the deaf is available on request, with a two-week notice preferred.
#we
a new talk and reading series of queer perspectives
featuring
Leah Gardner
and Elaine Brown a.k.a. Poet E Spoken
Hosted by Richard Loranger
free of charge, and a hat will be passed
PERFORMER BIOS
Leah Gardner grew up in New Hampshire and holds a BA in English from Trinity College of Vermont. In her early '20s, she discovered performance poetry at open mic nights in Burlington, Vt and was a member of Vermont's poetry slam team in 2000. She featured her work at poetry events across New England before moving to the Bay area in 2002. She was asked to share her poetry at the annual pride celebration in San Francisco in 2002. Work as a technology instructor and her current role as an accessibility quality assurance tester at Google diverts Gardner's focus away from poetry these days, but she is excited to share her work again. It has been described as a blend of raw insight and cutting introspection. Gardner struggles with depression and includes the realities of this challenge in her more recent work.
Elaine Brown aka Poet E Spoken is the co-host of My Word Open Mic at Cafe Leila in Berkeley. She recently released her 1st CD entitled Every Knee. Her work has appeared in Porter Gultch Review in 2016 & Poetry Express Magazine in 2018. Her first book Freckle Tongue from the series Vintage Tales is a hit with her 1st grade students. She is currently working on the biography of Sema Dudum. Poet E Spoken has featured and performed at open mics across the country combining free style poetry with history to get people to not only understand what's going on in this world, but motivate them to change mind sets!
show less
Absolutely all are welcome to this sharing of perspectives. The venue is wheelchair accessible, and ASL translation for the deaf is available on request, with a two-week notice preferred.
#we
a new talk and reading series of queer perspectives
featuring
Leah Gardner
and Elaine Brown a.k.a. Poet E Spoken
Hosted by Richard Loranger
free of charge, and a hat will be passed
PERFORMER BIOS
Leah Gardner grew up in New Hampshire and holds a BA in English from Trinity College of Vermont. In her early '20s, she discovered performance poetry at open mic nights in Burlington, Vt and was a member of Vermont's poetry slam team in 2000. She featured her work at poetry events across New England before moving to the Bay area in 2002. She was asked to share her poetry at the annual pride celebration in San Francisco in 2002. Work as a technology instructor and her current role as an accessibility quality assurance tester at Google diverts Gardner's focus away from poetry these days, but she is excited to share her work again. It has been described as a blend of raw insight and cutting introspection. Gardner struggles with depression and includes the realities of this challenge in her more recent work.
Elaine Brown aka Poet E Spoken is the co-host of My Word Open Mic at Cafe Leila in Berkeley. She recently released her 1st CD entitled Every Knee. Her work has appeared in Porter Gultch Review in 2016 & Poetry Express Magazine in 2018. Her first book Freckle Tongue from the series Vintage Tales is a hit with her 1st grade students. She is currently working on the biography of Sema Dudum. Poet E Spoken has featured and performed at open mics across the country combining free style poetry with history to get people to not only understand what's going on in this world, but motivate them to change mind sets!
The Octopus Literary Salon presents the third installment of #we, a talk and reading series of queer perspectives hosted by Richard Loranger. Each event features two writers from various segments of the queer spectrum, who each give a talk on their perspective on or experience of queerness, followed by a reading of their creative work. For our third event, blind performance poet Leah Gardner will give a talk and reading titled “Atypical Grit: A Poetic Exploration”, and educator and social justice writer Elaine Brown aka Poet E Spoken will speak on “A Triple Dose of Being Black, Woman, & Queer” and will read a selection of poetry. A Q&A and chat time will follow.
Absolutely all are welcome to this sharing of perspectives. The venue is wheelchair accessible, and ASL translation for the deaf is available on request, with a two-week notice preferred.
#we
a new talk and reading series of queer perspectives
featuring
Leah Gardner
and Elaine Brown a.k.a. Poet E Spoken
Hosted by Richard Loranger
free of charge, and a hat will be passed
PERFORMER BIOS
Leah Gardner grew up in New Hampshire and holds a BA in English from Trinity College of Vermont. In her early '20s, she discovered performance poetry at open mic nights in Burlington, Vt and was a member of Vermont's poetry slam team in 2000. She featured her work at poetry events across New England before moving to the Bay area in 2002. She was asked to share her poetry at the annual pride celebration in San Francisco in 2002. Work as a technology instructor and her current role as an accessibility quality assurance tester at Google diverts Gardner's focus away from poetry these days, but she is excited to share her work again. It has been described as a blend of raw insight and cutting introspection. Gardner struggles with depression and includes the realities of this challenge in her more recent work.
Elaine Brown aka Poet E Spoken is the co-host of My Word Open Mic at Cafe Leila in Berkeley. She recently released her 1st CD entitled Every Knee. Her work has appeared in Porter Gultch Review in 2016 & Poetry Express Magazine in 2018. Her first book Freckle Tongue from the series Vintage Tales is a hit with her 1st grade students. She is currently working on the biography of Sema Dudum. Poet E Spoken has featured and performed at open mics across the country combining free style poetry with history to get people to not only understand what's going on in this world, but motivate them to change mind sets!
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Absolutely all are welcome to this sharing of perspectives. The venue is wheelchair accessible, and ASL translation for the deaf is available on request, with a two-week notice preferred.
#we
a new talk and reading series of queer perspectives
featuring
Leah Gardner
and Elaine Brown a.k.a. Poet E Spoken
Hosted by Richard Loranger
free of charge, and a hat will be passed
PERFORMER BIOS
Leah Gardner grew up in New Hampshire and holds a BA in English from Trinity College of Vermont. In her early '20s, she discovered performance poetry at open mic nights in Burlington, Vt and was a member of Vermont's poetry slam team in 2000. She featured her work at poetry events across New England before moving to the Bay area in 2002. She was asked to share her poetry at the annual pride celebration in San Francisco in 2002. Work as a technology instructor and her current role as an accessibility quality assurance tester at Google diverts Gardner's focus away from poetry these days, but she is excited to share her work again. It has been described as a blend of raw insight and cutting introspection. Gardner struggles with depression and includes the realities of this challenge in her more recent work.
Elaine Brown aka Poet E Spoken is the co-host of My Word Open Mic at Cafe Leila in Berkeley. She recently released her 1st CD entitled Every Knee. Her work has appeared in Porter Gultch Review in 2016 & Poetry Express Magazine in 2018. Her first book Freckle Tongue from the series Vintage Tales is a hit with her 1st grade students. She is currently working on the biography of Sema Dudum. Poet E Spoken has featured and performed at open mics across the country combining free style poetry with history to get people to not only understand what's going on in this world, but motivate them to change mind sets!
show less
Date/Times:
2101 Webster Street, Oakland, CA 94612
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