F194. Here I Am: A Reading by Disabled Writers of Color

Room 212, Henry B. González Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Friday, March 6, 2020
12:10 pm to 1:25 pm

 

What do you do when POC spaces aren’t accessible but accessible spaces are mostly white? How do you find a space for yourself in the writing community? At this reading, writers who identify as both a person of color and disabled read stories, essays, poems, and other work which highlight their experiences. These writers deliver their work in their own voices, showcasing the richness that their intersectional perspective brings to their writing.


Outline & Supplemental Documents

Event Outline: Here_I_Am_AWP_2020_OUTLINE.docx

Participants

Moderator:

Jess Silfa is an Afro Latinx, disabled, and queer writer and poet. They graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s in psychology and are currently working on their first novel about a tight-knit immigrant community as well as a chapbook of poems about the body.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disabled nonbinary femme writer of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent. They are the author of Tonguebreaker, Care Work, Dirty River, Bodymap, Love Cake, and Consensual Genocide, and coeditor of Beyond Survival and The Revolution Starts at Home.

Cyree Jarelle Johnson is a poet, essayist, and librarian. SLINGSHOT is her debut collection of poetry.  Cyree lives online at cyreejarellejohnson.com or @cyreejarelle.

Ahja Fox can be found reading at various events and open mics or cohosting at Art of Storytelling. She publishes in many online and print journals and has been awarded a few honors. Ms. Fox is also an assistant poetry editor for Copper Nickel and Homology Lit.

Day Al-Mohamed is author of the YA novel Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn. In addition to speculative fiction, she also writes for comics and film. She is a member of Women in Film and Video, a graduate of VONA/Voices Writing Workshop, and was recently named a Docs in Progress Film Fellow.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center