Verbatim: Our Bodies, Our Stories
Spoken word showcase at BUTCH Voices
Sunday August 18, 2013
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Oakland Marriott
Oakland, CA
RSVP on Facebook!
for conference attendees only
featuring the words of:
Cassandra Davies
Redwolf Painter
Jovi Radtke
Sevan Boult
Sinclair Sexsmith
Elana Dykewomon
Xequina Berber
Day Walker
Darlene Angela
Emotions the Poet
Please note: This event, as with the entire BUTCH Voices conference, is scent aware. Please read our entire scent-aware policy here: http://www.butchvoices.com/scent-aware-policy. Please keep it scent-free so everybody can show up and not have to leave due to chemical injury! Leave off perfume, cologne, essential oils and use fragrance-free detergent on your clothes. If you have a strong scent on your body, you may be asked to move or leave.
Cassandra Davies grew up in San Jose, the home of Silicon Valley. Her experiences growing up in the sixties, along with her contemplative nature have given her a unique approach to her writing. The main theme of her writing is to convey the spiritual nature of our existence, the beauty of our diversity, and the sameness of our human experiences. She is the author of Reflections on a Sacred Journey, A Collection of Poems and Spoken Word, and is working on her second book of poetry.
Sinclair Sexsmith (mrsexsmith.com) is an erotic coach, educator, and writer. They write the award-winning personal online project “Sugarbutch Chronicles: The Sex, Gender, and Relationship Adventures of a Kinky Queer Butch Top” at sugarbutch.net, have contributed to more than twenty anthologies, and edited Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica. They travel frequently to teach workshops on gender and sexuality.
Jovi Radtke is a Texas born, bleeding heart, Christian, Republican, Queer… confusing? Probably, but then again, so is most poetry. On her road to self-discovery, Jovi has found that Spoken Word is the only avenue that suits her ‘confusing’ lifestyle. Since early 2008, she’s been seen at rallies across California, speaking up for many different causes, including: the proper treatment of homeless citizens, marriage equality, transgender awareness and education, human trafficking awareness, teen suicide due to homophobic bullying, the eradication of violence against women, domestic violence awareness, AIDS awareness, etc. She’s also performed at prisons, churches, schools, colleges, pride events, open mics, closed mics, dead mics, crowds of thousands and empty rooms. She loves every audience and never hesitates to tell them that!
Seven-Kelee Boult (fka Lucky 7) is a well known poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has represented several Bay Area slam teams over the past 10 years. Most recently, she became the first female to hold grand slam champion titles for 3 Bay Area venues: San Francisco (2007), Berkeley (2009), and Oakland (2013). Sevan has been writing since childhood and continues to evolve as both a writer and person. She currently works as a summer camp counselor for the YMCA in Oakland, CA–where she is gaining the experience and patience to run her own after school program in the future. Sevan’s most recent artistic venture involves the ukulele and poetry. She effortlessly blends music and poetry to engage the audience with her soft, raspy voice and mesmerizing stage presence. Reinventing yourself as an artist is no easy feat. Yet, Sevan-Kelee is accomplishing this task one strum, one song, and one poem at a time.
Xequina came out during early middlessence and now makes up for lost gay time through her creative endeavors–short stories, comic strips and paintings celebrating lesbian personalities and themes. She also re-writes songs to honor dyke culture, which are then performed for the community with her partner Rome. Xequina lives in Oakland and works as a librarian.
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Darlene is a Black two-spirit lesbian Psychologist with strong social justice values. She began journaling and writing poetry at 20. In 2010, Darlene self-published a poetry book, spanning over 20 years of writing, and in 2012, she self-published Two-Spirit in Black Face: A Gender Odyssey, which uses poetry, short stories, essays, interviews, and photographs to explore the intersections of gender identity, gender expression, race, sexual orientation, and body esteem.
Emotions The P.O.E.T. is a spoken word artist, activist, writer and healer from Los Angeles, CA. Emotions is one of the founders of Theta Xi Theta Fraternity, Inc. and a member of the Brown Boi Project. Emotions has a Masters in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in LGBTQ studies. Emotions is a registered marriage and family therapist. Emotions provides a healing space for clients to develop healthy identities in regards to the intersection of race, culture, sex, gender, lifestyle, spirituality and provides a brave space to explore life challenges. Emotions has worked with an array of clients but specializes in working with LGBTQ/ Queer People of Color, gender non-conforming people and transgender people. Emotions believes that the arts can be used a vessel to heal trauma. Emotions has a passion to create dialogue and conversation that deepens the overall connection of those who are gender non-conforming, transgender, queer, LGBTQ, POC, MOC, and straight allies.
Day Walker: What can I say? The long haired hippy has had a few perspective pieces pour from hys Butch heart and groovy soul. Some would place the tone of my work as philosophical, some would place it as satire…and some may say it teeters on channeling the souls of the macabre. There’s a theater in my mind, I write from voices in the audience that represent a myriad of energies. The inner child, the perpetual student, the inner gay man. etc. They are all… Me. And you. And them.
Elana Dykewomon, a social justice and dyke activist since the 70s, has published seven award-winning books, including Beyond the Pale (now an ebook!) and 2009’s Risk. See: www.dykewomon.org
Please note: This event, as with the entire BV conference, is scent aware. Please read our entire scent-aware policy here: http://www.butchvoices.com/scent-aware-policy . Please keep it scent-free so everybody can show up and not have to leave due to chemical injury! Leave off perfume, cologne, essential oils and use fragrance-free detergent on your clothes. If you have a strong scent on your body, you may be asked to move or leave.