Performers

D’Lo, described as a “jolt of creative and comedic energy”, is a Tamil Sri L.A.nkan-American, political theatre artist/writer, music producer and director. D’Lo also performs and facilitates performance workshops extensively throughout the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Sri Lanka and India.
D’Lo holds a BA from UCLA in Ethnomusicology and is a graduate of New York’s School of Audio Engineering (SAE). In 2004, D’Lo had a sold-out NYC run of “Ballin With My Bois” D’s queer hip-hop theater piece. Aside from touring the university/college circuit, this year, D’Lo did a Cornerstone Theater production of “For All time” at CIW, a staged reading of Terrry Wolverton’s play “Embers”, sound design for Adelina Anthony’s “Brusing for Besos”, directed 2 solo shows for Teada’s Healing Aloud Season (Raquel Salinas and Shyamala Moorty), wrote and collaborated with Theater Mu in Minneapolis on a Taiko Show and performed at the Bay Area’s Fresh Meat Festival. Currently, D’Lo is touring with “Ramble-Ations: A One D’Lo Show” which received the NPN Creation Fund Grant co-commissioned by Pangea World Theater.  www.dlocokid.com or myspace.com/dlocokid

Ivan E. Coyote was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. An award-winning author of five collections of short stories, one novel, two CD’s, four short films and a renowned performer, Ivan’s first love is live storytelling. Over the last fifteen years Ivan has become an audience favourite at music, poetry, spoken word and writer’s festivals from Anchorage to Amsterdam. The Globe and Mail called Ivan “a natural-born storyteller” and Ottawa X Press said, “Coyote is to CanLit what k.d. lang is to country music: a beautifully odd fixture.” Toronto Star praises Coyote’s “talent for sketching the bizarre in the everyday”, and Quill’s Magazine says Ivan has a “distinctive and persuasive voice, a flawless sense of pacing, and an impeccable sense of story.” Ivan’s column, Loose End has appeared monthly in Xtra West magazine since 2001. Coyote’s first novel, Bow Grip, was released in the fall of 2006, and was awarded the Relit award for best fiction and named by the American Library Association as a Stonewall honor book in literature. Ivan recently completed an eight month writer in residence at Carleton University in Ottawa, and is hard at work on her second novel. Her fifth collection of stories, The Slow Fix, was released in September, and has been nominated for a Lambda award.

Sunday August 23rd

Butch Voices Spoken Word
Calvin Simmons Ballroom
Oakland Marriott City Center
1001 Broadway
Oakland, CA

9:30AM – 11:30AM

Jeff Stroker’s work appears in various online publications and in erotica anthologies by Cleis Press and Seal Press. Look for Jeff’s work in the upcoming anthology Sometimes She Lets Me, edited by Tristan Taormino.

Elana Dykewomon has been a cultural worker and social justice activist since the 1970s. She is the 2009 recipient of the Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists’ Prize. Her seventh book, Risk (a novel) is new (!) from Bywater Books. Her Jewish lesbian historical novel, Beyond the Pale, won the Lambda Literary and other awards. Dykewomon was editor of the lesbian feminist journal, Sinister Wisdom, for nine years, teaches literature at SFSU and offers private creative writing classes — see www.dykewomon.org.

Gwendolyn Bikis I am a white butch lesbian living in Oakland with my partner. We are one of the few gay couples in California who are still legally married; our 1-year anniversary falls on August 8 of this year. I am the author of a novel, Your Loving Arms, published by Haworth Press; and of Cleo’s Gone, a novella published in excerpts in the following anthologies: The Persistent Desire, Close Calls, Does Your Mama Know? Hers3, and various editions of The Best Lesbian Erotica.  I am currently completing a book of short stories, I Am the 8-Ball

Belinda Carroll frequently appears at various venues throughout Texas including; Rusty Spurs monthly Gay Comedy Showcase, Cap City Comedy, and the Velveeta room and is currently appearing in the 3$Bills: Austin’s only all-GLBTQ improv comedy troupe. She recently headlined at Austin’s GLBTQ Gay Pride event.

Shams Cohen is an unconventional butch of many stripes and flavors who has published and performed poetry and song for many years in a wild variety of venues, from sex clubs to church pulpits and everything in between. Shams is a full-time grad student preparing for Unitarian Universalist ministry and wants to affirm from the valleys and hilltops that each of us is beautiful and sacred exactly as we are, in all of our splendid genders.

Ivan E. Coyote was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. An award-winning author of five collections of short stories, one novel, two CD’s, four short films and a renowned performer, Ivan’s first love is live storytelling. Over the last fifteen years Ivan has become an audience favourite at music, poetry, spoken word and writer’s festivals from Anchorage to Amsterdam. The Globe and Mail called Ivan “a natural-born storyteller” and Ottawa X Press said, “Coyote is to CanLit what k.d. lang is to country music: a beautifully odd fixture.” Toronto Star praises Coyote’s “talent for sketching the bizarre in the everyday”, and Quill’s Magazine says Ivan has a “distinctive and persuasive voice, a flawless sense of pacing, and an impeccable sense of story.” Ivan’s column, Loose End has appeared monthly in Xtra West magazine since 2001. Coyote’s first novel, Bow Grip, was released in the fall of 2006, and was awarded the Relit award for best fiction and named by the American Library Association as a Stonewall honor book in literature. Ivan recently completed an eight month writer in residence at Carleton University in Ottawa, and is hard at work on her second novel. Her fifth collection of stories, The Slow Fix, was released in September, and has been nominated for a Lambda award.

Lex is a dynamic speaker and spoken word artist from Santa Cruz, CA. Lex is a transgender activist dedicated to social justice and creative resistance. As an artist, Lex has been able to travel and speak across the country spinning poetic verses of possibility and the true meaning of freedom. For more of Lex please visit www.myspace.com/lexisword or www.facebook.com/lexsword

Neeve Neevel is a stage and spoken word performer who has been featured on television and silver screens across the world as member of the “Drag Kings on Tour” ensemble. Neeve’s poetry and prose is featured in a variety of periodicals and journals, including The Drag King Anthology. S/he is currently working on a book related to current work with women in prison.

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