Event Type
Join us for a reading featuring four queer/trans Texas poets, Aliah Lavonne Tigh, Keagan Wheat, Anthony Sutton, and Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal. Each of these readers plays with queerness and pop culture. Aliah Lavonne Tigh (Weren't We Natural Swimmers, 2022) moves through lyrical landscapes with a shifting scope of natural disaster, world politics, and personal heartache, which allows a fascinating closeness for the reader. Keagan Wheat (Viaticum, 2022) is a Latinx, trans poet exploring disability and trans identity through dead qualities and community connection. Anthony Sutton (Particles of a Stranger Light, 2023) implements wit and wisdom to move between Dante, Jason Voorhees, and Keats without missing depth of emotion nor thought; even in a poem naming Icarus as the 'I', Sutton's voice stands strongly recognizable. Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal (WATCHA, 2024) mixes forms and language to pull the reader into the intimacy of watching. Villarreal uses ekphrasis, photography, essay, and poetry to capture the reader, and the poems consider gender, Chincanx culture, and politics. We're excited to bring these incredible voices to the historic New Orleans Poetry Festival.
