Dedication

This performance is dedicated to Andrew Thomas, to the home we have in friendship, and to the ways we have held (at times from afar) and tendered (sometimes without touch) each other in this last year of isolation, distance, and justice.

Note

When this event was originally planned, it was to be a book release event. Covid had other plans for the night of joy, tears, and good hugs that I hoped for, but here we are, digitally. I hope you watch this with your kin, blood or chosen. I hope when you are finished watching this program you have no choice but to call a friend, tell them you love them, adorn with the flowers of intimacy. I hope in this hard, animal times, when we are all might be relearning, reimagining, and resurviving ourselves into new beast, I hope this evening brings you a needed or welcomed softness to you and yours.

With ever love I’ve learned,

Danez

Artist Bios

FRANNY CHOI is a writer of poems, essays, and plays. She is the author of two poetry collections, Soft Science (Alice James Books) and Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing), as well as a chapbook, Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press). She is a Kundiman Fellow, a 2019 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers Program. A former News Editor at Hyphen Magazine, she co-hosts the podcast VS alongside fellow Dark Noise Collective member Danez Smith. She is a current Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow in English at Williams College.

NATE MARSHALL is an award-winning writer, rapper, educator, and editor. He is the author and editor of numerous works including Wild Hundreds, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and Finna. Nate is a member of The Dark Noise Collective and co-directs Crescendo Literary. He is an assistant professor of English at Colorado College. He is from the South Side of Chicago.

FATIMAH ASGHAR is a poet, filmmaker, educator and performer.  Her work has appeared in many journals, including POETRY Magazine, Gulf Coast, BuzzFeed Reader, The Margins, The Offing, Academy of American Poets and many others.  Her work has been featured on new outlets like PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, and others. In 2011 she created a spoken word poetry group in Bosnia and Herzegovina called REFLEKS while on a Fulbright studying theater in post-genocidal countries. She is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow. She is the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, an Emmy-Nominated web series that highlights friendships between women of color. In 2017 she was awarded the Ruth Lily and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and was featured on the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. Her debut book of poems, If They Come For Us, was released One World/ Random House, August 2018. Along with Safia Elhillo, she is the editor of Halal If You Hear Me, an anthology that celebrates Muslim writers who are also women, queer, gender nonconforming and/or trans.  

AARON SAMUELS is a critically-acclaimed writer, speaker, and entrepreneur.  After working at Bain & Co. for three years as a strategy consultant, Aaron left his Wall Street life to pursue his passion as a writer and builder of community.  Since leaving Bain, Aaron has written a book of poetry, toured the country, performed on television, and landed himself on Forbes’ coveted 30 under 30 list as a rising star in the tech and media space. Aaron Samuels is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Blavity, a digital community for Black Millennials with over 1 million website viewers per month. When he is not at Blavity, Aaron is a nationally touring poet and performer.  His debut collection of poetry, Yarmulkes & Fitted Caps was released on Write Bloody Publishing in fall 2013. Aaron Samuels is Black and Jewish.  

JAMILA WOODS is a singer/songwriter and award-winning poet from the South Side of Chicago.  Following the 2016 release of her debut album HEAVN, Jamila received critical acclaim for her singular sound that is both rooted in soul and wholly modern. Her 2019 sophomore release LEGACY! LEGACY! featured 12-tracks named after writers, thinkers, and visual artists who have influenced her life and work. Her poetry was recently published in the Library of America anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (2020). Jamila recently made her late-night television debut, performing SULA (Paperback) on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Jan 6th, 2021. 

DANEZ SMITH is the author of three collections including Homie, a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in poetry and the National Book Critic Circle Award, and Don’t Call Us Dead – winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and a finalist for the National Book Award. Danez’s poetry and prose has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, Best American Poetry and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Danez is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and is the co-host of the podcast VS with Franny Choi. Danez’s work employs the confessional and the communal voice to hopefully offer something of use to Black and/or Queer and/or Poz readers and whoever else might encounter something useful in the work. They in Minneapolis near their people.  

Related Event

POST-PERFORMANCE Q&A

Friday, March 26, 2021 at 8:00 pm CDT

Following the presentation please join Danez and members of the Dark Noise Collective for a live and informal discussion about the works with audience Q and A.

Accessibility

The online performance will be closed-captioned.

The post-show artist talk on Friday, March 26, will be live captioned.

Walker Art Center Staff

Acknowledgements

Producers’ Council