Block One

Caitlin Barasch

September 13, 2022

7:00 PM

South Hall Commons

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis

September 15, 2022

5:00 PM

South Hall Commons

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, PhD lives as a guest on the traditional territories of the Piscataway Nation, whose relationship with the lands west of the Chesapeake Bay continues today. He is Curator of Asian Pacific American Studies at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, where he oversees the Smithsonian Literature + Museum Initiative, devoted to rethinking collective responsibility for what we write and read, and why. The lead organizer for the Asian American Literature Festival, co-hosted by the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and Poetry Foundation, he is also a co-founder of the Center for Refugee Poetics and co-founding Director of the arts antiprofit The Asian American Literary Review. He is currently ranked as the 9th best ice cream maker in human history.

 

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Block Two

traci kato-kiriyama

October 5, 2022

Cornerstone Screening Room

traci kato-kiriyama (they+she; based on unceded Tongva land in the south bay of Los Angeles) --author of Navigating With(out) Instruments (Writ Large Press)-- is an award-winning multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary artist, recognized for their work as a writer/performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, community organizer, and audiobook narrator. As a storyteller and Artivist, tkk is grounded in collaborative process, collective self-determination, and art+community as intrinsically tied and a critical means toward connection and healing. She is a performer & principal writer of PULLproject Ensemble, two-time NET recipient; NEFA 2021-22 awardee for their show TALES OF CLAMOR.  tkk —presented in hundreds of venues for over 25 years as a writer, actor, poet, speaker, guest lecturer, facilitator, Artist-in-Residence, and organizing / arts & culture consultant— has come to appreciate a wildly hybrid career (presenters incl. LaMaMa Cabaret; The Smithsonian; Skirball Cultural Center; EnWave Theatre; The Getty; Hammer Museum; Grand Performances; Whisky a Go Go; Hotel Cafe; House Of Blues; and countless universities, arts spaces, and community centers across the country).  Their writing, commentary, and work is also featured in a wide swath of media and print publications (incl. NPR; PBS; C-SPAN; Los Angeles Review of Books; Elle.com; Entropy; Chapparal Canyon Press; Tia Chucha Press; Bamboo Ridge Press; Heyday Books; Regent Press; Temple University Press). tkk is a core artist with Vigilant Love; founding member of the Okaeri Nikkei LGBTQ+ Network; a principal organizer of the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition and Nikkei Progressives/NCRR; and serves as the Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project - presenter of the Tuesday Night Cafe series, which will soon celebrate 25 years as the longest-running Asian American public arts series in the country.

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Jessy Randall

October 11, 2022

4:30 PM

South Hall Commons

 

"The only good science fiction poems ever written are by Jessy Randall." -- Annalee Newitz

 

Jessy Randall’s poems, stories, and other things have appeared in Asimov’s, McSweeney's, Nature, Poetry, and Scientific American. Her newest book is Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science (Gold SF / University of London, September 2022). It’s a collection of poems about historical women in STEM fields, illustrated by NASA artist Kristin DiVona. Randall grew up in Rochester, New York, majored in English at Columbia University, and earned a library degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is now the Curator of Special Collections at Colorado College, a position she’s held since 2001. Every two years, she co-teaches a half block class called The History and Future of the Book, next offered in 2024.

 

Block Three

Raquel Gutiérrez

October 28, 2022

South Hall Commons

Raquel Gutiérrez is an arts critic, writer, poet, and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gutiérrez credits the queer and feminist diy, post-punk zine culture of the 1990s, plus Los Angeles County and Getty paid arts internships, for introducing them to the various vibrant art and music scenes and communities throughout Southern California. Gutiérrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism and a 2017 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. They are faculty for Oregon State University–Cascades’ Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. Their new book Brown Neon is out now on Coffee House Press.

Block Four

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Byron Aspaas and Hillary Leftwich

December 6, 2022

South Hall Commons

 

BYRON F. ASPAAS. Raised within the four sacred mountains of Dinétah, Aspaas holds BA and MA degrees in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Aspaas’s writing revisits the destruction of sacred land and engages his readers in a dialogue about preserving Diné culture and land. In a 2017 essay, “Nádleehí: One Who Changes,” Aspaas explains how these elements are interconnected and under continuing threat. Aspaas’s first published work was included in Yellow Medicine Review and since then his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Currently, he is working on a collection of essays and poems as well as a fiction project. Aspaas is a two-time recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship. He uses imagery and persona to present explorations of language, landscape, and identity. Aspaas works remotely from Colorado as adjunct faculty at San Juan College and in-person with CSU Pueblo, while teaching continuing education courses with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Identity Project.

Hillary Leftwich is the author of Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock (Agape Editions, 2023, republish), Aura (Future Tense Books, 2022 and Blackstone Audio), and Saint Dymphna’s Playbook (PANK Books 2023). She is the founder and owner of Alchemy Author Services & Writing Workshop and Community Coven, teaches at Lighthouse Writers, and is a creative writing professor at the University of Denver and visiting professor at Colorado College. She focuses her writing on class struggle, single motherhood, trauma, mental illness, the supernatural, ritual, and the impact of neurological disease. She is an advocate for her son and others who live with epilepsy and other survivors of DV. She teaches Tarot and Tarot writing workshops focusing on strengthening divination abilities and writing. She lives in Denver with her partner, son, and their cat, Larry.