The Queer Voices reading on March 28th was the first time I’ve gone to any sort of literary reading, and I didn’t have words to describe how excited I was. Luckily for me, the artists had plenty of words to share.
John Medeiros started off the reading. John has been co-curating the Queer Voices reading series for over ten years. John’s love for this event was evident as he read. John’s poems had an intimate feeling; he seemed at ease on the stage and brilliantly set the stage for the rest of the artists.
Lisa Marie Brimmer’s inspiration for her poem selection was “love.” Lisa said “Love may be an antidote for all of the things we have been feeling lately.” Her powerful tone was soothing. Her words enveloped the crowd. What I found extremely fascinating when Lisa read was that, despite all of her poem choices being centered around love, they weren’t what one typically thinks of when the word ‘loves’ comes to mind. The fact that the word love can hold many different forms, was showcased so eloquently during Lisa’s reading.
When Anthony Ceballos read, his hands wove elegant gestures that harmonized beautifully with his soothing voice. One of my favorite poems by Anthony was a new piece that started out as a Facebook post. One part that stuck out to me was; “I write to keep myself alive. To keep myself from drowning. To keep the skeletons in my closet aside.” This was strikingly beautiful and relatable on a deeper level than I anticipated. We all have our ways of escape when we need a break from the world and it was beautiful to get a little glimpse into Anthony’s.
Co-curator Andrea Jenkins came up next to read and introduce the last set of artists. Andrea’s passion for this reading series and the readers present was evident. Andrea read a poem about ‘10 things to do for inauguration day 2017.’ Andrea gave advice such as ‘don’t watch the news, call your loved ones and tell them you love them and resist.’ Andrea read with a graceful authority and was a commanding presence on the stage.
Catherine Lundoff, who works in IT by day but writes by night, told us that she is also opening her own printing called Queen of Swords Press. I found it so inspiring that Catherine was essentially working two jobs to do what she loves. It gave me hope to follow my own dreams. I also found Catherine’s reading so entertaining. Catherine had so much fun on stage and I didn’t want her to stop reading. Her voice was animated and the voices she used helped distinguish between the characters she was reading about.
Sofia Yarberry took the stage last. Starting with shorter poems and ending with a play on a sonnet, Sofia’s tone was slow calm. Some of Sofia’s poems dealt with college experiences and, as I am a college student right now, I found the parallels between what Sofia felt and what I have experienced to be very powerful. It was very cool to hear someone else’s experiences and get an insight into their lives. Sofia’s last poem was a sort of sonnet. One of Sofia’s professors said that ‘this was a sonnet but not quite a sonnet.’ John said that this was a great metaphor for the queer community.
At the end of the Queer Voices event was the question and answer portion. At the beginning of the event, John had said that the success of the Queer Voices reading series happens because of the interactions between the audience and the artists. The readings themselves were so powerful, but to hear how these artists’ words impacted people in the audience was incredible. The power of words.
They say that a picture can say a thousand words but during this reading, I felt that there was no picture that could do the words that were coming out of these artists mouths justice. Their words took me on a journey that I wasn’t expecting to go on. I felt inspired and enlightened as I left. I plan to go to many more readings in the future and if you are reading this, you should too.
Faith Hansen, Arts and Media Leadership Associate, is a Junior at the University of Minnesota and is studying Strategic Communications with a minor in Leadership. Faith grew up in a very small town in southern Minnesota. She was named after country star ‘Faith Hill’. However, despite getting the name, she failed to inherit Faith Hill’s beautiful singing voice. When she was younger, she wrote scripts and persuaded her friends to star in short films she made. Her dream back then was to be on Broadway and she acted in several school plays. She quickly realized that her strengths are more along the lines of producing material rather than acting. Now, she would like to work on a creative team for an advertising agency and produce advertisements for television shows and movies. This semester, Faith is working as intern for Intermedia Arts.
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