Podcasts about Sister Spit

Michelle Tea has published over 20 books, including the cult classic Valencia as well asModern Tarot and the essay collection Against Memoir. Her latest book, Modern Magic: Stories, Rituals, and Spells for Contemporary Witches was released in the fall of 2024 — not too long before our interview was recorded. A lot has changed since then. The calendar year and the world itself. I loved Modern Magic from the opening paragraph. Months later the book feels like an instruction manual for survival. There's a lot more I could say about Michelle — and I say some of it in the print interview. Head over to ART of the ZODIAC on Substack to read the bonus TALKTALKTALK. BUY MODERN MAGIChttps://www.harpercollins.com/products/modern-magic-michelle-tea?variant=41384105181218ABOUT MICHELLEMichelle Tea is the author of over twenty books for grown-ups, teenagers and children.Her autofiction Valencia is a cult classic that was made into a feature length art film.Her tarot how-to, Modern Tarot, is a best-seller, and her essay collection Against Memoir was awarded the PEN/American Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for The Art of the Essay.She is a Guggenheim Fellow. Tea was the founding Executive Director of Bay Area arts organization RADAR Productions for thirteen years; her final act as ED was to create Drag Queen Story Hour, for which she received honors from The California Library Association and Logo Television. Tea is also the co-founder of the legendary Sister Spit, a performance tour which has been active since its inception in 1997. (bio taken from Dopamine Books: https://dopaminebooks.org/team) ABOUT VIVIVivi Henriette is an LA-based astrologer and tarot reader whose collaborative approach to divination weaves in storytelling and mythology to create a container for her clients to explore their personal narrative. She's the host of the Los Angeles Astro Salon at the Philosophical Research Society and the podcast TALKTALKTALK.JOIN THE TALKTALKTALK LIVE!https://artofthezodiac.co/events-workshops/ENJOYED THIS PODCAST? Follow ART of the ZODIAC & Vivi Henriette in ALL the places:https://linktr.ee/ART_of_the_ZODIACSUBSCRIBE to ART of the ZODIAC on SUBSTACK for the latest  TALKTALKTALK, delivered straight to your inbox—it's FREE:  https://artofthezodiac.substack.com/ LEARN Astrology! Make FRIENDS! JOIN CLUB ASTRO on ⁠PATREON⁠:https://patreon.com/ARToftheZODIAC?ut…

I'm joined today by author and witch Michelle Tea to chat about her newest book, Modern Magic. We talk all about growing up as a goth witch in the 80s, finding your own ritual groove in your practice, playfulness in witchcraft, and more! Find the Book: ⁠Modern Magic⁠ An enchanted sibling to the cult classic Modern Tarot, Modern Magic: Stories, Rituals, and Spells for Contemporary Witches, by professional tarot reader and feminist Icon, Michelle Tea provides a fascinating, magical history of spiritual traditions from around the world—giving all the tools, spells, and rituals to navigate our stressed-out lives. Witty, down-to-earth, and wise, Tea bewitches us with personal tales about crafting her magical practice and coming into her own. She pairs enchanting stories from her days as a goth teen in Massachusetts with insights from her experiences as an adult to share her observations about the world as well as her vision for what it could be. Modern Magic gives us the tools to tap into a stronger, distinctive magic that lies within us, one that incorporates queer, feminist, anti-racist, intersectional values.  About Michelle: ⁠Website⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠X⁠ Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen books, including the cult-classic Valencia, the essay collection Against Memoir, and the speculative memoir Black Wave. She is the recipient of awards from the Guggenheim, Lambda Literary, and Rona Jaffe Foundations, PEN/America, and other institutions. Knocking Myself Up is her latest memoir. Tea's cultural interventions include brainstorming the international phenomenon Drag Queen Story Hour, co-creating the Sister Spit queer literary performance tours, and occupying the role of Founding Editor at DOPAMINE Books, a Los Angeles-based, non-profit press that publishes work by edgy, emerging queer writers. In addition to helming the imprints Sister Spit Books at City Lights Publishers, and Amethyst Editions at The Feminist Press, Tea produced and hosted the popular Your Magic podcast, wherein she read tarot cards for Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee, Phoebe Bridgers and other artists, as well as the live tarot show Ask the Tarot on Spotify Greenroom and Instagram. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/witch-wednesdays/support

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex (PM Press, 2023) is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart. Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston's South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age eighteen, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join host Ned Buskirk in conversation with author & editor Michelle Tea, while they talk about the story of her writing onto stage, her history running lesbian-feminist spoken-word & performance art collective Sister Spit, & the “mental illness” of writing & why it matters for our lives, our trauma, our healing.Thanks to Beth Pickens for the “Death & God” chapter in her book Make Your Art No Matter What which offered a fitting launching off point for this conversation.michelle tea'swebsite: https://www.michelle-tea.com/ books: https://www.michelle-tea.com/books IG: https://www.instagram.com/michelleteaz/ twitter: https://twitter.com/TeaMichelle substack: https://michelletea.substack.com/ venmo @Michelle-Tea-1Produced by Nick JainaSoundscaping by Nick Jaina”YG2D Podcast Theme Song” by Nick JainaTHIS PODCAST IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM LISTENERS LIKE YOU.Become a podcast patron now at https://www.patreon.com/YG2D.

We are over the moon to welcome Capricorn dream LIL MISS HOT MESS to the podcast to discuss her book If You're a Drag Queen and You Know It, Drag Story Hour, queer drag pedagogy, standing up to fascists and MORE.  AND Aquarius friend to the show MICHELLE TEA joins us to talk about the recent anti-queer violence at the Glendale School Board meeting, and how to show up, resist, and keep your queer joy.  Also- Nicole discusses the latest drama from her "friendly" tortoise Facebook group.  Lil Miss Hot Mess is the author of the children's books If You're a Drag Queen and You Know It (Running Press Kids, 2022) and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish (2020) and serves on the board of Drag Story Hour.  She has also appeared on world-class stages like SFMOMA, Stanford University, and Saturday Night Live, was a founding organizer of the #MyNameIs campaign that challenged Facebook's “real names” policy, and has published essays in The Guardian, Wired, and Salon.  When not twirling, Lil Miss Hot Mess is a university professor. Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen books, including Knocking myself up, Valencia, Against Memoir, and Black Wave.  She is also the co-creator of Sister Spit and Drag Queen Story Hour.  Michelle joined me from a literary festival's wellness center in Denver Colorado to discuss the recent attack on the Glendale school board by the proud boys, and how to be an ally and spark queer joy in the face of it.  Please enjoy my talk with Michelle Tea   

Content warning: In this episode, we briefly discuss suicidal thoughts/thoughts of self-harm.    Michelle Tea joins Sober Stories host Beth Bowen to discuss coming of age in queer, punk culture of the 80's and 90's, the growing literary scene at that time, and how drugs and alcohol began taking a toll on her happiness. Michelle tells us what it has been like re-learning how to write, sober, and about how her sobriety has evolved over the years. Beth and Michelle talk astrology, psychedelic mushrooms, and knowing when you're using substances to cope, or not. Michelle shares stories of the early days of Sister Spit, her femme, queer literary movement, and Beth and Michelle talk about her newest book:  Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My Infertility, out now.  Michelle shares what her Sober Story would be called: “It's Not an Astrological Transit.”   Michelle Tea is the author of the popular tarot how-to Modern Tarot, the cult classic Valencia, and many more works of fiction and non-fiction. She's a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and has received awards from PEN/America, Lambda Literary, and other spots. She hosts the Spotify podcast Your Magic, as well as the live tarot room Ask the Tarot on Spotify Live. She is the mind behind Drag Queen Story Hour, Sister Spit, and other literary interventions. Michelle's most recent book is Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My Infertility, out now.    Key Takeaways:   What it means to own your sobriety. Finding your identity as a non-drinker. Being sober in the queer community.     Connect with Michelle Tea:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleteaz/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeaMichelle Order Michelle's latest book, Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My Infertility: https://bookshop.org/a/19833/9780063210622   Resources Mentioned:   The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America: https://bookshop.org/books/the-passionate-mistakes-and-intricate-corruption-of-one-girl-in-america/9781584350521 Valencia: https://bookshop.org/books/valencia/9781580052382  Modern Tarot: https://bookshop.org/books/modern-tarot-connecting-with-your-higher-self-through-the-wisdom-of-the-cards/9780062682406 Your Magic Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6MTRTty0d4ryv6Mjyb9kUc?si=857d0fd2f1564562     Support Sober Stories:   Follow us on Instagram - @wearesoberstories Follow us on TikTok - @wearesoberstories Receive email updates   From our sponsors:   Go to https://www.betterhelp.com/soberstories/ for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #sponsored   Use code SOBERSTORIES for $50 off The Booze Breakup program.

MICHELLE TEA!!! Advice on publishing, exes, ethics, copycats & more.      We are over the moon to welcome back very special guest MICHELLE TEA, to dole out advice on publishing, weathering copycats, bad exes, bad dreams, writing ethics, writing practices, and more.    Go see me & Michelle LIVE, August 6th at Powells City of Books in Portland, Oregon, where we will be talking about her new book, Knocking Myself Up.        Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen books, including  Valencia, Against Memoir, and Black Wave.  She is also the co-creator of Sister Spit and Drag Queen Story Hour.    Michelle's new book: Knocking Myself Up, is out now.    DAWN RIDDLE is our roving unsolicited vegan food reviewer. She is also a wonderful artist! Today she brings us GF Snyders of Hanover pretzel rods.  find her here: Dawnriddle.com   

Jordan talks with Michelle Tea about her new memoir (Knocking Myself Up), making the decision to get pregnant, her tarot practice, and creating a queer family. MENTIONED: The Rider-Waite Tarot Valencia by Michelle Tea XOJane.com Buddhism Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen books, including the cult-classic Valencia, the essay collection Against Memoir, and the speculative memoir Black Wave. She is the recipient of awards from the Guggenheim, Lambda Literary, and Rona Jaffe Foundations, PEN/America, and other institutions. Knocking Myself Up is her latest memoir. Tea's cultural interventions include brainstorming the international phenomenon Drag Queen Story Hour, co-creating the Sister Spit queer literary performance tours, and occupying the role of Founding Director at RADAR Productions, a Bay Area literary organization, for over a decade. She also helmed the imprints Sister Spit Books at City Lights Publishers, and Amethyst Editions at The Feminist Press. She produces and hosts the Your Magic podcast, wherein which she reads tarot cards for Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee, Phoebe Bridgers and other artists, as well as the live tarot show Ask the Tarot on Spotify Greenroom. For more Thresholds, visit us at www.thisisthresholds.com Be sure to rate review and subscribe on your fav platform! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daphne Gottlieb is the author of Saint 1001. She was also a part of Sister Spit and toured with them. Last time she was on Drinks with Tony was probably […]

"AND THE CATEGORY IS...!" That phrase may be something you've heard while watching either Pose on FX or Legendary on HBO Max but what does it mean? What IS Ballroom? What is the background context and history for this community?  If you've wondered all these things and more then we have the perfect episode in store for you today! Author Ricky Tucker joins the show today to discuss his new book "And the Category Is..." we cover his motivation to write this book, what it means for the Ballroom community and the world at large.  Enjoy! About Ricky Tucker Ricky Tucker is a writer, educator, art critic, and North Carolina native based in Brooklyn. His work explores the imprints of art and memory on narrative, and the absurdity of most fleeting moments. He has written for the Paris Review, the Tenth Magazine, and Public Seminar, among others, and has performed for reading series including the Moth Grand SLAM, Sister Spit, Born: Free, and Spark London. He was chosen as a 2017 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Fellow for creative nonfiction, a 2021 Writers House Pittsburgh Resident, and a 2022 Virginia Center for The Creative Arts resident. Tucker received his Writer/Teacher MA at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a B.A. in fiction at The New School where he later served as Senior Writer for marketing, and now teaches Reading for Writers at Eugene Lang, its college of liberal arts. His debut book, And the Category Is…Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community (Beacon Press) is available online and in stores About And the Category Is... What is Ballroom? Not a song, a documentary, a catchphrase, a TV show, or an individual pop star. It is an underground subculture founded over a century ago by LGBTQ African American and Latino men and women of Harlem. Arts-based and intersectional, it transcends identity, acting as a fearless response to the systemic marginalization of minority populations. Ricky Tucker pulls from his years as a close friend of the community to reveal the complex cultural makeup and ongoing relevance of house and Ballroom, a space where trans lives are respected and applauded, and queer youth are able to find family and acceptance. With each chapter framed as a “category” (Vogue, Realness, Body, et al.), And the Category Is . . . offers an impressionistic point of entry into this subculture, its deeply integrated history, and how it's been appropriated for mainstream audiences. Each category features an exclusive interview with fierce LGBTQ/POC Ballroom members—Lee Soulja, Benjamin Ninja, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and more—whose lives, work, and activism drive home that very category. At the height of public intrigue and awareness about Ballroom, thanks to TV shows like FX's Pose, Tucker's compelling narratives help us understand its relevance in pop culture, dance, public policy with regard to queer communities, and so much more. Welcome to the norm-defying realness of Ballroom. To quickly and easily leave a rating/review for this podcast please go to:  https://ratethispodcast.com/dtalkspodcast Thanks to Snuffy for this episode of the podcast! Snuffy is a clothing brand about empowering you to show your weird - unapologetically, with bravery and confidence. 10% of profit goes to LGBTQ+ organizations led by Trans* people of color. Shop online now at snuffy.co Also, thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast! Nostalgia is something everyone loves and Empire Toys in Keller Texas is on nostalgia overload.   With toys and action figures from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and today, Empire Toys is a one-stop-shop for a trip down memory lane and a chance to reclaim what was once yours (but likely sold at a garage sale)   Check out Empire Toys on Facebook, Instagram, or at TheEmpireToys.com The DTALKS Podcast has also been ranked #9 in the "Top 40 Detox Podcast You Must Follow in 2020" according to Feedspot.com for our work in the Cultural Detox space. Thank you so much to the Feedspot team!  https://blog.feedspot.com/detox_podcasts/

Sini Anderson is an award winning film director, producer, video art maker, and feminist art activist who lives in New York City. Her first feature length film, The Punk Singer -a documentary about Kathleen Hanna, premiered at SXSW in 2013 and was acquired by IFC Films. The Punk Singer received a theatrical release in 121 American cities and in 25 countries around the world. In 1994 Sini Anderson and friend Michelle Tea founded Sister Spit and Sister Spits' Ramblin' Road Show. From 1994-2001 Anderson and Tea held weekly shows at Blondies Bar and the CoCo Lounge in San Francisco. In 1997 Anderson and Tea produced their first, of four, Cross Country Tours. Packing two vans with 12 queer artists they zig zagged across the United States and Canada for six weeks performing 40 shows! It was such a hit, they did it again for another 3 years, gaining national recognition they were signed to Mercury Records and released 3 tour albums with them. In 2000 Sister Spit released their final album, I Spit On Your Country, on radical queer & feminist label, Mr. Lady Records & Videos. Eventually Sister Spit would tour with over 50 queer artists and were credited with creating a queer literary scene that still thrives 20 years later as Radar Productions. Anderson was the Chief Curator and the Co-Artistic Director for The National Queer Arts Festival and has served as the president of the board of directors for The Harvey Milk Institute and the co-chair of the board of directors for The Queer Cultural Center. Sini is in the final phase of her second feature length film, So Sick (2014-2022) . The documentary is an exhaustive look at women/gender non-conforming people who are suffering so called “mystery illnesses” like Late-stage Lyme disease, Fibromyalgia, ME/Chronic Fatigue. 50 Million Americans been diagnosed with Autoimmune Illnesses, 85-90% of them are Women. So Sick uncovers infuriating truths behind women's health care and the health care of PEOPLE OF COLOR and calls bullshit on American Medicine, Medical Education, and Bio-Medical Research, whose non-compliance with federal laws demanding Equality within government funded research, has only stoked the myth of “hysterical women” who are making themselves sick. Contact Sini: sinianderson3@gmail.com So Sick Facebook The Punk Singer Sister Spit LITQB Podcast: This is a podcast about the barriers to embodiment and how our collective body stories can bring us back to ourselves. This is a podcast for people who identify as queer or for people who might think of their relationship between their body and confining social narratives as queer. This can feel like an isolating experience. Our wounded bodies need spaces to talk about struggles with nourishment/disordered eating, body image issues, dysphoria, racism, heterosexism, transphobia, xenophobia, substance use/abuse, chronic pain/disability, body changes in parenthood, intergenerational trauma, the medical/wellness/therapy industrial complex and its lack of inclusion of queer bodies and much more. Hopefully this podcast can illustrate the connections, and resonant pain points, that we have with one another. Livinginthisqueerbody.com @livinginthisqueerbody Sound Editing: Barry Orvin www.talkbox.studio Music: Ethan Philbrick and Helen Messineo-Pandjiris --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/asher-pandjiris/message

Conversation with Dena Rod, author of the forthcoming poetry collection "Scattered Arils." In this conversation, we talk about writing from the archive, queer Iranian experiences, connecting with inheritance, writing hard poems, writing communities, Bay Area gentrification, publishing, and much more! Find Dena's book "Scattered Arils" here: https://milkandcakepress.com/product/coming-may-2021-scattered-arils-by-dena-rod/ Find Dena's website here: https://www.denarod.com/ Dena Rod is a writer, editor, and poet based in the Bay Area. A graduate of San Francisco State University, they have a M.A. in English Literature. They run the RADAR Productions weblog and are the Creative Nonfiction Editor at homology lit, and the former Managing Editor of Argot Magazine, a Webby-nominated queer non-profit. In 2020, they were selected to tour with Sister Spit, debuted the chapbook swallow a beginning, and joined The Rumpus’ Features Team. They’re a fellow of RADAR Productions’ Show Us Your Spines Residency, Kearny Street Workshop’s Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab, and Winter Tangerine’s Summer Writer’s Workshop. Through creative nonfiction essays and poetry, Dena works to illuminate their diasporic experiences of Iranian heritage and queer identity, combating negative stereotypes of their intersecting identities in the mainstream media. Find host Derek Berry here: derekberrywriter.com Support the show here: patreon.com/contributeyourverse

2:15-4:30-Myriam introduces and reads (4:30-9:27) a short chapter about her 5th grade experience from her memoir Mean 9:27 on is a cool back-and-forth between Myriam and Matt in discussing the chapter and its impact on both of them   Myriam Gurba is a Mexican American writer, story-teller, and visual artist.  In 2019, O, The Oprah Magazine called Gurba's work Mean (2017) one of the "Best LGBTQ Books of All Time.” The New York Times described Gurba as having a "distinct and infectious" voice. Gurba is the author of three books: Mean (Coffee House Press, 2017) and Dahlia Season: Stories and a Novella (Manic D Press/Future Tense, 2007), and Painting Their Portraits in Winter: Stories. Her second book, Painting Their Portraits in Winter: Stories, explores Mexican stories and traditions from a feminist lens. Gurba previously toured with Sister Spit, a "lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective." Gurba has also exhibited at the Museum of Latin American Art and The Center Long Beach. Gurba has won The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction from Publishing Triangle, and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/ Chapter Description: “Xicana AF. Bitch is my pronoun.” So reads the Twitter bio of Myriam Gurba, my guest, our guest, in Chapter 62.  A Mexican/American writer, storyteller, and visual artist from California, Myriam is the author of the true crime memoir Mean, which was hailed by O magazine as “one of the best LGBTQ+ books of all time.” She is also the author of Painting Their Portraits in Winter, Dahlia Season, as well as a number of chapbooks, all of which pack an audacious punch. And if her infectious written word is not enough, she’s toured with Sister Spit, a lesbian feminist spoken word and performance art collective.  She traffics in Spanglish and bold truth, the kind of which is raw and fierce.  “When I tell gringos that my Mexican grandfather worked as a publicist, the news silences them. Shocked facial expressions follow suit. Their heads look ready to explode and I can tell they’re thinking, ‘In Mexico, there are PUBLICISTS?!’ I wryly grin at these fulanos and let my smile speak on my behalf. It answers, ‘Yes, bitch, in México, there are things to publicize such as our own fucking opinions about YOU.’ - Myriam Gurba Those words are from her viral article, Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature, in which she takes down Jeanine Cummins’ novel American Dirt. She had been asked to review the book by Ms. Magazine, but they rejected said review on the basis that she, “lacked the fame to pen something so negative.” The controversy came to light, as well as her original critique, and the publishing world erupted. Cultural appropriation, the white gaze, racism, and the lack of diversity in the publishing industry were brought to the fore.  Unafraid and unapologetic, Myriam had no choice but to ride the wave of deliberation. Aspersion was only heightened, shortly thereafter, by her very publicized suspension from her teaching job in a local high school by an armed police escort. Her social media presence was deemed inappropriate. And yet, she was, in her words, simply defending students who were accusing teachers of abuse. She is passionate and energetic, a big thinking firecracker who challenged my views and grew my thinking on so many levels for which I am so grateful. We had a jet-fueled conversation talking about racism, prejudice, growing up queer, police brutality, violence against women, the Mexican obsession with death, and, of course, Myriam Gurba’s 3 most formative books. Are you ready for a gritty, vulnerable, and honest conversation with the one and only Myriam Gurba? Let’s go! (Trigger Warning: This conversation does veer into topics of sexual abuse and trauma.) What You’ll Learn: Why is there so much white supremacy in publishing? How can we use vulnerability to draw strength? What is it like growing up queer? How can we become better activists? Why should the police and prison system be abolished? What constitutes violence against women? What systems fuel misogyny and patriarchy? How can we have a better body image? How do we deal with genital shame? What are the roots of racism? Why is it so important to engage in corporeal politics? You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/62   Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

From Mitch’s Notebook on the episode: “I aim to have guests of every stripe on my show. The reasons are many. Part of it is my conviction that the arts come in different mediums - visual and aural, for example. One of the other reasons (I am sure I will leave out or forget some reasons - there are many) is actually more idealistic. I actually think that people different from one another. even to a degree that we can say is profound, should have a seat at the same table, so to speak, in order to actually, well, speak. Some of my guests I know personally, others I have never met. My interest in alternative art spaces in general, particularly those spaces unafraid to mix sometimes radical politics and aesthetics, brought me into contact with Jane LeCroy, I believe, if memory serves, because we shared the bill on one event or another in Manhattan. I have always enjoyed collaborating with her because I am able to have a maximum of musical freedom, especially improvisation, while being able to honor the words she both writes and performs. Jane, true to the spirt of our podcast, is many things, never content to stay with a single medium. She is a poet who also is part of a postpunk rock band as part of her poetic practice, She is also involved in avant-garde sound performance which is different from her rock music project. She is a political activist, a mother, freethinker and atheist, vegetarian and many other things. And being a native New Yorker, has has also been a teacher of poetry in the New York City public school system, which if she did nothing else, would alone certainly qualify her to be a notable guest on our show. Jane LeCroy's poetry engages with large ideas, stemming from her interest in both philosophy and science, including physics and cosmology, and she is unafraid to write and perform poetry on some fairly universal subjects - love and justice are two favorites - and to do so in a way that can communicate so effectively with a wide audience. Jane LeCroy embodies the spirit of Journey Of An Aesthete. “ Jane’s Bio Jane LeCroy is a New York based poet, singer and performance artist, home-birthing mother of 3, teacher, atheist, vegetarian, hedonist. She serves the poetry gods. By day she surfs the subway lines from one borough to the next, teaching kids creative writing, and publishing their work. By night, she writes porn under a pseudonym, or you might find her seducing patrons as a feature character in The Poetry Brothel. Three Rooms Press published, “Signature Play” a multimedia collection of her lyric poems. Her writing is in the Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Poets House, Yale Library, and you can find her DNA in the Library of Congress, where her hair binds one of her poetry chapbooks, “Names” published by Booklyn’s award winning ABC chapbook series that is part of the institution’s collection. Jane’s recording career began in the early 90’s with the punk label, Bloodlink Records, release of her spoken-word vinyl 7inch titled “Guilty”. Since then she has made over a dozen recordings, with various projects, including the feminist poetry collective, Sister Spit and the 90’s major label punk outfit, Vitapup. For more info, a sampling if her gorgeous poems and more of Jane's links, visit our show podcast page for an extended look here: https://www.facebook.com/journeyofanaesthetepodcast/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mitch-hampton/message

Creatrix Tiara talks about touring with Sister Spit in the United States in 2020 and Mama Alto's surprise birthday party at Hares and Hyenas.Jacob Thomas discusses Stop Deportations To Danger, a campaign to stop QANTAS being a carrier for the deportation of refugees and asylum seekers.Katie Cullen and Kate Foord from Queerspace at Drummond Street Services talk about Renegade Pub Footy and inclusion in sport and its impacts on mental health.3CR broadcasts from the stolen lands of the Kulin Nation. Sovreignty was never ceded in this country.Language warning: this episode includes music by Sonic Youth with coarse lyrics.

I have been lucky to have so many wonderful artists join me in these early episodes, including Nicole J. Georges - a deeply funny and wise soul. Here is more about Nicole - Nicole J. Georges is a writer, illustrator, podcaster & professor from Portland, OR.Her Lambda Award winning graphic memoir, Calling Dr. Laura, was called “engrossing, lovable, smart and ultimately poignant” by Rachel Maddow, and “disarming and haunting, hip and sweet, all at once” by Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home. 'Allô, dr Laura?' was an Official Selection at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.Nicole’s latest book, Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home, is the recipient of 2 Oregon Book Awards, and a Lambda nomination for best Graphic Novel. It received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and the Library Journal, and was voted a 2018 “Great Graphic Novel for Teens” by ALA. “Nicole Georges makes my favorite art about love and vulnerability”. -Jill SolowayNicole won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Arts Education in 2012. She was the 2013 Fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies, the 2015/16 Donaldson Writer in Residence at the College of William and Mary, and currently teaches at California College for the Art’s MFA in Comics Program.She has been publishing her own zines and comics for 20 years, and has toured the country extensively, including two appearances on Michelle Tea’s Sister Spit tour.Nicole currently splits her time between Portland and Los Angeles with her chomeranian best friend, Ponyo Georges. She is the host of the podcast, Sagittarian Matters.www.nicolejgeorges.com

artoonist MariNaomi is an award-winning author and illustrator whose works include "Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume"; "Ages 0 to 22"; "Turning Japanese"; "I Thought YOU Hated ME"; and the "Life on Earth" trilogy. Her work has appeared in more that 60 print publications and been featured at the Smithsonian, De Young Museum, Cartoon Art Museum, Asian Art Museum, and Japanese American Museum, She is the founder of the Cartoonists of Color Database and the Queer Cartoonists Database, has toured with the literary roadshow Sister Spit, and cohosts the podcast "Ask BiGrlz" with Myriam Gurba. Cosponsored by SMC Global Citizenship.

MariNaomi and Myriam Gurba discuss their experience touring with Sister Spit and performing as authors. They answer a question from a listener about the reasons behind misogyny, and another about Diane Arbus.

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a writer and visual artist originally from the South Shore of Boston. He has been a construction worker, a cook, a carpenter, a union stagehand, a bouncer, a welder, a shop steward, a dishwasher, a truck driver, and a housepainter, among other things, for a paycheck. His writing appears in many publications and anthologies, such as The Kenyon Review, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, and The Rumpus; and recently in the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology The Remedy–Essays on Queer Health Issues, (ed. Zena Sharman) and Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Speculative Fiction From Transgender Writers, (eds. Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett). The Huffington Post named him as one of “10 Transgender Artists Who Are Changing The Landscape Of Contemporary Art.” His visual art was recently curated in an exhibition called “Intersectionality” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, and hung recently in shows at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM, the National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco, and at Helltown Workshop in Provincetown, MA. His visual work has been recently published in the journals Faggot Dinosaur and CutBank. A veteran of the original Sister Spit tours, he's performed, lectured, and exhibited art across North America. He has received fellowships from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Lambda Literary Foundation, and RADAR Labs. Cooper Lee has taught writing at the University of Portland, Clark College, Portland State University, and at various Portland-area high schools as a writer-in-residence through Literary Art's program Writers in The Schools. He is a 2017-18 Writer-In-Residence at the Pacific Northwest College of Art's Critical Studies graduate program.

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a writer and visual artist originally from the South Shore of Boston. He has been a construction worker, a cook, a carpenter, a union stagehand, a bouncer, a welder, a shop steward, a dishwasher, a truck driver, and a housepainter, among other things, for a paycheck. His writing appears in many publications and anthologies, such as The Kenyon Review, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, and The Rumpus; and recently in the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology The Remedy–Essays on Queer Health Issues, (ed. Zena Sharman) and Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Speculative Fiction From Transgender Writers, (eds. Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett). The Huffington Post named him as one of “10 Transgender Artists Who Are Changing The Landscape Of Contemporary Art.” His visual art was recently curated in an exhibition called “Intersectionality” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, and hung recently in shows at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM, the National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco, and at Helltown Workshop in Provincetown, MA. His visual work has been recently published in the journals Faggot Dinosaur and CutBank. A veteran of the original Sister Spit tours, he's performed, lectured, and exhibited art across North America. He has received fellowships from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Lambda Literary Foundation, and RADAR Labs. Cooper Lee has taught writing at the University of Portland, Clark College, Portland State University, and at various Portland-area high schools as a writer-in-residence through Literary Art's program Writers in The Schools. He is a 2017-18 Writer-In-Residence at the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Critical Studies graduate program.

Like a Dog (City Light Publishing) A scrappy young skateboarder's story of underground worlds and fringe existences, confusing family relationships and the struggle for intimacy. Paloma is aimlessly winging it through life. A skateboarder in her early 30s, she takes low-paying jobs, drinks neon-colored wine coolers in the park with her best friend, and drives to the Central Valley to skate the empty swimming pools dotting the sun-blasted landscape. Paloma struggles to have a relationship with her brother Peter, whose opiate addiction makes that nearly impossible. She enjoys occasional doses of something like closeness whenever Peter is sober, and these rare moments keep her lunging for his affections. Her delusions about the nature of addiction—along with a steady intake of alcohol—manage to keep the looming threat of his death by overdose at a comfortable enough distance. When Peter lands a lucrative position managing a pot farm in Mendocino County, he offers Paloma a job. She shines in her new role, selling weed to celebrities in Los Angeles and making good money for the first time. With a new sense of self-confidence she decides to try out the world of stand-up comedy, and though she's absolutely terrible at it, she's happier than she's ever been. As Peter slides into a dangerous spiral, Paloma does her best to roll with the ups and downs, life's beginnings and endings. Praise for Like a Dog: "Tara Jepsen's Like a Dog is outrageously funny and soul-scrapingly grim, in the tradition of our most intrepid, shameless, and shame-filled comedians and storytellers. It also announces a singular new voice in American fiction—one which is deeply alive, hard-hitting, and tender."––Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts "This book beat the crap out of me. I am bruised and laughing. Thank you Tara Jepsen, may I have another?"—Daniel Handler, author of All The Dirty Parts "Tara Jepsen captures the absurd, animal humor of residing in a human female body on planet Earth like no other, and Like a Dog sets it loose within a hazy California underground of abandoned skate pools, weed farms and comedy open mics. Eccentric and insidery, taking on the bonds of family and addiction, the effort to find a life and the drive to end it, Like a Dog brims with hyper-conscious gems of hilarity and pathos."––Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave Tara Jepsen is a writer and actor living in Los Angeles, California. She's appeared in Emmy-winning series Transparent. She and longtime collaborator Beth Lisick created, wrote and acted in original web series Rods and Cones, released by Jill Soloway and Rebecca Odes's Wifey.tv in September 2014, named one of Indiewire's 25 Best Series/Creators of 2014. Tara has written and performed original sketch comedy with Lisick throughout the U.S. since 1999. They have appeared at Dixon Place in NYC, at San Francisco's Sketchfest, at the UCB in Los Angeles, and myriad additional venues. Jepsen has been published by The Believer, xojane.com, and SF Weekly, among others. She has toured and performed extensively with the seminal queer cabaret Sister Spit since 1997. And, she co-hosted the legendary San Francisco open mic K'vetsh at a gay men's bath house for over ten years. Author, activist, and queer/feminist icon Michelle Tea is the author of five memoirs, including the award-winning Valencia (now a film). Her novels include Mermaid in Chelsea Creek, the first in a Young Adult fantasy trilogy published by McSweeneys. Tea is the Founding Artistic Director of RADAR Productions, a queer-feminist literary non-profit in San Francisco and is the editor of Sister Spit Books, an imprint of City Lights. Her writing has appeared in The Believer, n+1, Buzzfeed, The Bold Italic, Marie Claire, xoJane.com and many other print and web publications.

Best known for her laugh-out-loud performances including her hilarious portrayal of Mitzi Fitzsimmons in the web series Rods and Cones (which she co-created with longtime collaborator Beth Lisick), writer, comedian, and actor Tara Jepsen flips the feminist script with rad projects like Pave The Way, a skateboard design company that celebrates queerness, and her forthcoming debut novel, Like A Dog, a Sister Spit imprint of San Francisco's famed City Lights Publications.

We couldn’t help but wonder, what would it be like if we talked about a Sex and the City episode? We found out with their out-of-season Christmas treat, “The Perfect Present”! Joining us are Marisa Crawford and Cathy de la Cruz from Weird Sister, an online magazine that explores the intersections of feminism, literature and pop culture. Topics this week include: recommending sex toys to friends, much ado about a closeup of a man’s penis, the joys of Ron Livingston and Jennifer Coolidge, amiibo hiding, bad sleep acting, the mysterious disappearance of Carrie Bradshaw’s family, snuggling while sleeping, paying for sex, Muppet Seinfeld, the boringness of Mr. Big, messing with other people’s sleep, condoms in media, and cold sex. Check out Marisa’s book of poems Reversible, out in February 2017 from Switchback Books, and see Cathy in March 2017 on the west coast, where she’ll be touring with Sister Spit. Visit weird-sister.com, follow our guests on social media @weirdsistermag, @SadDiego & @marisacrawford, and follow us @jinglefriends, @seeegriffin, @saravents & @zachkaplan. We love you!

Michelle Tea talks about her new hybrid-memoir (Black Wave), early literary tours with Sister Spit, and romanticizing suffering for her art. She also talks about “living outside the margins” and the role of witchcraft in her life. LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1 You can recommend a guest or let us know what you think about the show on Twitter or by emailing lgbtqashow@gmail.com More information: www.LGBTQpodcast.com

Echo Brown discusses her long-running one-woman show, Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters, playing at the Marsh Berkeley through June 18.  Humor shot through with some very serious moments, Brown's autobiographical show looks at the intersections of racism, colorism, sexism, poverty, dating and the Ivy League.  Oh, and hipsterism, of course. Also on this show, Lisa Dettmer talks with Virgie Tovar, Managing Director of Radar Productions, which is heir to Sister Spit, a weekly, girls-only open mic that was an alternative to the misogyny-soaked poetry open mics of the 1990s.   Radar celebrates its 13th birthday on June 8 with a star-studded Radar Superstar literary event at the San Francisco Main Library, followed by The Witching Hour: an Intimate Benefit at the Luggage Store gallery. The post Womens Magazine – June 6, 2016 – The Art of the Outsider appeared first on KPFA.

Music manager/business woman TARA PERKINS joins me to talk about the politics behind paying artists, the time she defended her traveling art show on FOX news, an incident on Sister Spit tour, and MORE.

Michelle Tea ("How to Grow Up", Sister Spit) tells a caller why she should NOT out her trans boyfriend to her parents. Liz Prince ("Tomboy") discusses quitting jobs & grandma smells, and special guest and health coach (NOT BODYBUILDER) Lacy Davis (superstrengthhealth.com) discusses how to interact with people body shaming themselves in front of you. All this and more!

David West, revered San Francisco poet is our guest for Part One of a two-part episode. Like Bucky Sinister, whose interview kicked off our first podcast, David West was a prolific participant of the San Francisco spoken word scene of the 1980s and 1990s, a scene that spawned such memorable writers as Daniel Higgs, Michelle Tea and the Sister Spit collective, Eli Coppola, Beth Lisick, David Lerner and many more. Week in and week out, David West would bring the reading's volume down to stillness as his gentle voice and his writing brought a ragged range of characters to life, some transcendent and some miserable, but David made them all human and beguiling in their own way. As wise and he was funny, David has slipped away from the world of readings to quietly ponder Shakespeare, politics and the arts while bringing a certain grace as a secretary hiding away in the business world. This episode was recorded in David's Bernal Heights kitchen as the sun and a bottle of red wine slowly disappeared. Unfolding like most of the sprawling two-part episodes of FUN 2 KNOW, the first part tells David's origin story, traveling from factories in Ohio, to an ill-fated stop at Harvard onto the mid-seventies world of Harvey Milk's San Francisco and beyond. The second part turns from biography of conversation, and David is a fount of insight and humor into people and today's world.

Man Alive (City Lights/Sister Spit)               Cha-Ching!/The Beautifully Worthless (City Lights/Sister Spit) Join us tonight for a spectacular reading from one of the most iconic publishing houses in the country, City Lights and its radical imprint, Sister Spit. In Man Alive, Thomas Page McBee attempts to answer that question by focusing on two of the men who most impacted his life--one, his otherwise ordinary father who abused him as a child, and the other, a mugger who threatened his life and then released him in an odd moment of mercy. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood as he cobbles together his own identity. In Cha-Ching!, Theo, our scruffy, big-hearted, and quick-witted heroine, is not so much down on her luck as delivered luckless into a culture where the winners and losers have already been decided. Her adventures in getting over take her from San Francisco to New York City, from dyke bars to telemarketing outfits, casinos to free clinics. With the signature poet's voice that has won her awards and acclaim, Ali Liebegott investigates the conjoined hearts of hope and addiction in an unforgettable story of what it means to be young and broke in America.  Praise for Man Alive: "Thomas Page McBee's memoir grips you like a thriller yet reads with the lyricism of poetry as he details how a brush with violence sent him on quest to untangle a sinister past, and freed him to become the man he was meant to be."— Michelle Tea"Man Alive is a sweet, tender hurt of a memoir. Thomas Page McBee deftly recounts what has shaped him into the man he has become and how--from childhood trauma to a mugging in Oakland where he learned of his body's ability to save itself. This is a memoir about forgiveness and self-discovery, but mostly it's about love, so much love. McBee takes us in his capable hands and shows us what it takes to become a man who is gloriously, gloriously alive." -- Roxane Gay. "Thomas Page McBee's story of how he came to claim both his past and his future is by turns despairing and hopeful, exceptional and relatable. To read it is to witness the birth of a fuller, truer self. I loved this book." -- Ann Friedman Praise for Cha-Ching! "Cha-Ching! is a rush - the clatter of youth on the angry move, the rattling of dreamy gambles in crappy apartments, the desperate crash of falling for someone despite the million reasons why and the bang! bang! bang! of our tender hearts."—Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up"Cha-Ching! is so raw with need that I found myself itching that addict's itch to chase the seemingly impossible."—Karolina Waclawiak, deputy editor of The Believer and author of How to Get Into the Twin Palms "The Beautifully Worthless is an outrageous act of kindness."—Eileen Myles
 "She's insanely talented, it's mad. The Beautifully Worthless crisscrosses the USA, like Close to the Knives, like Kerouac, desperately seeking out everything occluded and driven, a frenzy of seeking frozen into poetry. "—Kevin Killian Thomas Page McBee writes the column "Self-Made Man" for the Rumpus, and his writings on gender have appeared in The New York Times and via TheAtlantic.com, VICE, BuzzFeed, and Salon. Thomas gives lectures on masculinity and media narratives across the country. He lives in New York City. Ali Liebegott is the author of the award-winning books The Beautifully Worthless and The IHOP Papers. In 2010 she took a train trip across America interviewing female poets for a project titled, The Heart Has Many Doors; excerpts from these interviews are posted monthly on The Believer Logger. Along with a reprint of her road classicThe Beautifully Worthless, her newest novel Cha-Ching! was released by City Lights/Sister Spit in the spring of 2013. In addition, she is the founding editor at Writers Among Artists whose first publication, Faggot Dinosaur, was released in 2012.

Michelle Tea has written memoirs, poetry and the novel “Rose of No Man's Land.“ She is founder and Executive Director of RADAR Productions, a non-profit which oversees monthly readings at the San Francisco Public Library, the Sister Spit international literary performance tours, a poetry contest and the Radar LAB retreat for writers and artists. Tea is Editor at Sister Spit Books, an imprint of City Lights. In 2013 McSweeney's published the first in her series of Young Adult fantasy novels, A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. Tea's hybrid memoir, Black Wave, will be published on Sister Spit Books in 2014. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Humanities] [Show ID: 24372]

Michelle Tea has written memoirs, poetry and the novel “Rose of No Man's Land.“ She is founder and Executive Director of RADAR Productions, a non-profit which oversees monthly readings at the San Francisco Public Library, the Sister Spit international literary performance tours, a poetry contest and the Radar LAB retreat for writers and artists. Tea is Editor at Sister Spit Books, an imprint of City Lights. In 2013 McSweeney's published the first in her series of Young Adult fantasy novels, A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. Tea's hybrid memoir, Black Wave, will be published on Sister Spit Books in 2014. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Humanities] [Show ID: 24372]

Sister Spit: Writings, Rants and Reminiscence from the Road (City Lights Books) Michelle Tea (Valencia, Rose of No Man's Land) presents readings from her new anthology of writing and artwork from the irreverent, flagrantly queer, hilariously feminist, tough-talking, genre-busting ruffians who have toured with the legendary Sister Spit. This event features Tara Jepsen, Myriam Gurba, Blake Nelson, Harriet "Harry"Dodge, Tamara Llosa-Sandor, Sara Seinberg, and Cassie J. Sneider. Praise for Sister Spit: "Heartbreakingly beautiful writing; sometimes funny, sometimes shattering—always revolutionary. Truly amazing collection!"—Margaret Cho "Sister Spit is like the underground railroad for burgeoning queer writers. Not only in the van, but in the audiences trapped in the hinterlands of America and looking to escape. Sister Spit saves lives."—Justin Vivian Bond, author of Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels Michelle Tea is the author of four memoirs, a novel, a book of poetry and the young adult fantasy tale A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. She has edited anthologies about class, fashion and literature, and is editor of Sister Spit Books, a City Lights imprint. Michelle is founder and Executive Director of RADAR Productions, a literary non-profit that oversees the Sister Spit international performance tours, the monthly RADAR Reading Series, the annual Radar LAB Retreat, and other programs. Tara Jepsen is a writer and performer from San Francisco, now living in Los Angeles. Her short stories have been published in the anthologies Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache and It's So You. Myriam Gurba is the author of Dahlia Season and Wish You Were Me, and was included in the anthologies Life As We Show It and Ambientes. She lives in Los Angeles. Blake Nelson is the author of many books for teenagers and adults who act like teenagers.   His novel Paranoid Park was made into a film by Gus Van Sant. Harriet "Harry" Dodge is a Los Angeles-based visual artist, filmmaker, writer, and performer whose work has shown in national galleries including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, P.S. 122, and The Getty. Tamara Llosa-Sandor is a former news reporter now exploring the murky terrain between memoir and fiction. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. Her first book, As Filipino As Fruitcake, may or may not be published by 2018. Sara Seinberg is a writer and a photographer that makes up one half of Robinberg Photography with Ginger Robinson. In addition to her novel featuring Pandora, she is writing a book about finishing a graceless marathon and how sometimes failure is the best prize of all. Cassie J. Sneider is the author of the life-changingly hilarious book Fine Fine Music. She shares a birthday with Ted Nugent, Steve Buscemi, and Beth Lisick. She toured with Sister Spit in 2012. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 18, 2012. Copies of the book from this event can be purchased here: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9780872865662

This time we had the esteemed Meliza Bañales from Sister Spit. Bañales was the first Latina to win a poetry slam on the west coast. She wrote the book Say It With Your Whole Mouth at the age of twenty-five which went on to be nominated for the Poetry Center Book Award in 2004. She has also worked on and appeared in a number of independent films. Her own film, Do the Math, with award-winning director Mary Guzmán was the winner of a 2006 Frameline Completion Grant and received an Honorable Mention in Outfest 2007. She is now in production on a short film called Getting Off, with J. Aguilar coming to festivals in 2009 and is the co-executive producer of Tina D'Elia's film, Lucha, about the revolutionaries of El Salvador.Bañales is currently working on a one-woman-show, One Bad Year, as an artist-in-residence for Airspace in San Francisco. You don't want to miss this interview!