When The Chant Comes: 2017 Tour
Donation protected
Hello everyone:
Like me, my book is a Virgo. September marks the birthday of my book, 'When the Chant Comes' (Topside Press)! For the month of October could you help me celebrate Filipino American History Month? My book which travels from brown queer Chicagoan adolescence to wobbly spasmed poems performed in alleys, bars, stages and venues such as The Lincoln Center, is now 1 year old. I'm proud to have the honor to write, to share these poems with the world.
Writing is a love, a discipline, a chore, an honor, a duty, a fight I grapple with. For this second year of my book I'm in need of support for my tour. I am my own booking agent, PR marketing strategist, my own distributor with little support from literary press or my publisher. I've basically become a brown round wobbly traveling book salesperson. In addition, I push to create on-going relevant content and poems that excite and challenge audiences in multiple platforms. This is all in loop with indescribable chronic pain usually in body policing by the medical industrial complex or trying to access thoughtful care at all. As many of you understand this life, let's call it spooned out savvy, it's not done alone and it can be devastatingly isolating.
In the 2016-2017 tour, it was clear Brown Disabled and Transgender stories were needed more than ever. When the Chant Comes was featured at 26 events, held 10+ workshops, 6+ keynotes, 4 conferences, and many bookstores. What's not keen to the public are the days/weeks in bed culture, the striving for access in an inaccessible industry, the medical bills, the frustrations of being underpaid or overworked as this job-- poet, writer, cultural worker is for many, not a real job but a gimic. For every show: there's medicines, constant advocacy to higher ed institutions, ice packs, and thoughtful people rallying for my care. For every rehearsal: elevated feet, coping through snacks, and nerves snapping and popping. In this next year of tour, it's important to tour without the cost of my health and with less pain as possible. This model of course, has no manual.
Please help me fundraise my travel costs and food costs still needed to launch 'When the Chant Comes' into more venues to reach it's home of Spooned out, Disabled, and those in Chronic Pain, who are Queer Transgender and People of Color across this empire. As a Virgo with my birthday just days ago-- I'm humbly asking for your support for any coins, virtual hugs, event ideas, donations, kind thoughts/prayers.
If you are unable to donate, here are other ways you can support:
- please circulate or request my book at your favorite local bookstore or book collective.
- book me for a reading, event, keynote by reaching out to [email redacted]
- please review my book on goodreads, amazon, or source of your choice.
- share my poems with friends, your class, your organization, yourself.
Thank you for this vulnerable opportunity and any support and good wishes you can offer at this time. Thank you to every ancestor, trans artist, pilipinx wonder, & multitasker who has lit this path for me to exist.
*many thanks,
K.
Kaybarrett.net/booking
___________________________
Biography
Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, performer, and educator, navigating life as a disabled pilipinx amerikan transgender queer in the U.S. with struggle, resistance, and laughter. When The Chant Comes (Topside Heliotrope 2016) is their first collection. K. has been invited to The White House, Princeton University, UC Berkeley, The Lincoln Center, Queens Museum, and The Chicago Historical Society to name a few. They are a fellow of Lambda Literary Review, The Home School, and Drunken Boat. Their contributions are found in PBS News Hour, Lambda Literary, RaceForward, Foglifter, The Deaf Poets Society, Poor Magazine, Fusion.net, Trans Bodies/Trans Selves, Winter Tangerine, Make/Shift, Third Woman Press, The Advocate, and Bitch Magazine.
Work
AAWW on The Margins: When The Chant Comes, Two Poems By Kay Ulanday Barrett
LAMBDA LITERARY: Kay Ulanday Barrett: On Dancing it Out, Revising Masculinity, and Poetry as Testimony
WINTER TANGERINE: Book Review- When The Chant Comes, Kay Ulanday Barrett
Like me, my book is a Virgo. September marks the birthday of my book, 'When the Chant Comes' (Topside Press)! For the month of October could you help me celebrate Filipino American History Month? My book which travels from brown queer Chicagoan adolescence to wobbly spasmed poems performed in alleys, bars, stages and venues such as The Lincoln Center, is now 1 year old. I'm proud to have the honor to write, to share these poems with the world.
Writing is a love, a discipline, a chore, an honor, a duty, a fight I grapple with. For this second year of my book I'm in need of support for my tour. I am my own booking agent, PR marketing strategist, my own distributor with little support from literary press or my publisher. I've basically become a brown round wobbly traveling book salesperson. In addition, I push to create on-going relevant content and poems that excite and challenge audiences in multiple platforms. This is all in loop with indescribable chronic pain usually in body policing by the medical industrial complex or trying to access thoughtful care at all. As many of you understand this life, let's call it spooned out savvy, it's not done alone and it can be devastatingly isolating.
In the 2016-2017 tour, it was clear Brown Disabled and Transgender stories were needed more than ever. When the Chant Comes was featured at 26 events, held 10+ workshops, 6+ keynotes, 4 conferences, and many bookstores. What's not keen to the public are the days/weeks in bed culture, the striving for access in an inaccessible industry, the medical bills, the frustrations of being underpaid or overworked as this job-- poet, writer, cultural worker is for many, not a real job but a gimic. For every show: there's medicines, constant advocacy to higher ed institutions, ice packs, and thoughtful people rallying for my care. For every rehearsal: elevated feet, coping through snacks, and nerves snapping and popping. In this next year of tour, it's important to tour without the cost of my health and with less pain as possible. This model of course, has no manual.
Please help me fundraise my travel costs and food costs still needed to launch 'When the Chant Comes' into more venues to reach it's home of Spooned out, Disabled, and those in Chronic Pain, who are Queer Transgender and People of Color across this empire. As a Virgo with my birthday just days ago-- I'm humbly asking for your support for any coins, virtual hugs, event ideas, donations, kind thoughts/prayers.
If you are unable to donate, here are other ways you can support:
- please circulate or request my book at your favorite local bookstore or book collective.
- book me for a reading, event, keynote by reaching out to [email redacted]
- please review my book on goodreads, amazon, or source of your choice.
- share my poems with friends, your class, your organization, yourself.
Thank you for this vulnerable opportunity and any support and good wishes you can offer at this time. Thank you to every ancestor, trans artist, pilipinx wonder, & multitasker who has lit this path for me to exist.
*many thanks,
K.
Kaybarrett.net/booking
___________________________
Biography
Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, performer, and educator, navigating life as a disabled pilipinx amerikan transgender queer in the U.S. with struggle, resistance, and laughter. When The Chant Comes (Topside Heliotrope 2016) is their first collection. K. has been invited to The White House, Princeton University, UC Berkeley, The Lincoln Center, Queens Museum, and The Chicago Historical Society to name a few. They are a fellow of Lambda Literary Review, The Home School, and Drunken Boat. Their contributions are found in PBS News Hour, Lambda Literary, RaceForward, Foglifter, The Deaf Poets Society, Poor Magazine, Fusion.net, Trans Bodies/Trans Selves, Winter Tangerine, Make/Shift, Third Woman Press, The Advocate, and Bitch Magazine.
Work
AAWW on The Margins: When The Chant Comes, Two Poems By Kay Ulanday Barrett
LAMBDA LITERARY: Kay Ulanday Barrett: On Dancing it Out, Revising Masculinity, and Poetry as Testimony
WINTER TANGERINE: Book Review- When The Chant Comes, Kay Ulanday Barrett
Organizer
Kay Ulanday Barrett
Organizer
Jersey City, NJ
Inspired to help? Start a fundraiser for someone you know
