SOLD OUT Feast of Words, A Literary Potluck with Mia McKenzie & Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene

On Tuesday, July 16, 7 to 9pm, Feast of Words features a reading by Mia McKenzie, creator of Black Girl Dangerous, a multi-faceted online forum for the literary and artistic expression of queer and trans people of color. McKenzie will read from “The Summer We Got Free,” a novel about queer love, freedom, and family for which McKenzie recently received the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene anchors the evening’s potluck.

As always, guests can bring a dish, take part in a writing exercise and share the work they have created for a chance to win literary and culinary prizes.

Following this event, Feast of Words will be on hiatus through Fall 2013.

Mia McKenzie is an award-winning writer and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous. She’s a smart, scrappy Philadelphian with a deep love of fake fur collars and people of color. She’s a queer black feminist. She studied writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the winner of the Lambda Literary Award (2013), the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award (2012), and the Astraea Foundation’s Writers Fund Award (2009). You can find her short stories in “The Kenyon Review” and “make/shift.” Her novel, “The Summer We Got Free,” is the winner of the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction and has been described by author and critic Jewelle Gomez as “a brilliant tapestry filled with exuberance and anxiety,” and by the Lambda Literary review as “achingly poignant, laser-like in its facility and effect.” Her live performances include “Queer Rebels of the Harlem Renaissance,” “Mangos With Chili Presents: WHIPPED! QTPOC Recipes For Love, Sex & Disaster,” and “Black Girl Dangerous: Mia McKenzie on Being A Queer Black Femme Nerd In A Ridiculous World,” the last of those being a signature reading of her diverse works, performed at universities across the country. Her work has been quoted on The Melissa Harris Perry Show and recommended by “The Root,” “Colorlines,” “Feministing,” “Angry Asian Man,” and “Crunk Feminist Collective,” among others.

Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene is an Ijaw and Urhobo Nigerian dyke performance activist, poet, dancer, writer, actress and video artist who was born with a mouth full of dynamite and sugarcane. Etaghene is a mixed-media visual artist who has produced four solo art exhibitions. She uses her poetry to chisel a verbal sculpture of her soul for listeners while addressing social and political issues. Etaghene has toured nationally and performed in over 30 U.S. cities. She was interviewed by and was a contributing writer to “None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa,” a sound documentary project that collects the stories of LGBTI Africans from the African continent and the diaspora. In May 2012, Etaghene founded Sugarcane, an LGBTQ of color writing workshop based in the principles of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. Through her project, “Kitchen Poems,” she curates events that blend Nigerian and African diasporic foods with various forms of art. “GUAVA,” her second one-woman show, is a multi-media performance that seamlessly blends Nigerian dyke holy texts, poems, dreams, heartbeats & dance while candidly exploring queer African sexuality and the multiple ways immigrants and children of immigrants create home. “GUAVA” debuts on June 17 & 18 at the Garage in San Francisco as part of the Queer Cultural Center’s National Queer Arts Festival.

Pictured top to bottom: Mia McKenzie, Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene, photo by An Xiao