The Whorticulturalist is a new-ish sex worker site with goals: “…reclaiming to redefine the term ‘whore’ as a woman who takes ownership of her sexuality, and can profit off of it as she chooses to, and ‘horticulture,’ the practice of cultivating and managing a living entity with the purpose of seeing it thrive.” As a… Continue reading “Breaking into…” on the Whorticulturalist
Category: LGBTQ
“Swarthy” in Via v. 31/32
This essay, about the colorism faced by my Sicilian grandfather in our Italian-American family and beyond, begins with a personal experience of othering and works back through buried family lore. It appears in the current of Via: Voices in Italian Americana from Bordighera Press. It’s been a journey for this deeply personal essay. In 2017,… Continue reading “Swarthy” in Via v. 31/32
10/10 Launch at SculptureCenter
(I really had to compete with the horns in the final moments…) For the launch event of Matt Keegan: 1996, contributors gathered at SculptureCenter in Long Island City in a distanced manner in their outdoor courtyard. The event also had a remote audience via Zoom.Thanks to Matt Keegan, New York Consolidated, Inventory Press, SculptureCenter, and… Continue reading 10/10 Launch at SculptureCenter
“Do what you love…” and other canards.
Catapult is a platform founded in 2015 by Elizabeth Koch, with the mission of publishing “stories that celebrate life…Stories that reveal all the layers—the sinews and hairy knuckles, the iron and meat of history and influence…stories that land us squarely, concretely, in someone else’s shoes.” My first essay for the platform was a chance to… Continue reading “Do what you love…” and other canards.
“You’ve Got Male” in 1996
“You’ve Got Male” is a reflection on my earliest interactions with the internet (dating back to 1996), and chronicles the rise and demise of our online sexual freedom, from the wild frontier of the Naughts to the passage of SESTA/FOSTA, legislation that encodes a moral panic about trafficking innocents (innocence?). It appears in the visual… Continue reading “You’ve Got Male” in 1996
Glitter Up the Dark Review on Lambda Literary
Back in March, I was supposed to read in San Antonio at Gertrude Press and the University of Texas Press‘ joint offsite AWP reading event. I was especially looking forward to sharing the bill with Sasha Geffen. After the event got cancelled (thanks pandemic), I got in touch with Sasha, who was kind enough to send… Continue reading Glitter Up the Dark Review on Lambda Literary
Lemebel feature in the G&L Review
My feature on Chile’s queer performance artist/writer renegade voice, which he once characterized as “mariconaje guerrero” (“warrior faggotry”) appears in the May/June Gay & Lesbian Review, under the issue theme of “Unsung Heroes.” The below excerpt describes a performance by Lemebel and collaborator Francisco Casas (as Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis entitled La Conquista de américa:… Continue reading Lemebel feature in the G&L Review
“I think the state will cleave us…” Bruce Benderson Interview in RFD Mag
Last year, a fellow writer recommended Bruce’s workshop to me. I was familiar with his name but not his actual work. I started reading after joining the workshop, wondering how could I have missed out? I love the voices of the Times Square queer underworld he chronicles in User. His “erotic autobiography, ” The Romanian, is… Continue reading “I think the state will cleave us…” Bruce Benderson Interview in RFD Mag