I made this collection/sequence of collages as part of a Digital Storytelling class at Hamline; after creating and sharing it with the class, I tucked it away into a folder, because what else could I do with it?

Then, while I was (re-)organizing stuff, I ran across that folder, and…voilà!

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I decided sometime last year I needed to narrow my focus to more specifically writing - less video work, less random visual art, and so on and so forth.

That decision has not worked all that well. My brain does what it does, and I can fight it and get nothing done, or I can go with it and see what happens. I’m liking the results.

My art practice is more wild garden than greenhouse; I would much rather flourish in a dozen different ways than wither in monoculture.

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“my gender contains multitudes”
(Kai Cheng Thom, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World)

When I was a little girl and watched,
still being a virgin forest
& we were promised love—
I get very confused.

My parents never told me—
what is happening to me?!
The frame becomes unstable and rebellious.
Now the bones feel nothing.

The guys take off their shirts
and the room falls away
I get down on all fours,
fall desperately in love,

saying little prayers
even before we speak. Rage stretches the
smiles like eclipsing planets
all the way down in their bellies.

I keep trying to figure out what it means:
she began entering my fantasies,
creeping through body.
From this distance I couldn’t tell—

a woman, of course…an ordinary woman.
They were excellent, soft and—
after so many years of trying to enter their kingdoms,
I have just realized that the stakes are myself.

I am afraid to follow my flesh over those narrow
into the wet
so after a while
I am not me.

I try not to think about
when people inquired—
no, I am not anything I am not.
I’ve folded suicide in four,

but I held back my racing heart
and the smoky outline of a woman’s face
I never was
& I touch her arms—

these things take their own sweet time.
Now the bones yearn to break through the flesh;
I want to sleep in the ruin,
such a crumbling beauty, ah.

I sit here writing, not daring to stop,
that girl in the white shirt—
but you’d never have looked good
in the bars of my ribcage.

I used to live there myself.
She is collecting the years like dust.
As night falls like a blade we are
transfigured—

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About this poem:

This is a cento, which is a poem collaged from (usually) other authors’ verses or passages. In this specific poem I’ve used lines from poems published in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Bookshop). It was originally a candidate for my forthcoming collection, This Body, This Fruit (out in February 2027 with ) but didn’t make the final cut.

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I’m thrilled to be premiering this, my first full production of This Body, This Fruit (the play), at Phoenix Theater, in Uptown Minneapolis, on July 8th.

Tickets are now on sale! Buy some for yourself, your friends, your friends’ friends, your parents, your cousins (blood or chosen), that person you met last week who might still be around in July, who knows? (Hang onto the ticket in case they bail.)

Also, I have another sort-of newsletter, This Body, This Fruit (the play), which will be 100% play-related content, including… BTS stuff? Cast and crew trivia? Silly contests? Only one way to find out!

You absolutely don’t have to subscribe to it in order to get my writing news! Call it bonus content 💖. There’s also an archive (currently almost empty but will expand over time).

Transgender Day of Visibility Showcase

I’m performing in a Transgender Day of Visibility Showcase hosted by the Hennepin County Trans & Gender Nonconforming ERG & Minneapolis Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) ERG. Tuesday, March 31st, 4-6pm, at 625 4th Avenue South, downtown Minneapolis. It’s going to be ❤️‍🔥

Better Things 5x5 Reading (April 2026)

I’m hosting the next Better Things 5x5 Reading, first Tuesday in April (April 7th), 7pm at Moon Palace Books. Masks are required and available if you need them. There Will Be Snacks.

BuckSlam Poetry Slam

Best combo of poetry and sports you can find…until April 30th, anyway 😉.

Queer Voices Mid-Career Writers

I’m thrilled to be reading with this fabulous selection of queer writers from Queer Voices, April 11 at 2pm, Moon Palace Books. Stephani Maari Booker, Brianna Flavin, k Abram, and me — love to see you there!

Visual Poetry Workshop

I’m leading a Visual Poetry workshop at the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub at the University of Minnesota. The workshop runs from 6-8pm on Tuesday, April 21st, and is free and open to anyone age 18+. Register online; there’s still plenty of room.

Poetry + Nature Creative Writing Workshop at Powderhorn Park (followed by Sound Garden & Reading)

I’m one of the teaching artists, along with the brilliant Chavonn Williams Shen and OG activist poet and Palabrista Teresa Ortiz, for this Poetry + Nature Creative Writing Workshop on Saturday, April 25th, in Powderhorn Park.

Register at https://tinyurl.com/PoetryInNature-at-Powderhorn

You can also check out the Facebook event, if that’s something you like to do.

Midwest Poetry Mash-Up 2026

Get your tickets to Midwest Poetry Mash-Up today! April 30th-May 2nd, and if you’re a poet, your full-slam pass also gets you into four (4!) writing workshops. And you can get Early Bird pricing right now, to boot. Coincidentally, the Mash-Up is also at the Phoenix Theater 😁.

Midwest Poetry Mash-Up Schedule

Thursday, April 30th
6pm: Preliminary Bout 1
8pm: Preliminary Bout 2

​Friday, May 1st
6pm: Preliminary Bout 3
8pm: Preliminary Bout 4

Saturday, May 2nd
7pm: FINALS

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There will also be a new exclusive video release - for paid subscribers - on April 15th. (I’m pretty sure.) It’s scheduled.

See you around?

Set in the Midway neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on unceded Dakota lands.

Produced as a final group project in a Digital Storytelling class.

Poetry by Davi Gray.

(note: the captions are not always correct - apologies - it was a group project 🤷🏼‍♀️)

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July 8-14, 2026

Phoenix Theater, Minneapolis

News will appear here, of course; I also have a TBTF-only newsletter you can sign up for at ThisBodyThisFruit.com (everything shared there will show up here).

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Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.

(Julius Caesar: Act 1 Scene 2)

Caesar was onto something (this is not about my taste in men. OK, this is not only about my taste in men 🤭). Cassius brought forward would probably be a looksmaxxing manosphere podcaster with a supplement deal and maybe a seat in the Cabinet. I’m struck by how much grander villains are in Shakespeare, even the stupidest, pettiest examples, than those we see in the world around us.

Maybe it’s the iambic pentameter.

I doubt it, though.

Reading Shakespeare sometimes requires a couple minutes to retune my inner ear to the language. Once it clicks, a scene or two in, I usually start over from the beginning. It’s remarkable how much beauty is packed into each of these plays, each way shorter than the average novel.

Better Things 5x5 Reading & Open Mic, Tuesday, March 3rd, 7pm at Moon Palace Books, 3032 Hiawatha Ave, Minneapolis. Featuring five fantastic artists: Rosetta Peters, Ashe Jaafaru, Cecily McMillan, Lester Batiste, and Lt. Sunnie, followed by an open mic.

I’m hosting, joined this month by Zeke Caligiuri; both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation, and the event is free (with snacks!).

I’m providing some opening poetry for Day of Empathy: Our Voice, Our Vote, hosted by Dream.org in partnership with Minnesota Freedom Fund at the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday, March 12th, at 6pm. Free and with snacks! Register here.

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If you’re in Baltimore for AWP, first week of March, you can find me at the LGBTQ Caucus (Thursday, March 5th, 5:00-6:15pm, Room 307 at the Baltimore Convention Center). I’m also planning to stop by the Trio House 2026 Authors meet & greet. Stop by and say hi 😄. And I’ll be running around soaking up poetry & writing & panels & sights & I’ll have a notebook, a phone, and sometimes a camera. Wheeeee 😅

BuckSlam Five Buck Finals, March 11th, at Indeed Brewing, Northeast Minneapolis. Hosted by the inimitable (and inevitable) Neil Hilborn! I’m not competing, but I’ll be there.

Stay tuned for more details!

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Lots of things happening in April, too; more Better Things, of course, and a visual poetry workshop, and a workshop + sound garden, and more, and more news about the play, and… well. More about all that in a few weeks. Stay warm & salty ✊🏼

Viewing recommendations: use good headphones or sound system; watch (listen) at least two, preferably three times (because the captions will distract you for one).

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We try, we have to try, we can’t not try, that leads to nowhere good, but we will fail.

Kind of like art.

Here we are in Wonderland, the Upside-Down, the Mirror World, where the most reliable MSM-ish sources of information are People and Wired (and, for a span of time, Teen Vogue). The United States is under the control of a dictator-ish person who isn’t legally allowed to hold the office and has dragged a whole bunch of other collaborators into that status. as they have given aid and comfort to enemies of the United States (i.e., the illegal President and his cronies and lickspittles). And sometimes we have to pretend everything’s normal, or normal enough to go to the store, wash dishes, do laundry, eat and sleep and all that jazz. And it doesn’t feel normal, one bit.

But you know all that. Or you don’t, but you can find out.

Either way, I’m carrying on, because the future gets here whether I do or not, and I’d like that future to be as better for everyone as I can help make it. Part of my work—not all of it, but assuredly a large part of it—is my art in all its various forms, so that’s some of what I’m doing.

I’m reading some poetry at SubText books in Saint Paul, Sunday, February 1st, at 5:00-6:00 pm, along with Sana Wazwaz, Michael Kleber-Diggs, and Amy Leanne Johnston, at an event to remember the poet, mother, and human Renee Good. It’s an event for community building and I hope it may offer one avenue to process some of the collective grief and anger we Minnesotans are experiencing. The event is free and no registration is required; more details are available at SubText’s website.

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The next Better Things 5x5 Reading and Open Mic is on Tuesday, February 3rd, at 7pm at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis. Featured, five amazing artists: Ari Tison (Bribri), BakiBakiBaki, Jeffrey Dorr-Slowey, Heid E. Erdrich, and Isha Camara.

BuckSlam is happening Wednesday, February 11th, at Indeed Brewing Co. in Northeast Minneapolis. I recommend you eat before the show, because Pizzeria Lola, the usual delish food truck action, is currently closed due to fascist government thugs.

I’ll be reading a poem as a preface to a performance of Men On Boats, a Ten Thousand Things production. You can buy a ticket online for the February 26th performance at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Ave., Minneapolis. (Tickets for other dates and venues are available, too; I highly recommend making it to one of the performances, which run from February 4 through March 15.) The show starts at 7:30pm, but I’ll be reading a few minutes before that, so maybe plan on showing up early.

Other bits are happening behind the scenes, because of course I have a poetry collection coming out next year (!) and I have a play coming out in less than six months (!!) and the podcast I’m producing is launching in two months (!!!) and there is even more art-related activity in the background, most of which you won’t see Until It’s Ready, but I don’t have much to share about all that. Yet. Stay tuned.

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I hope you are finding ways to breathe, to rest, to nourish your spirit and body and heart, and to carry on.

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This concert is live on zoom and open to all ages, though not all stories and poems may be appropriate for everyone. This event will be recorded and available for two weeks.

You can get tickets and/or donate at https://tinyurl.com/useyourvoiceTC.

Let's hear some good art, make some good trouble, and remember that we are stronger together. Thanks.

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These are not normal times.

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Please watch & share & if you have capacity and desire, find ways to help at standwithminnesota.org.

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It’s winter in Minneapolis again and all I want
is something to eat. I should cook, but I go
to the fridge and open the door and just
stand there. There’s something I’m trying not to
see, someone, something—I can’t decide
if the once-living still count as someone
or when, exactly, we become a thing.

Not the kind of thing we must seem to the wicked—
but I can’t—
I can’t do this right now. I have cried
in every room in this house. Once I went
outside and sat on the slippery—
the slick—
the frozen watery ground like the world
when I wasn’t looking had cried, too,
and this world—
no, those—
no—

A coldness creeps through the city and I can’t—

Some minutes or seconds or days ago I let go
the refrigerator door and it whispered shut
and the air was—you could suffocate in there
and it would feel a little bit like today. And
the day began with the end—it was a day like
any other and now it’s tomorrow or maybe
the next day, or the next, I can’t tell anymore.

I stood at the fridge and I read a poem
on my phone, and then another, and another,
it was Danez, Amanda, Cornelius, it was
Renee Nicole Good whose name I never knew
till this day, and this is the thing I’m
dying not to see, dying inside from seeing,
it’s not her whiteness, it’s her smile
and the video and the video and the video
and the gun and the phone and the dog
and the stuffies, her wife, three kids,
the start of an ordinary day and only
a couple blocks away.

I can’t remember whether I ate today, or yesterday,
really, or maybe tomorrow, and every time I close
my eyes—
I can’t—
two times, or maybe three, I fill up my cart
on Doordash, food enough for a week, until
I remember they’ll chase the Doordasher
through the streets and I don’t want to
lead them into the valley of the shadow
so now I’m back at the fridge.

If you can’t sleep, you can’t dream. If there is
one thing I won’t let them colonize, it’s my dreams.

When I was younger my uncle went to prison.
Came out with a deep interest in end-times
Biblical prophecies. He sat for hours,
thumb-smeared Bible on greasy denim knees,
talking about locusts and land wars and how
someday an abomination of desolation
would appear and after that, the nuclear
blooms would scatter the fields of the earth
to the winds with every ragged sinner left
on her or in her.

I’ve really come to hate—“White
Nationalist Pseudo-Christian” is far too
long for a poem, so in honor of my uncle,
who died younger than I am now, of AIDS,
I will call them Antichristians, instead,
and off in the ballroom distance their
Antichrist mutters at the wind, and I
think I’ve got time for one more cry
before trying to sleep again.

I can’t remember whether I ate after all.

Helicopters whicker overhead, familiar
soundtrack—I can still tell Huey from
Cobra from Blackhawk from Chinook from
the sound of rotors slapping the wind—
but these are none of them, so I settle
and they slowly feather me into a dream.

It’s winter in Minneapolis and I can still
see her turning the wheel to leave.

I can’t tell anymore if I’m asleep, if this
stick-legged nightcolt is real, knock-kneed
and steaming, wobbly but growing taller
and stronger right in front of me.

They say the trick is look for a clock—
do the numbers make sense?—but time
has been broken since earlier this week—
was it yesterday? Was it tomorrow? I have
pinched myself bloody before and I know
it will never end this whatever, this day,
week, year, dream.

I’m leaving today, or tomorrow, or maybe
I’m already gone—going to find my people,
they’re everywhere, everywhere I look
someone is helping build the fire we all
will need to survive this Minneapolis winter,
frozen ICEbound hell, feverish white dream.

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I started to do a Preview of the Whole Year and wow that was a bad idea. Instantly overwhelmed 😅. So let me just touch on a few major bits and say…there’s a lot to look forward to! Actual January events, just a couple, are toward the end.

The Podcast Launch

Lots more about this in the Very Near Future because it’s coming up…in March!

The Poetry Collection

OK, this is technically not happening until 2027, but preorders ought to open up late this year! Please set aside a very small amount of money (Two lattes! One sandwich! One one-millionth of something that costs a lot of money!) in your budget for your very own copy of This Body, This Fruit. You’re really going to love it 💖. Maybe set aside a couple extra lattes’ worth for friends’ gifts, too 🥰.

The Play

My new play, a solo performance by yours truly 😊, will debut at the dawn of summer 2026. It bears the same name as my poetry collection, This Body, This Fruit. (And if randomness tilts my way, you may also see it at the Fringe Festival 🤞🏼.) You’ll see more about this in the Very Near Future.

Better Things

I am deeply grateful to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the voters of Minnesota for the award of an Arts Experience grant for the ReEntry Lab to continue hosting Better Things for another year 🥰.

Midwest Poetry Mash-Up

It’s coming up quick, y’all! This is my 3rd year entering, and my team is called 3 Ds and a B, and we’re going to have so much fun! Mark your calendars now for April 30-May 2, 2026.

New Website & Services

Technically this happened in 2025, and it’s been there for a few months, but: I have a newly redesigned website! It’s stylistically matched with this newsletter’s recent redesign, both of which match my business cards 💖, and I really love it. I’ve also added a page about my editing and coaching services, available as single sessions or ongoing arrangements. I’m fully booked through the first part of this year, but if you’re interested, now would be a great time to get something on the calendar.

There’s more; there’s always more until, one day, there isn’t, but this is enough for now, don’t you think?

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January 2026

Better Things Gathering

Tomorrow (!), Tuesday, January 6th, is the next Better Things gathering (our next 5x5 Reading will be on February 3rd). We’ve got a very special guest workshop presenter, Kyle Tran Myhre, aka “Guante,” poet, activist, spoken word artist, musician, social justice advocate, and human being who makes me proud to be one, leading a Narrative Interventions workshop.

What’s this, you ask? In his words:

This will be a space in which we can dream up ways to make our values, politics, and principles come to life in the world. In poetry terms, it’s about brainstorming ideas to make the abstract a bit more concrete. What narratives do we notice around us? What stories are operating underneath our communities’ understanding of different issues and concepts? What counter-narratives would we like to cultivate? A “narrative intervention” can be an art project, a media campaign, a virtual program, an event idea—anything that creates real-life space for a counter-narrative to grow. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore these questions, share skills and ideas, and have some space to dream together. We’ll take a few minutes at the end to share work, either generated during this lab or something you bring with you.

I’m super-excited to share this space and work, and I’d love to see you there!

BuckSlam

Hoping real hard to make it to this one 😅. But even if I’m not there, you should go, because there are some spectacular poets and performers showing up on the regular. And it’s a sport! Poetry! Sport! What’s not to love??

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And that’s it for the month! Stay Warm, Avoid ICE, and I’ll catch you on the flipside….

Fundraiser for Holland

Please Register (free): https://events.humanitix.com/helping-holland

Hi everyone,

I’m hosting a talent show and fundraiser on Sunday, December 14th at 4pm to support my friend Holland, who is transitioning out of homelessness into subsidized housing (on 12/15). What they need most to begin rebuilding is money for food. We will be collecting non-deductible contributions & converting them to Aldi gift cards.

We’ll have about 90 minutes of performances, including a piano set from me.

Attendance is free but please do register. No financial contribution is required to join us.

Ways to participate or support

• Financial: Every dollar contributed (note: NOT tax-deductible) will be turned into Aldi gift cards to help Holland cover food costs for a while. Cash, Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal. QR codes for contributions will be available at the event. For transparency, I’ll document all contributions and receipts and can provide them upon request.

• Talent: Email me: marielepage82@gmail.com. No need to be perfect! I’m going to play the piano and make mistakes. I want this to be HUMAN.

• Baked goods: Please arrive 30 minutes early to set them out for folks.

• Share: This venue has a large capacity. The more the merrier and the better Holland is off for longer. Share with your communities & friends & family.

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• Presence: Just show up. No need to contribute money if you can’t right now. Join with human community enjoying communal music and mutual aid activities.

• Have another idea or way to help? Email me.

Additional Event details

• Baked Goods: Show up early to partake of bakery goods outside the sanctuary - OR - enjoy after the show.

• Kids: Supervised children are welcome; there’s a small play area in the back of the sanctuary.

• Parking: 75-spot lot + plenty of street parking.

• Capacity: The sanctuary seats ~250.

• Venue note: Although the event is hosted in a church, I want to acknowledge this clearly. As an atheist with religious trauma, I wouldn’t choose a venue that felt unsafe to me. But I know the pastor and, personally, feel comfortable in this particular space.

Please Register (free): https://events.humanitix.com/helping-holland

There’s a Facebook event as well, if that’s how you keep track of things:

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In the meantime, here are a couple of things coming up….

Better Things 5x5 Reading & Open Mic

I’m hosting Better Things, with the illustrious Michael Kleber-Diggs as guest co-host. If you’re worn out by shopping, or not-shopping, or despairing at the early dark or sudden snow, or wanting to find community outside your possibly problematic family, Better Things is a great cure! We’ve got community, and warmth, and some amazing features and an ASL-interpreted open mic and SNACKS! Stop on by if you can 🤗.

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Fire Light - The Nature of Storytelling & Stories Behind the Menu

I’m thrilled to be a part of this event, hosted by Maggie’s Farm Theater and Stories Behind the Menu. I’m stretching some muscles I haven’t used a lot — telling a story rather than performing poetry — so if you can catch this, it’ll be a rare treat.

Thursday, December 4th, 6:30pm. Tickets are available online for $65; parking is free. Featured storytellers are Jim Bear Jacobs (the headliner), St. Louis Park Mayor Nadia Mohamed, Cutler Bennett, Max Lopez, Chaz Sandifer, and ya girl Davi Gray 😄. And there’s a tasting menu by Owamni Executive Sous Chef Dominique Miles 🤤. Legit night out if you can make it!

Fire Light - The Nature of Storytelling

A second iteration of this storytelling event, without the Stories Behind the Menu part (cheaper tickets, but no tasting menu).

Friday, December 12th, 7pm. Tickets are available online for $19; parking is free. Featured storytellers include Jim Bear Jacobs (the headliner), Cutler Bennett, Max Lopez, State Representative Larry Kraft, and ya girl Davi Gray 😄.

December BuckSlam

My favorite local poetry slam continues its monthly domination of Indeed Brewing’s back room (“The Ox”). I’ll be there!

I’ll leave you with a seasonally apposite excerpt from the book Sacred Fire, by Ronald Rolheiser (Bookshop link to Sacred Fire).

We can all be reached all the time. There never needs to be any silence and solitude in our lives. And so we end up as good people, but as people who are not very deep: not bad, just busy; not immoral, just distracted; not lacking in soul, just preoccupied; not disdaining depth, just never doing the things to get us there.

Information technology is a powerful narcotic, for good and for bad. It has the power to shield us from pain, to soothe us in healthy ways. That can be good. Sometimes a narcotic is helpful. But it can also be overly intoxicating and too absorbing. It can swallow us whole. There are few better things we can do to find solitude and rest within today’s hectic world, where all the news in the world is available at our fingertips, than to practice contemplative prayer, a regular and deep centering of ourselves in silence, a quiet sitting in one-to-one intimacy with God.

I hope you find some rest this month in whatever form works best for you.

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— with Davi Gray

I’m teaching my Poetry Re-Vision workshop (as featured by BuckSlam earlier this year), this time at the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub. Tuesday, November 11th, 6-8pm. I encourage you to bring work you want to revise but you will have an opportunity to generate new lines if needed. This event is free and open to the public (18+) — all are welcome! Masks are suggested (and provided on site) but not required.

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Register ahead of time at https://tally.so/r/w20DlD.

BuckSlam!

I missed October, but I’ll be at BuckSlam’s November Poetry Slam - Wednesday, November 12th, 7-9pm, at Indeed Brewing.

Restorative Arts Summit: Pathways to Healing, Reentry & Community

If you’re local to Minneapolis, you may want to check this out (via Art from the Inside):

The inaugural Restorative Arts Summit has been developed in collaboration with representatives from Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Ten Thousand Things, ReEntry Lab, and Art from the Inside’s Creative Pathways Fellows.

Restorative Arts Summit: Pathways to Healing, Reentry & Community

📅 Date: Saturday, November 15
📍 Location: Playwrights’ Center 710 Raymond Avenue Saint Paul, MN 55114
🕒 Time: 9-5pm

This one-day summit is for those engaged in the arts as healing practice in response to incarceration. This innovative gathering will convene community organizations, advocates, artists, and directly impacted individuals and their loved ones across Minnesota.

Why You Should Attend

Hear from powerful voices — panelists and presenters with lived experience and expertise

• Engage hands-on in creative workshop sessions (writing, visual arts, music, art-making, and more)

• Build connections with folks working in justice reform, arts-based advocacy, creatives, and wellness professionals

• Be inspired & energized to take ideas back to your circles, communities, and spheres of influence

Who is this for?
This summit is open to community members, artists, nonprofit professionals, criminal justice and social service practitioners, returning citizens, students, educators, and anyone interested in restorative arts and social change.

Registration & Details
You can learn more and register here:
Restorative Arts Summit — Eventbrite Registration

Early registration is encouraged, as space is limited.

Spread the Word
If you know others who might be interested — artists, community groups, organizations that work in correctional facilities, advocates — please forward this invitation or share the registration link. Let’s gather a diverse community of caring changemakers.

We hope you’ll join us in this journey toward healing, reconnection, and transformation. Your presence, voice, and engagement will make the summit richer.

Note: I’m leading one of the creative workshop sessions in the afternoon—we’ll be doing some visual poetry creation. (Not sure what that means? Drop in and find out 😁.)

Writers for Democratic Action MN Reading

I’m honored to be included at the Writers for Democratic Action MN Reading on Sunday, November 23rd, 3-5pm, at Moon Palace Books. The lineup:

Alice Paige
Ash Wynter
Chaun Webster
Davi Gray
David Mura
Jennifer Bowen Hicks
Ibrahim Kaba
Kristin Collier
Kyle Tran Myhre
Lynette Reini-Grandell
Sagirah Shahid
Sana Wazwaz
Shannon Gibney
Tarik Dobbs
Venus DeMars

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Reading Series - Saint Paul Almanac Volume 14: Illumination

Saturday, November 29, 2025, 1:00-3:00 pm

Zoom - hosted by Wendy Brown-Báez

Presenting Julie Gard, Peter Heiden, Bob Komives, Pacyinz Lyfoung, Caris Uşoară, Wendy Brown-Báez reading for Elizabeth Hawes, Ngoc Bui reading for Lyn Cramer, Davi Gray reading for Jesse Powell, and Shahani Windom reading for Lawrence Johnson.

I unlocked my previously paid-subscriber-only post with my feature film debut in 20 Bucks, created during a Cinema Production class at FilmNorth.

So that’s the November news! A couple more exciting things coming up in December, and in between now and then you may see a teaser about my play… 😉

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See you there?

Have you watched my video collab yet? It’s only two and change minutes long, but it’s amazing! Check it out!

Somehow I forgot to mention (or maybe I said something, but I definitely forgot to add it to my website, now rectified) you can buy a chapbook with three of my poems in it! It’s the 2025 BuckSlam Team chapbook, Herd That! Volume 1 (2025), available from BuckSlam MN (contact page on website, or DM them on Instagram, or show up at a slam, or… this stuff is hot, you gotta seek it out like buried treasure 😉).

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This month’s Better Things is an amazing lineup; I’ll be co-hosting with Louise Waakaa’igan 🤩. As usual, we’ll be at Moon Palace Books, first Tuesday of the month (October 7th) at 7pm. Reading is followed by an open mic, both with ASL interpreters!

I’ll be reading poetry (15 minutes’ worth 💖) at the Midstream Reading Series along with Emily August, Kathryn Kysar, and Debra J Stone. The reading’s on Thursday, October 9th, at Unity Church-Unitarian (732 Holly Avenue, Saint Paul 55104) — use the Holly Avenue entrance; the reading is upstairs in the Robbins Parlor.

No registration necessary, but you can add it to your calendar with this QR code.

This is early, and I’ll include it in next month’s newsletter, too, but I’m leading a Poetry Re-Vision workshop on November 11th, 6pm, at the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub over at the University of Minnesota as part of the ReEntry Lab residency at the Hub.

This is my single-session poetry revision workshop—I’ve also got a full four-week version (available to host, HMU 😉). You can register for this workshop, as well as a Speculative Nonfiction workshop led by Erin Sharkey, at tally.so/r/w20DlD (or scan the QR code below).

The St. Paul Almanac is throwing a Book Launch Party for the 20th Anniversary Edition, Volume 14: Illumination on October 16th at 7pm at the Wilder Foundation in North Saint Paul. I don’t have work in this volume, but I was part of the editing team putting it together and I’m proud of the work we did 😁.

Tickets are free but almost gone—you can get them at eventbrite.

The can’t-miss reading of the year, Beyond Bars: Voices of Incarceration, is October 25th, 7-9pm, at the Klas Center, Kay Fredericks Room (3rd Floor), at Hamline University, 1537 W Taylor Ave, St. Paul 55104. I highly recommend going in person, if you can, but there’s also a Zoom option, for which you’ll need to register.

There’s more coming—there’s always more 😅—but this seems like enough for now. Hope to see you somewhere around the multiverse!

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The poem itself was an ekphrastic piece, written in response to Mark Rothko’s painting Black in Deep Red, 1957. I suggest watching the video first, examining the painting, then watching the video again. The photograph no doubt pales in comparison to the real thing—Rothko typically painted large (and have I mentioned how jealous I am of those large canvases artists be using??)—but I’ve never seen it in person myself.

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Poetry is amazing, art is amazing, nature is amazing, and when you combine all three... 🤌🏼. Honored to be in poetic community with the other featured poets, A. E. Wynter, Louise Waakaa’igan, Kira Bunkholt, , and Keng Xiong.

Poems will be highlighted during a free event at the park this weekend, Saturday, September 13th, from 12-4 pm:

Field Trip: Art and Nature Festival

Bring your family and join in the 16th annual celebration of arts and nature at Silverwood's Field Trip event! Enjoy live outdoor music from artists Paper Chain and *splash!*. Shop work from local artists with Minneapolis Craft Market, take part in art and nature activities for the whole family led by Silverwood educators and much more! Drop in anytime.

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Link to get tickets (not needed, it’s a free drop-in event, but maybe you’re a person who likes to get tickets to things 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Silverwood Park (part of Three Rivers Park District)

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EDIT: I’ve added the actual list of books, below the picture 🤦🏼‍♀️.

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What I Learned

It doesn’t take that long to read a book of poetry

I timed almost every day’s book, and only two of them came in over an hour (and not much over).

Reading some poetry every day is amazing

I already knew this, but it’s an easy habit to let slip with everything else going on.

Most of the work was in the extra bits I added

Which included:

• Taking a photograph of the books all lined up, so I could…

  • Blank out titles (but not publishers) to give readers a chance to guess at book titles and/or publishers.
    Nobody tried guessing, so this was wasted effort.

  • Use Photoshop to create a whole bunch of layers so I could day-by-day reveal another slice of the book collection.
    This was fun, and I learned some new tricks in Photoshop, so I wouldn’t call it a complete waste. But I’m not sure it was any better for readers than just showing the book cover (which I also did).

  • Extract the colors to make an email banner for each day, complete with contrasting text for the day.
    I thought this was a nice visual effect, but was it worth the work? Probably not, especially combined with all the other shenanigans I was pulling off.

• Creating a somewhat elaborate post with each book’s data, two photos (one spine reveal, one cover), brief commentary on the book, and links to the publisher, the book on Bookshop.org (if possible), and the author’s website (if possible).
  Looking back, this seems over the top. It might’ve been more manageable without the additional work around photos and banners.

• Coming up with pithy taglines on each email, referencing (or excerpted from) the book in non-spoiler ways.
  This is not as easy as it seems it should be (or as I wish it were). And I’m not sure how much they added to the reader experience.

• Posting a link to main posts on various social media sites (Notes, LinkedIn, Instagram/Facebook, and Bluesky)

• When I put up Instagram Stories, I carefully chose the music to match the book — title or theme or (ideally) some of both.
  While this definitely took some time and effort, this was one of the most fun bits for me, so I don’t regret it. I also know that in at least one case, the song I chose deeply affected someone else, which is part of the whole point of any of this, isn’t it? Art? At least for me.
  I could sit alone in my room and masturbate (which admittedly can be a bit of an art) if I didn’t care how what I did affected other people. I make art for humans.
  Added bonus: I added all my Sealey Challenge stories to a Highlight collection, so I (or anyone else) can go back and check them out at will. (More than once I’ve gone back through to listen to the songs I chose and see if I can remember exactly which book they refer to. I think I did pretty well.)

• When posting on Instagram or Bluesky, I also took pains to find and tag the publisher and/or author, if either was on those platforms.
  Annoying, but also this feels like part of the reason I am on social media at all—to be in conversation with other artists.

One unfortunate side effect of posting to all these other social media platforms was that it sent me down rabbit holes more often than usual—because so many terrible things are happening in the world, and I wasn’t able to just avoid social media any day in August.

Some funny things that happened

• One of the books I had checked out from the library had a piece of paper between the pages. The paper had the name of a poet friend of mine! We both laughed about it 😂. What are the odds?

• I only today went back to add all of these books to my spreadsheet of books I have read (which covers the last 15 years…there are a lot). That was when I found out I’d already read one of the books! And actually not that long ago. Huh. 🤷🏼‍♀️

• I read one of the poetry books (Day 28) the day after I’d heard its author read poems from that very same book in a Zoom meeting.

My favorite book?

Nah, not doing that. I read some great collections of poetry, and some great poems, and saw many ways to build both of those things, and deeply appreciated the experience. I don’t think it’s possible to choose a “best,” and probably not useful if I did. At least half of these I’d be happy to read again someday. (Will I? Most of them, probably not—there’s a lot of poetry out there that I haven’t read yet. Anyone for a book swap?)

My favorite experience?

I ended up talking with a few of the authors, which was fun. But the best conversation was with Susan L. Leary, author of Dressing the Bear; we talked about her brother, who shone brightly in the poetry collection and in her memory; it was a really lovely connection to make. And if it were the only result of the whole month, it would make it all worth it.

Will I do it again next year?

Right now, I’m included to say I probably will. Probably a more stripped-down version (no Photoshopped daily reveals, for one). Some internal, easier algorithm for pithy email taglines—the first line of the first poem, something like that. But the poetry—

The 2025 Sealey Challenge Books (left to right):

1. One Big Self: an investigation (C.D. Wright)

2. spoke the dark matter (michelle whittaker)

3. Grief Slut (Evelyn Berry)

4. Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful (Rohan Chhetri)

5. Duende (Tracy K. Smith)

6. Dressing the Bear (Susan L. Leary)

7. When My Brother Was an Aztec (Natalie Diaz)

8. Nightingale (Paisley Rekdal)

9. DEED (torrin a. greathouse)

10. Pilgrim Bell (Kaveh Akbar)

11. Verb Animate (Heid E. Erdrich)

12. (Re)constructions (Bradley Trumpfheller)

13. Resurrected Body (Elizabeth C. Garcia)

14. American Inmate (Justin Rovillos Monson)

15. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World (ed. Ada Limón)

16. Erasures of My Coming Out (Letter) (Mary Warren Foulk)

17. I’d Rather Be Destroyed (Zach Goldberg)

18. The Rent Eats First (Eric Sirota)

19. Smut Psalm (Josh Tvrdy)

20. Our Numbered Days (Neil Hilborn)

21. Nothing Is Okay (Rachel Wiley)

22. on a date with disappointment (Najya Williams)

23. Where I Dry the Flowers (Ollie Schminkey)

24. Toy Gun (Matt Coonan)

25. The Wellspring (Sharon Olds)

26. Then, Suddenly— (Lynn Emanuel)

27. The Irrationalist (Suzanne Buffam)

28. Crush (20th Anniversary Edition) (Richard Siken)

29. Some Animal (Ely Shipley)

30. XV (Zach Goldberg)

31. Nets (Jen Bervin)

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You can read all of my Sealey Challenge posts:

All my Sealey Challenge posts

You can also browse the entire list on Bookshop (except the five books not available there):

2025 Sealey Challenge (Davi Gray)

And that’s it! That’s the wrap. I’d love to hear any of your thoughts, comments, opinions, on any part of this and/or your own Sealey Challenge experience.

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