Twin Cities Book Festival — Exclusive Pre-Release Book Signing of This Body, This Fruit

Stop by table #201 (the table) between 2pm and 3pm this Saturday and pick up a personalized signed copy—your one and only official opportunity to get in on the conversation before it starts! And support a trans artist! And get these poems into your hands!!! (I’ve read my own book like 3 times in the past couple months 🤭 and I still love it so much 🥰.)

Also just going to note…this is a great time to pick up some Christmas presents for the special people in your life 😉.

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BuckSlam November Poetry Slam

The November edition of the Twin Cities’ Longest-Running Poetry Slam with a Forest Creature Right in the Name! I’ll be there!

Better Things 5x5 Reading and Open Mic (December 2026)

Tuesday, December 1st, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, I’m cohosting the next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: Aurora Masum-Javed, Anaïs Deal-Márquez, Lucas Alan Dietsche, luna rey hall, and Zambi.

IYKYK and IYDYBFO 😉.

Into a Darker Wilderness
Episode 8: Into the Soil with Camille Dungy

It’s on the way! And it’s so good…. 🤩

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That’s It For Now!

Which is not to say nothing’s happening, of course. I’m Learning New Things at Playwrights Center, FilmNorth, and Workshop for Independent Publishing, preparing for a special January Better Things gathering, and Making Art. Writing! Revising! You’ll see the fruits someday 🪷.

Gathering Sound, October 2nd, 2026 (with The Sonoglyph Collective 🤩)

I’m thrilled to be performing — with backing music, for the first time ever! — at the Midway Music & Arts Fest, which runs October 2nd-4th in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.

Gathering Sound is “…a special evening of music, poetry and sound in community with music by Artu Duo and Debbie Briggs Vintage Jazz, a hybrid poetry and music performance by The Sonoglyph Collective performing with poets Davi Gray and Halee Kirkwood, and community singing led by Midway Songs of Hope. Audience participation is strongly encouraged!”

6 pm Artu Duo
6:45 Midway Songs of Hope
7 pm Debbie Briggs
7:45 Midway Songs of Hope
8 pm The Sonoglyph Collective

Better Things 5x5 Reading & Open Mic, October 6th, 2026

I’m hosting another Better Things 5x5 Reading & Open Mic on Tuesday, October 6th, at Moon Palace Books. We’re featuring five fantastic artists: Bridget Gordon, Wordsworth Prescott Musinguzi, Marquise Bowie, KJ Kieras, and Najeeba Syeed, followed by an open mic; both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation.

Better Things is a series of events sponsored by ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Poetry Night at Boneshaker, October 10th, 2026

I’m excited for this poetry reading at Boneshaker Books with the fabulous poets luna rey hall and Bridget Gordon! Saturday, October 10th, 5:30pm.

Protection Spells for Perilous Times, October 13th, 2026

I’m co-leading a poetry workshop with University of Minnesota professor Kathryn Nuernberger at the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub on Tuesday, October 13th, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. More info is available at the Hub website, including location and parking directions; registration is encouraged but not required.

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BuckSlam October Poetry Slam, October 14th, 2026

You know what it is! And if you don’t, you can find out, on Wednesday, October 14th, at 7:00 pm 😉

Into a Darker Wilderness podcast, Episodes 7 & 8

If you haven’t yet gotten around to checking out the podcast I produce, Into a Darker Wilderness, we’re wrapping up the first season soon, so this is a great time to catch up with what it’s all about!

MPWW Annual Student Reading, October 24th

This year’s very special 15th anniversary capstone event will feature MPWW alumni, teachers, mentors, family, and some special guests who will read powerful poetry, fiction, and essays written by students. This will be another unforgettable night celebrating MPWW students’ work and wonderful community. This is a free event open to the public. All are welcome.

Saturday, October 24th, 2026
7:00-9:00 PM
Klas Center, Kay Fredericks Room (3rd Floor)
Hamline University
1537 W Taylor Ave, St. Paul 55104

The reading will also be live-streamed via Zoom. Registration is required to receive the link to the livestream (register here). No registration is required for the in-person reading. I hear rumors that There Will Be Snacks 😉

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Count Us In Democracy Fair, October 24th, 2026

I’m helping plan the Count Us In Democracy Fair, happening at the Sabathani Community Center from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm (you don’t have to attend the whole time). Lots of election and voting resources will be available, including extremely practical bits (like how to fill out a ballot), a shuttle to go to early voting, free lunch, a democracy play by Mixed Blood Theater, and more. If you or anyone you know has been impacted by the criminal legal system but has been hesitant to vote because they don’t know how, or whether they can (everyone not currently incarcerated can vote!), or how to find out who’s running, or even why they should vote, this is the place to be.

Until next time…

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I hadn’t quite recovered from the first run of TBTF at the Phoenix Theater when I got into Fringe. I was deferring every possible thing since beginning the run-up to that first production, and of course with Fringe going on I wasn’t able to do much but keep my head above water for non-Theatre obligations, and let’s just say I’m Not Caught Up. I may in fact be taking part in an experiment wherein I attempt to create the very first Spacetime Singularity Fueled Entirely By Items On A To-Do List. I may never catch up, which is fine, I guess, most of everything is made up anyway, right? Don’t Panic!

ADHD is a wonder and a joy at times, and I try to lean into that (because what else can I do?) but it sure makes some things much harder than they otherwise might be. In some other imaginary world. On a related note, if I were a combination of unicorn and pegasus I could spear drones from the sky.

(I did not use so-called “AI” to conjure a stolen-mashed-together-into-gross-slop picture of such a thing, because I wouldn’t ever, because EWWWW and I hope you wouldn’t either, not that I would judge your value as a human being, but please don’t. You’re so much better than that!

I actually started to draw the hybrid creature myself, because WHEEEE 🦄🪽 until I realized - for once! - that I actually have some other things to do that are more important. Sleep, for one. I need some sleep. Really need sleep. Sorry, no drawings of pegicorn (unisus?) for you tonight 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Anyway, a couple upcoming events for your delectation:

Better Things 5x5 Reading and Open Mic

September 1st, 2026 (yes, that’s today) - 7:00 pm

Seven PM at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: Joel Hernandez, Hawti, Moncies Franco, Beau RaRa, and Khary Jackson, followed by an open mic. I’ll be there! Will you?

Community Storytelling at the Bloomington Street Arts Festival & Oktoberfest

9 Mile Brewing, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm, Saturday September 19th

Come hear me talk about community in a non-poetry voice! I’m thrilled to be sharing along with Pam Schweitzer, Rupa Shenoy-Thadhani, Katie Knutson, Sue Searing, and Danielle Daniel. You’ll also be able to get your beer on, if that’s a thing you’re into, and lots of other Street Arts Festival activities.

BuckSlam September Poetry Slam (#4.03)

Indeed Brewing, 7:00 pm, Wednesday September 9th

Premiering a new poem for this one (if the odds are in my favor and I get to the mic), about an incident that was on my mind for a long time (such persistence a good clue to something I should write about, I’m learning). I think it’s the first poem I’ve written to have two very closely related but not at all identical versions, one fitting into a slam and the other not.

Unbelievable at the Eagan Film Festival

September 25th, 5:00 pm, “You Betcha! Minnesota Shorts” segment

The film festival actually has two days of films, September 25-26, and you can buy tickets right now! If you just want to watch the Minnesota Shorts (and my film in an actual theater 🤩), it’s $12; an all-access pass, giving you 49 shorts and 4 features (!), is $80.

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That’s all the news for now. I hope to remember to breathe at some point, and I encourage you to do the same 🌬️

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The 33rd Annual Minnesota Fringe Festival runs August 6th-16th; on five of those days, I’ll be performing This Body, This Fruit at Mixed Blood Theater. You can buy tickets right now!

Thursday - 8/6 - 5:30 pm (BFF performance - BOGO)
Saturday - 8/8 - 1:00 pm
Friday - 8/14 - 8:30 pm
Saturday - 8/15 - 10:00 pm (BFF performance - BOGO)
Sunday - 8/16 - 7:00 pm

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The show won’t be as well-produced as it was at the Phoenix Theater - as with every Fringe show, we have fairly significant constraints on available tech and how long we have to load in and out (10 minutes! It’s not a lot!).

But it’s me, it’s This Body, This Fruit, and it’s still A Thing You Want To See If You Can. And I’m not saying this will be the last time this show will be available in this shape…but I’m not saying it’s not, either 😉.

In other recent news, my short film “unbelievable” was selected for the Eagan Film Festival! Second film this year, in fact, to be selected - the first was my collaboration with @kevmillvpp (the Visual Poetry Project) on Black in Deep Red (Rothko 1957), selected for the Hello from Fargo Film Festival. (He did the spectacular work on the visuals; I supplied poem and voice.)

You can buy tickets to the Eagan Film Festival, which runs over two days in late September (25th-26th), at Eagan Film Festival Tickets. My film will be in the “You Betcha! Minnesota Shorts” segment, Friday, September 25th at 5pm. (The best deal is the All-Access Pass, which gets you into all kinds of movies both days.)

This month’s Better Things, coming up on Tuesday, August 4th, at Moon Palace Books, will be a Gathering & Open Mic (instead of the more usual 5x5 Reading). We’re going to have discussions and activities centered on Black August — what it is, where it started, and what it means for us now and in the future. For this event, masks are required and will be available on site if you need one. Snacks will be provided!

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Is anything else happening in August?

I kinda hope not.

I mean, if someone offered me a gazillion dollars to read a poem somewhere, I’d probably do it, in part because I’m curious what a gazillion dollars looks like (a single bill with a portrait of I. M. Kidding on it?), but…real talk? I’m looking forward to some rest.

I’m hosting Better Things on Tuesday, July 7th, with a spectacular lineup including Nen G Ramirez, folaṣade, Tony Burgess, Desdamona, and Joe Davis.

And opening on Wednesday, This Body, This Fruit, my very first fully produced (by me lol with lots of help from a fantastic crew of folks) play, a one-hour solo performance and if you don’t already have tickets and can be in Minneapolis somewhere in the July 8th-14th range, You Should Buy Them Now! I’m so excited to welcome everyone—including you!—to my play 💖

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That’s it. Maybe some more stuff will happen after the play, IDK, I’ll try to let you know. Right now my horizon is short. See you soon?

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Enjoy, I guess?

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Issues I’ve run into

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

7:19 PM

• ASP.NET Core with Angular (Preview) seems to produce a broken build? Or broken project tree?

• Can’t get ASP.NET Core with Angular build-from-template to start out with SASS (SCSS) - need to retrofit. It was not (AT ALL) obvious how to do this; eventual Googlefu & Stack Overflow:

  • [For new projects]
    ng new sassy-project --style=scss

  • [For all (future) projects, by default…but this didn’t seem to help the dotnet template?]

  • For already-generated project:
    ng config projects.<projectname>.schematics.@schematics/angular:component.style scss
    or…
    ng config schematics.@schematics/angular:component.style scss
    [Lots of info on the internet pointing to this, but using ‘styleExt’ or ‘styleext’ instead of style, which doesn’t seem to be correct.]
    [Also, that *seems* to put it in the wrong place? Needs to be under the actual *project* node. In angular.json.]

• On the (dotnet) angular project, converted it to SCSS, was getting a warning message during build:
  1 rules skipped due to selector errors:

legend+* -> Cannot read properties of undefined (reading ‘type’)

• This seems to be some sort of negative interaction with Bootstrap? Found a fix at:
  Angular 12 production build warning (MDB4 12) - Material Design for Bootstrap (mdbootstrap.com)

The fix was changing angular.json from:

“configurations”: {

“dev”: {

“optimization”: true,

…

to:

“configurations”: {

“dev”: {

“optimization”: {

“scripts”: true,

“styles”: {

“minify”: true,

“inlineCritical”: false

},

“fonts”: true

},

…

Apparently the inlineCritical bit conflicts with something in Bootstrap.

• Later: no, actually, this did NOT fix the build error message. WTF.

• Also, see: Pin `css-select` to latest compatible version by PowerKiKi · Pull Request #117 · GoogleChromeLabs/critters (github.com)

• Apparently a fix is en route, whenever next release happens. Or something. <stupid>
  Traced error to a specific line in bootstrap_reboot.scss -> .css. Oof. But apparently it’s down to Angular build process using parse5 instead of htmlparser2, which (parse5) does a bad job of parsing CSS. Something like that….

• Also worth noting: the default template creates a project with 4 security issues, requiring an immediate “npm audit fix” command. [have not run it yet]

• Found out defaultProject key is deprecated (generated by default in dotnet project template). [ng g component <ComponentName> Failed with error “Project “undefined” does not exist.” · Issue #23848 · angular/angular-cli (github.com)]

• Ran across a blog that says inlining critical CSS is a security risk, a violation of Content Security Policy, and creates vulnerability to XSS. Yet Angular does this by default… [see Angular Security - Disable Inline Critical CSS – 0xdbe – Application Security Coach] also [inlineCritical CSS asynchronous loading method breaks with CSP · Issue #20864 · angular/angular-cli (github.com)]

But apparently…fixed in pull request, merged on March 28th. (Hah. All this web code churn…no wonder there are new security holes ALL. THE. TIME.)

• Contrary to popular advice, you CANNOT add a ‘defaults’ section to the angular-config.json (global config file, found in %USERPROFILE% dir), or it will complain “Workspace extension with invalid name (defaults) found.”

• FUUUUUUUUUU….

Anyway.

This month is mostly dedicated to TRANS JOY because we need it 😅 and because it’s “Pride month” and why not? Trans Joy includes preparing for my upcoming play, This Body, This Fruit, for which you can (and should) buy tickets right now!

Show dates and times:

• Opening Day: Wednesday, July 8th, 7pm (show followed by Q&A / talk-back)

• Thursday, July 9th, 7pm

• Friday, July 10th, 7pm

• Saturday, July 11th, 7pm

• Sunday, July 12th, 2pm

• Monday, July 13th, 2pm (yes, it’s at 2pm on a Monday)

• Tuesday, July 14th, 7pm (closing show)

June’s Better Things is tonight (!), June 2nd, at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, 7-8:30pm. The lineup is fabulous and the vibes will be lovely and amazing 💖.

Rhythm & Revolution Poetry Discussion

Wednesday, June 3, 6:30 PM

Arlington Hills Community Center - Community Room
1200 Payne Avenue, Saint Paul

The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, as the Library of Congress-designated Minnesota Center for the Book, selected my poem “‘America’ Never Loved Me” as winner for the We the People theme in Rhythm and Revolution: The America at 250 Poetry Project. I’ll be making a rare appearance all the way across the river in Saint Paul for a short, moderated conversation followed by an audience Q & A.

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The podcast I’m producing, Into a Darker Wilderness, is now live! You can find it on all platforms:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Castbox

Amazon Music

iHeartRadio

Pocket Casts

Saturday, June 13th, at 3pm, you can catch me and some other unconventionally gendered friends at Quatrefoil Library! TaneshaNicole, July 23, Alice Paige, and Gene Gazelka will all be joining me for this fantastical Pride-month reading, and I’d love to see you there 💖.

Not something I’m specifically involved in, but the legendary Andrea Jenkins is sharing a new poem she wrote at an event celebrating the Mississippi River earlier on Saturday, June 13th, at 10 AM. You can find more info on this at https://www.mwmo.org/events/oh-how-the-words-flow-a-river-poem-unveiling-with-andrea-jenkins/.

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You can preorder my forthcoming first poetry collection, This Body, This Fruit, right now! Trio House Press is offering 25% off on all orders (including preorders) for the month of June, so if you missed last month’s free shipping deal, this will help make up for it.

Wednesday, May 27th, 6 PM

Open Book Performance Hall
Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis

I’ve been working for a while on this project, a new podcast called Into a Darker Wilderness. From the website, IntoADarkerWilderness.com:

Into a Darker Wilderness podcast sits at the intersection of nature and Black history, expanding our definitions and seeking new understandings of our relationships with and through time, nature, and history.

Into A Darker Wilderness is co-hosted by Erin Sharkey, editor of A Darker Wilderness anthology, and Michael Kleber-Diggs, poet and author of Worldly Things and contributor to A Darker Wilderness. Each episode offers engaging dialogue with writers across the United States, unpacking the ways that Black folks have stewarded natural spaces despite pervasive structural racism. The Into A Darker Wilderness podcast celebrates the little and big impacts that Black folks have had on nature writing, all while inspiring listeners to cultivate new relationships with the outdoors.

You can register right now through Eventbrite (to help us track expected numbers); the event is free to attend. I hear rumors cake will be involved.

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This Body, This Fruit (the play)

My debut three-act solo performance is peeking over the horizon…seven weeks till opening day! Pick up tickets to This Body, This Fruit now, and you won’t have to worry about forgetting (or missing out on whichever night/afternoon works best for your schedule).

Show dates and times:

• Opening Day: Wednesday, July 8th, 7pm (show followed by Q&A / talk-back)

• Thursday, July 9th, 7pm

• Friday, July 10th, 7pm

• Saturday, July 11th, 7pm

• Sunday, July 12th, 2pm

• Monday, July 13th, 2pm

• Tuesday, July 14th, 7pm (closing show)

Other stuff from my May newsletter is still happening! But in the interest of saving virtual paper, I’m leaving it in that edition, which you can peruse at your leisure. Have a wonderful rest-of-May 💖

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But you can order a copy right now, if you like. (I would like! 😁) You can order it from the website (preorder This Body, This Fruit), or ask your favorite local bookstore if they offer it for pre-order yet (and if not, why not?), or ask your local library about ordering a copy or three 😉.

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About the book:

In This Body, This Fruit, Davi Gray maps the vast terrain of gender identity, holding space for experiences of transition as well as everyday existence:

“to be a new creation on the earth— / something wild, uncaught, / something never before seen.” Addressing a wide range of subjects, including mathematics, biology, language, religion, and classical mythology, Gray explores the entrenchment of binary systems and how they serve and fail us, in poems that radiate with intense curiosity and deep thought. With unflinching honesty, Gray unsettles the binaries of everyday life and bears witness to the burden of violence trans and gender nonconforming people endure to survive.

Launch event details will be forthcoming throughout the year, more toward the end than the middle. If you’re interested in hosting a reading, or you’re interested in reading with me, get in touch! (I’ve already got one truly exciting reading/collab with one of my favorite local poets in the works (We Have Ideas 😅). I have so many favorite poets that doesn’t narrow the field much but so be it 😉.)

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Look, y’all, you can pre-order my book right now!

Buy a copy of This Body, This Fruit for yourself (and your nana, your sister-in-law, your cousin around the way, your unc, your pop-pop, mamá, père, your ex- (because, look, I’m not saying you’re still harboring a faint flame of hope in your heart, but… this could either be an incitement for them to talk to you about poetry (always a win!) or a reminder that they missed out on one of the best, because LOOK how great your taste in poetry is!), a second copy for yourself for the office / car / backpack / bookshelf you keep in the front room to show company how good your taste is, and maybe a third copy you can tear the cover from and have matted and framed at a local framing shop because WOW 😍! has been a wonder and a marvel to work with and I’m deeply thrilled with this cover.

The Other This Body, This Fruit

My play is coming up quick! Less than two months till opening day!!! Pick up tickets to This Body, This Fruit now, and you won’t have to worry about forgetting (or missing out on whichever night/afternoon works best for your schedule).

Quick Reminder

The best way to stay most up to date on my activities is… IDK, really. Usually I’m pretty good with this newsletter. And there’s the calendar on my Events page. And my Events page. My Instagram is usually (not always) up to date. Sigh. You do you 🤷🏼‍♀️

Spoken Heart: Amplifying Voices

Saturday, May 4th, 1:00—4:00 PM
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis

This gathering will feature spoken word poetry, community singing, and the opportunity to immerse yourself in the art.

Join us for Amplifying Voices, an inspiring afternoon in the gallery with Art from the Inside that brings together community, creativity, and connection. This gathering will feature spoken word poetry, community singing, and the opportunity to immerse yourself in the art. Together, we will lift our voices, reflect through art, and create a space for storytelling, healing, and collective experience. Guests are invited to explore the artwork, listen, participate, and connect with others in a transformative afternoon of creative community.

Art from the Inside (AFTI) is a Twin Cities nonprofit that uplifts the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated artists by sharing their work with communities beyond prison walls.

BuckSlam Team Feature & Open Mic

Wednesday, May 13th, 7:00 PM (doors at 6:30 PM)

Yellowbird Coffee Bar NE
639 22nd Ave NE, Minneapolis

The winning BuckSlam team will be performing at the next BuckSlam, followed by an unscored open mic. I’ll be there! Reading a poem! At the Open Mic!

My team, Queer AF - an amazing group of wonderful poets - placed fourth overall! And this is my second year making finals at the Midwest Poetry Mash-Up 😁

Film unlocked on May 14th

Portrait of Midway (a video poetry collaboration). If you’re a financial supporter, of course, you’ve had access for a couple months already 😊.

Podcast Launch!!!!!

Wednesday, May 27th, 6 PM

Open Book Performance Hall
Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis

I’ve been working for a while on this project, a new podcast called Into a Darker Wilderness. From the website, IntoADarkerWilderness.com:

Into a Darker Wilderness podcast sits at the intersection of nature and Black history, expanding our definitions and seeking new understandings of our relationships with and through time, nature, and history.

Into A Darker Wilderness is co-hosted by Erin Sharkey, editor of A Darker Wilderness anthology, and Michael Kleber-Diggs, poet and author of Worldly Things and contributor to A Darker Wilderness. Each episode offers engaging dialogue with writers across the United States, unpacking the ways that Black folks have stewarded natural spaces despite pervasive structural racism. The Into A Darker Wilderness podcast celebrates the little and big impacts that Black folks have had on nature writing, all while inspiring listeners to cultivate new relationships with the outdoors.

There is a very cool event flyer on the way; I plan to send out a special edition newsletter along in the next week or so with more details.

Rainbow Festival

Thursday, May 28th, 6:00—9:00 PM
Maggie’s Farm Theater
Lenox Community Center, St. Louis Park

Come get your pre-Pride on! Celebrating identity and queer joy through performance art and craft with a variety of Twin Cities musical artists, crafters, artisans, improv comedians, poets (including me!), and… a sing-along 🤩 — pick up tickets in advance or when you get there ($12 credit card, $10 cash at the door). The artisan area will be free to access if you want to skip the performances (???).

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Better Things (June 2026)

I’m hosting the next Better Things 5x5 Reading & Open Mic (with my fabulous co-host, Erin Sharkey) on June 2nd, 7pm at Moon Palace Books; we’re featuring five fantastic artists: mk zariel, Antonio Duke, Willard Malebear Jr., Adrien Wright, and Eemanna (who just released The Way the Water Does).

Rhythm & Revolution Poetry Discussion

Wednesday, June 3, 6:30 PM

Arlington Hills Community Center - Community Room
1200 Payne Avenue, Saint Paul

The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, as the Library of Congress-designated Minnesota Center for the Book, selected my poem “‘America’ Never Loved Me” as winner for the We the People theme in Rhythm and Revolution: The America at 250 Poetry Project. I’ll be making a rare appearance all the way across the river in Saint Paul for a short, moderated conversation followed by an audience Q & A.

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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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