Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LF1Z-MJrRHSfkl_Q2d4ieA
About the Event
Monday, September 21st 2020, 7:30 to 8:30 EDT (CDA/USA). Please register for link.
Share your coming out story – in words, a poem, a song, a story, through movement, dance, or more.
Hosted by Catherine Jones and Richard-Yves Sitoski.
This event takes place in a moderated Zoom room. You can choose to have your video camera on or off. Guests will first enter a “waiting room” and then be welcomed into our event space. Sign-ups to speak will happen on the night.
Sometimes coming out is easy, and received with kindness and generosity on the part of the listener we trust our story with, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes coming out happens in multiple layers – first as queer, bi or pan, then as non-binary or trans, polyamorous or kinky, as a survivor of violence, as disabled, and more. Sometimes it is not safe to come out, or not safe to come out in all places or contexts. Sometimes our coming out is used as a weapon against us, although it was shared out into the universe as a gift.
Sometimes, as multiple-gendered loving people, we have to come out over and over and over again, as our identity is assumed to be gay, lesbian or straight depending on who we are partnered with. Sometimes we doubt our identity (am I a “real” bisexual if I have never dated outside of my own gender identity?).
All of these are valid.
Your coming out story can take the form of a poem, a letter, a story, an image you would like to share, a dance, or more. In between sharing, we will share (read or show) some of our favourite coming out moments as expressed in poetry, song, art and/or letters.
About Your Host – Richard-Yves Sitoski
Richard-Yves Sitoski is a songwriter, performance poet, and the 2019-2021 Poet Laureate of Owen Sound, Ontario. He is also the Interim Artistic Director of the 2022 Words Aloud poetry festival. With croc E. moses he is part of the spoken word duo O P E N Sound. He has released a spoken word CD, Word Salad, and two books of verse with the Ginger Press, brownfields and Downmarket Oldies FM Station Blues. In 2018 he was a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Maynard, Barren Magazine, Tiny Molecules, in the League of Canadian Poets’ Poetry Pause, and as part of Brick Books’ Brickyard spoken word video series. Currently he is at work on a collection of augmented reality poems on the environment. Insta: ospoetlaureate, Twitter: @r_sitoski, WordPress: richardsitoski.wordpress.com
About Your Host – Catherine Jones
Catherine Jones is a Toronto-based visual artist, filmmaker and zine maker and was the co-organizer and curator of FLUID, a month-long exhibit of bisexual photographers at Project Gallery, for World Pride 2014. She is the founder and chief daydreamer at the Bi+ Arts Festival. She is on the web at http://catherinejones.format.com.