GLOBAL QUEER READ-IN™:
A Virtual PRIDE event
THURSDAY JUNE 25th, 2020
Marathon begins at 12pm PT on Zoom and Twitch
ThisWayOut.org
2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown, Maryland Poet Laureate Grace Cavalieri, actor Alfre Woodard, playwright Charles Busch, writer/poet Alexis De Veaux, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins join a list of over 30 LGBTQI writers, playwrights, activists and artists on camera reading passages from their favorite and influential works of queer literature and poetry for the first marathon Virtual Global Queer READ-IN™, June Thursday, June 25th starting at 12pm (Pacific Time) on Zoom and Twitch.
This Way Out: International LGBTQ radio (OP/TWO) will host the event FREE to the public to honor and celebrate the power of the written word, but additionally serves as an optional fundraiser for OP/TWO (Overnight Productions, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation).
“I wanted to bring queer literature and poetry to the present and hear it read by a wide range of LGBTQI people and our straight allies. The Thursday before the weekend marking the 50th anniversary of PRIDE I want to sit down, pull a book off the shelf and read words of wisdom, love, joy, pain and rage- but as a global family. What the participants have selected to read stresses how literature impacts LGBTQI lives and how a single book or poem changed our lives or informed our journey to our authentic selves. In response to the worldwide protests I have enlisted extraordinary people to read the words of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde ”- Brian DeShazor
The online broadcast is set to be a 12 hour marathon with more than 30 readers presenting 10-15 minutes each interspersed with music and This Way Out’s LGBTQI Newswrap headlines, a weekly summary of news from around the world affecting LGBTQI lives.
The broadcast will close with a presentation of L.A. Theatre Works production of “8” by Dustin Lance Black, a full length radio drama presenting in its entirety uninterrupted with an all-star cast about the historic fight for marriage equality. "L.A. Theatre Works is honored to have our production of 8 by Dustin Lance Black highlighted in the Global Queer Read-In”-LATW
This Way Out is the only internationally distributed weekly LGBTQ radio program, founded in 1988, when most of the mainstream media believed that all of LGBTQ life, news and culture could be summed up in one word: AIDS. Even some progressive journalists and community radio stations worried that coverage of our issues should be “balanced” with homophobic voices.
“Society depends on literature, art, and human expression— lights that show where we’ve been and where we need to go; art is the reality of spirit made manifest in action. Without this we’d never know the truth of who we are, our past creations, or the history of the moment. There would be life, yes, but without civilization-- the mud, without the lotus.”- Grace Cavalieri, Maryland Poet Laureate
The event can be viewed online at: http://thiswayout.org/
TWITCH https://www.twitch.tv/thiswayout
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ThisWayOutRadio
Twitter: @TWORadio
Facebook @ThisWayOutRadio
Instagram @thiswayoutradio
With:
Kathleen Battles reading Pandemics and its Metaphors: Sontag Revisited in the Covid-19 Era by David Craig
Peggy Berryhill reading Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Jericho Brown and Grace Cavalieri reading his 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning The Tradition
MJ Brown/Miss Barbie-Q reading Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
Charles Busch reading his memoirs in-progress, This Never Leaves the Dressing Room by Charles Busch
Mary Ann Cherry reading Morris Kight: Humanist, Liberationist, Fantabulist by Mary Ann Cherry
Alexis De Veaux reading Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux
Rabbi Denise Eger reading from Mishkan Ga'avah: Where Pride Dwells: A Celebration of LGBTQ Jewish Life and Ritual edited by Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Emma’s Revolution reading Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964 by Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman Edited by Martha E. Freeman
James Gavin reading One Christmas by Truman Capote
Sophie B. Hawkins reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and performing "Not Beating Around the Bush" by Sophie B. Hawkins
Jason Jenn performing historic LGBTQ love poetry from Let Love Flourish!
Don Kilhefner reading The Radical Faeries at 40: Rainbow Capitalism or Queer Liberation by Don Kilhefner
L Morgan Lee reading The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Sheri Lunn reading The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Renee MacKenzie reading Kai’s Heart by Renee MacKenzie
Roger Q. Mason performing Age, Sex, Location by Roger Q. Mason
Neish McLean reading Crossfire by Staceyann Chin
Dr. Bonnie Morris Sappho’s Overhead Projector by Dr. Bonnie Morris
Paul Outlaw reading The American Dream and the American Negro by James Baldwin
Robert Patrick reading from Temple Slave by Robert Patrick
Steven Reigns reading Ceremonies by Essex Hemphill
Hugh Ryan reading When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan
Justin Sayre reading The Ballad of Miriam Blotch by Justin Sayre
Jessica Stern reading Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book by Rita Mae Brown
Robin Tyler reading When We Were Outlaws by Jeanne Cordova
Phillip Ward and Brian Edward reading The Last Word: An Autobiography by Quentin Crisp, edited by Phillip Ward and Laurence Watts, And One More Thing by Quentin Crisp, edited by Phillip Ward and Laurence Watts, and Quentin Crisp: The Last Word (the play) by Quentin Crisp, adapted by Phillip Ward and Brian Edward with Spencer Whale
Anthony Wayne reading Men of the House: A B-Boy Blues Novel by James Earl Hardy
Alfre Woodard reading The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Excerpts of The Fire Next Time were selected and compiled for Ms. Woodard by Mr. Melvin Rogers, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brown University
Get Lit Poets featuring Tyris Winter, Jonah Henry and Jelina Hendrickson performing poetry by C. A. Conrad, Ocean Vuong, and Franny Choi plus their own original pieces.
LATheatreWorks “8” by Dustin Lance Black, Directed by Rob Reiner With Brad Pitt , George Clooney , Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti, John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Matthew Morrison, Chris Colfer, Yeardley Smith, Matt Bomer, George Takei, Rory O’Malley, Cleve Jones, James Pickens Jr., Jansen Panettiere, Bridger Zadina, Vanessa Garcia and Campbell Brown
Tax deductible donations support the operations of www.ThisWayOut.org founded in 1988. It is an award-winning half-hour magazine-style program and the only internationally distributed weekly LGBTQ radio program, currently airing on over 150 local community radio stations around the world and online everywhere. This Way Out is produced and distributed by Overnight Productions, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation whose mission is: To educate, inform and entertain audiences around the world by making freely available the presentation of news, features and cultural works by and about the international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community via audio broadcast and cyber media.
