Write with Pride

Wednesday, June 25 / 7pm Calamus Auditorium at Gay City Join us on Wednesday, June 25 at Gay City’s Calamus Auditorium for an evening of celebration as LGBTQ writers from across the community perform messages to our futures and to our pasts in a night of spoken and written words that share our hopes and reflect on how our hopes change. This will be a fantastic evening, as writers and voices from across the LGBTQ spectrum and across generations come together to celebrate looking back and looking forward with love, respect, hope, strength, and pride. Write with Pride performers include Lambda Literary winner Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, spoken word performer Roma Raye, Pride Foundation’s Gunner Scott, The Seattle Lesbian’s Sarah Toce, and more! This event is presented by Gay City Arts and hosted by Gay City and Old Growth Northwest’s Gay Romance Northwest initiative. More info: Susan Rees / susan@gaycity.org Performers Ander Lyon is queer artist, activist, and wanderlust who loves building community and sharing skills. Ander is a senior at the University of Washington studying Creative Writing and is a former student of Bent Writing Institute. Emily Stanfield is a recent Seattle transplant from the Midwest. Her passions include: social justice activism, her queer soccer team, and very recently, poetry. She is a staff member at Gay City Health Project. Gunner Scott: Trading in the Northeast for the Northwest, Gunner left Boston with his two cats and his husband for Seattle’s music scene, dog friendly culture (promptly adopting Betty, a rescue dog), and Pride Foundation. Previously, he was the executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition where he led the successful Transgender Equal Rights campaign which added non-discrimination protections for transgender youth, adults, and families in Massachusetts. Gunner brings over a decade of experience leading change in the LGBTQ community along with extensive experience in training and curriculum development, program management, public education and legislative campaigns, fundraising, and communications. Gunner believes that equality should know no boundaries, including state lines, city limits, or rural routes and Pride Foundation’s work will help to advance equality for LGBTQ youth, adults and families across the Northwest. Kristen Andre is a Strong Female Character from Kennewick, WA, who often passes the Bechtal test. She currently resides in Wallingford with her best friend and their very grumpy kitten in a little house they affectionately call the Brandywine. Kristen enjoys baking cakes, playing soccer, and smashing the patriarchy through words and song. She would like to be a faery princess when she grows up, but currently enjoys working in catering. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is most recently the author of a memoir, The End of San Francisco, winner of a 2014 Lambda Literary Award. Sycamore is also the author of two novels and the editor of five nonfiction anthologies, most recently Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. Mattilda is currently finishing a third novel, Sketchtasy. Polly Membrino is a queer activist, writer, musician, social justice advocate, and D.C. native. Polly works the incredible folks at Lifelong AIDS Alliance and spends the rest of her time hiking, playing trumpet, and raising some fortunately resilient tomato plants in her backyard. Polly’s words have appeared on stage at the Bent Showcase and open mics, and on paper in Crosscurrents Literary Magazine and Wetlands Magazine. Roma Raye is a teacher, parent, partner, burly butch poet who lives in a little house in the suburbs of Seattle. She has a best friend who she make pacts with when things get to be too much. Roma reads comic books, believes in Disneyland, owns a little faith and keep her confidence stashed in an old tin lunch box. She is currently accepting applications from places that wish to employ her. Sarah Toce: Award-winning journalist Sarah Toce has interviewed and profiled many of the world’s most influential players ranging from high-level politicians to A-list celebrities, health experts, and key civil rights advocates. She is the founder and publisher of Seattle’s only lesbian-fronted magazine – The Seattle Lesbian. In its first year alone, The Seattle Lesbian reached a threshold of one million readers on a global scale. In 2014, Sarah attended a national journalists convening in Washington, D.C. where she joined top LGBT media publishers and reporters in visiting the White House. She also began writing for Huffington Post Gay Voices.