LGBTQ+ poets are standing by. Call in to the Poetry Hotline from today, Saturday June 12, to Sunday, June 13, 10am-10pm, to request a custom poem for you or a loved one based on the topic of your choice. Personalized poetry is written by one of the team members of LGBTQ+ Pride Poets. Poems will be written on-the-spot, and callers can choose to have copies of the poems emailed or mailed to them.
Call the Poetry Hotline at: 202-998-3510, to speak to a poet today.
The Pride Poets Poetry Hotline connects LGBTQ+ poets with the public to write custom poems. Their mission is to promote queer dialogue and writing using storytelling, glitter & typewriters. Pride Poets is a RENT Poet Project, made possible by a grant as part of the One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival. They are organized by Brian Sonia-Wallace, with the permeable poetry hotline in 2021 co-organized with Molly Thornton.
Brian Sonia-Wallace was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Culver City, California, and Santiago, Chile. He is a social practice poet whose work straddles the line between literature and community engagement. Brian has written poems for over 10,000 strangers across the country based on their stories since 2012, and is the author of the poetic travel memoir The Poetry of Strangers (HarperCollins, 2020). In collaboration with APLA Health, Sonia-Wallace will expand his Pride Poets project from a small ensemble, which has created custom poems for the public at Pride celebrations for the past two years, to a year-round platform for the LGBTQIA+ literary community. This includes a slate of digital writing workshops, community events, advocacy work, and youth projects that will cater to different sub-communities and foster connections, virtually in quarantine and beyond, within and between intersecting LGBTQIA+ identities.
West Hollywood’s One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival continues its celebration of artistic contributions of the LGBTQ community. The festival runs for 40 days, from Harvey Milk Day on Saturday, May 22, 2021 through Wednesday, June 30, 2021, which marks the end of Pride month.
The 2021 theme for One City One Pride is For the Record LGBTQ stories of the past that have often been hidden or undocumented. One must read between the lines to find stories hidden behind “beard” marriages, coded language, and erased or destroyed evidence. This year, One City One Pride looks at some of these previously hidden stories.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, all festival events are being presented on an online virtual platform to respond to the City of West Hollywood’s efforts to prioritize health and public safety. A select few programs can also be experienced as self-guided solo walking tours or outdoor exhibitions.
