A Quartet of Queer Poetics from Queer Artist Survival Salon #2

On Thursday, April 3, 2025, Beth Stephens, co-founder of E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF, and I hosted our second Queer Artist Survival Salon at 465 Collective. The focus of this one was on exploring questions about queer, life, security, and mutuality. Attendees were invited to share a bit about themselves in an Opening Circle. Then, we spent time creating mini-zines. We gathered in circle again to share what surfaced for one another. Finally, I snapped some photos of zines shared with us.

What follows below are a quartet of poems composed from the responses in all the zines collected. Each poem digs into a different inquiry. I used intuition to guide form and composition. Some (ok, maybe quite a few) creative liberties were taken in the writing of the poems.

To "show" my work, I have included a stylized version of all the zines collected. Names are attributed to those whose names were shared. The purpose of the stylization is to accentuate that they are not the "original" works but rather interpretations.

Taken in total this is one artist's (my) interpretation of collective understanding. It is one way I make meaning of the chaos of this world. It is how I unflatten my perspective and check my own bias.

What is (co-)created is more than my beliefs and experience and yet fully from me. In this contradiction, there is possibility for deepening connection, harmonizing discord, and navigating our way through the unknown. This is queer poetics.

LEARN MORE ABOUT QUEER ARTIST SURVIVAL SALON #3 - June 5, 2025.

What is queer? WRONG!  How do we queer? 

Start with “different” sex(uality) 

Eco sex

Weird sex

Loving sex

Authentic sex

Uncontained sex

Elegant, exquisite, emergent, expansive sex

Wiggly, squiggly, lines all over a page sex

Swimming in the side streams sex

Spilling water on a page sex

Outside sex

Outsider sex

Outside outsider sex

Old sex

On our own sex

Questioning sex

Radically inclusive sex

Refusal to adhere to the norms sex

Raging against the machine sex

Going around roadblocks sex

Survival sex

Sinister sex

Subversive sex

West Virginian Sex

Blessed be sex

Living our values sex

Anti-corporate, anti-capitalist, anti-policing, anti-racist, anti-transmisogynist, anti-ablist, anti-colonialist, anti-Zionist, anti-heartless, anti-cruel, anti-nationalist, anti-transphobic, anti-rape, anti-classist, anti-elitist sex

Pleasure politics sex

Magically moist yummy sex

U-N-I-T-Y sex

Fucking rad sex

Not masking sex

End with how FUCKING queer!

Security? Unknown. But…

Some money in my pocket to pay my bills & checking in on friends

My dog Butch & my fellow Sisters (of Perpetual Indulgence) 

Cuddles & breath & being kind & loving 

Spirit Guides & the Cosmic Mysteries & OORT Cloud Consciousness

Chosen family & underground networks & lots of comrades

An aisle seat on the plane & perspective

Trusting my capacity & knowing people have my back

Not fitting in & locks on doors

Habits & rain & home & knitting

My veil & my vows & my values 

Death & eternity

Ah…life…alive…living…ah…

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. 

Quicken the rhythm of breath. 

Now laugh.

Become ecstatic. 

Feel love’s vibrations; see colors explode. 

Be. 

Ah…life…alive…living…ah…

Gather family of choice of all ages. 

Talk with your love over coffee. 

Hold hands in the library. 

Hug one another and dream together. 

Walk in love with friends. 

Help your community, your neighbors, your elders, your children. 

Ah…life…alive…living…ah…

Make art in relation with nature. 

Touch the ocean.

Drink wine under the sun in a bed of flowers. 

Dance to the sensation of wind upon your face. 

Listen to the birds, the plants, the movement all around 

Receive the non-human realms. 

Ah…life…alive…living…ah…

Pee.

Release. 

Fear. 

Nausea. 

Anxiety. 

Nap. 

Ah…life…alive…living…ah…

From: / To: 

From: Wisdom witnessed through stories told in big yards full of laughter, love, adoration, empathy

To: Generosity of space-time-spirit where all are fed and mutual aid flows free

From: A blessing of glitter validating queer and trans folks truths of better than nothing and still not enough

To: A marching boot autonomously showing up for each other and lending a helping hand

From: People deeply questioning beliefs and challenging biases and understanding we never know

To: All beings being heard, being held, being brought into being with themselves, with one another, with all our relations

From: A committed practice of practicing self-kindness, self-encouragement, self-compassion, self-respect, self-sex

To: Glamorous community pleasure rooted in consent, trust, support, fun, sex positivity.