upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

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Cassendre Xavier and Susan DiPronio at the next Queer Memoir

Cassendre Xavier (LTA '05) and Susan DiPronio (LTA '13, ACG '07) will be sharing at the next Queer Memoir. Sunday, September 28 at 3:00pm William Way Community Center (1315 Spruce Street). Queer Memoir provides an avenue to share queer/LGBT lives and celebrate the ritual and community-building value of storytelling. At every event, Queer Memoir hosts some of the queer world's well known performers, and folks who have never been on a stage in their lives, bring them together to celebrate the ritual and community building value of storytelling. $5-15 sliding scale, no one turned away.

Feature Storytellers:

Robin FM
Cassendre Xavier
Colleen O'Connell & Connie Youkon
R. Eric Thomas
Debra D'Alessandro
Susan DiPronio
Wesley Garis & Kelli Dunham 

Queer Memoir was founded by comic storyteller Kelli Dunham and playwright Genne Murphy in January 2010. In four years they have created more than 85 Queer Memoir events, drawing in over 7200 audience members and 365 different storytellers. Queer Memoir has collaborated with 13 arts organizations in four states, conducted almost a dozen storytelling workshops and used nearly a hundred venues including the MTA, sharing stories on both the A and Q Trains.

More about the featured storytellers:

R ERIC THOMAS
R. Eric Thomas, a playwright and stand-up dramedian, has been hailed as “one of the best storytellers in Philly” by the Philadelphia Weekly. His plays include Will You Accept This Friend Request?, Always the Bridesmaid, and The Spectator. His play When You Put It Like That It Just Sounds Ridiculous was a finalist for the 2014 City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting. Eric has performed throughout the country, can be heard on the wildly successful RISK! and Soundtrack Series podcasts, and gave a talk at the 2011 TEDxPhilly conference. He is currently the host of The Moth in Philadelphia. rericthomas.com

ROBIN FM
Robin is a teacher, writer, mother, wife, and great lover of the almighty Candy Crush. She drives a Prius, yet regularly wastes paper and sometimes forgets to recycle. 

CASSENDRE XAVIER
Cassendre Xavier is a Leeway Transformation Award-winning multi-media artist based in Philadelphia. She coined the term “renaissance negresse” in 2002 to describe her work as a musician, writer, fine artist, and actress. As a member of Philly’s LGBTQI community she has worked at Giovanni’s Room bookstore, produced events and support groups at the William Way Community Center, participated in the Lesbian Visibility Project, performed at many wimmin’s venues including Miriam’s Tambourine and SisterSpace Weekend, and shared the stage with openly lesbian performers Pat Humphries (of emma’s revolution), Tret Fure, Toshi Reagon, Alix Dobkin, and Lucie Blue Tremblay, among others. She worked for Labyrinth: The Philadelphia Women’s Newspaper (Editor/Journalist/Poet circa 1990-1994), is the author of the former Black/Out column of Philadelphia Gay News, and her writing has also been published widely including Dykes with Baggage: A Lighter Side of Lesbians in Therapy (ed. Riggin Waugh/Alyson Publications), We’Moon: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn 1999 & 2001, respectively (Mother Tongue Ink), The Butch Cook Book (Ed. Lee Lynch, Nel Ward & Sue Hardesty, TRP Cookbooks, June 2008), and The SandMUtopian Guardian: A Journal of BDSM Realities. Cassendre is a proud longtime subscriber and contributor to the Lesbian Connection magazine as well as a winner of Go Magazine's “100 Women We Love Class of 2010”. Visit Cassendre at http://cassendrexavier.com/

COLLEEN & CONNIE
Connie and Colleen will celebrate 31 years in August. Over that time they’ve: Held twelve jobs; owned eight cars; parented five cats; lived in four neighborhoods; owned three couches and two beds; started one business apiece; were civil-unioned (a/k/a a New Jersey marriage); and still express undying love and affection for one another.

DEBRA D'ALESSANDRO
Debra D'Alessandro is host and producer of Amazon Country (airing Sundays at 11pm on WXPN 88.5 FM and live streaming athttp://www.xpn.org/xpn-programs/amazon-country . Founded in 1974 (and led by Debra since 1996), Amazon Country is the nation's longest running lesbian/feminist radio program. For five seasons ending in 2005, she hosted weekly call-in TV talk shows, "Philly LIVE: Your Gay and Lesbian Community Connection" and "OutLoud" on WYBE public television. The two-time Emmy-nominated "Philly Live" was America's first live gay-themed television talk show.Debra's 'day job' is as a public health program manager at a local non-profit.

SUSAN DiPRONIO
Susan DiPronio lives in Philadelphia and founded Pink Hanger Presents a project dedicated to giving voice to the unique life experiences of women, transgender and genderqueer individuals.Susan's poetry recently appeared in Sinister Wisdom, Corset Magazine, The Avocet, Defenestration and Spillway Literary Journal. Their memoir “Laurel” was included in the memoir chapbook from First Person Arts and their personal essay: “Damaged:A journey of healing from sexual assault” is included in the book “The Survivors Project: Telling the Truth About Life After Sexual Abuse.” Susan was a 2013 recipient of The Transformation Award from the Leeway Foundation. 

WESLEY GARIS 
Wesley lives in Philadelphia, where he's currently studying to become a teacher. He's an avid gamer, comic book reader, sci-fi enthusiast, and all-around super nerd. He writes for several online gaming publications, including the award-winning start-up Hardcore Games

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