Pënz

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

There is still time to Support :: Our Voices | Our Stories | Our Lives

Now, When Our Stories Matter Most
Support Lambda Literary and LGBTQ+ Voices

See my December Update on the important work of Lambda Literary — and sign up for our Newsletter to stay informed!

On this #GivingTuesday

:: OUR STORIES REMAIN CRITICAL TO OUR SURVIVAL ::

Dear Friend,

First, I want to thank so many of you for your generous support of my Fifty/Fifty Fundraising Campaign for Lambda Literary. I am still on my way to raising $50,000 for our life-altering work, and appreciate your help to get us there.

There is still time to make a powerful impact!

I have a deep commitment to building partnerships with people like you who believe that the voices and stories of LGBTQ+ people are needed now more than ever. With your support, Lambda Literary can lift LGBTQ+ voices – and the reflections of our lives – even further.

Today, despite all the progress we've made to have a more inclusive society and end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, our communities continue to face attacks and barriers in every aspect of our lives.

The recent violence in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 25 injured (content warning in link: gun violence) is a tragic reminder of why our work is critical. We are not going away. We will not be silenced. We will not serve idly as canaries in the coal mines of oppression and carnage.

But the reality is we are faced with many challenges. A recent report released by PEN America, announced that over 50 groups at the national, state, and local level with LGBTQ characters or themes are advocating to ban the books. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, as of this past July, lawmakers of mostly Republican-controlled states introduced at least 162 anti-LGBTQ bills that would limit classroom instruction about LGBTQ-related topics.

The hateful campaigns of the 70s, 80s, 90s have relaunched to scare people once again into rejecting LGBTQ+ rights. But their hateful strategy today is far more dangerous. People are using social media to go after individuals, like schoolteachers in small towns across the country, with hateful and dangerous messages. We stand with the teachers, the LGBTQ+ writers, and we will continue to educate and advocate for our human rights.

LGBTQ+ stories honor our history and provide a roadmap towards freedom and equality. I hope you agree that LGBTQ+ stories are essential reflections of our vast and expansive humanity.

Today, I ask that you make a donation in support of our programmatic work as we prepare for the year ahead.

Check out the plans forthcoming from Lambda's programs in 2023:

The LGBTQ+ Emerging Writers Retreat: Host the Writer's Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+ Voices – the nation's premier LGBTQ+ writing residency, which brings together poets, playwrights, screenwriters, essayists, novelists, and memoirists in a safe, welcoming and love-centered community.

Learn with Lambda: Provide access for LGBTQ+ writers to literary arts pedagogy and community. Lambda Literary offers access to panels, craft workshops, and meetings with publishing professionals to uplift the work of our Fellows and grow their writing careers.

The LGBTQ+ Writers in Schools Program: Elevate our partnership with the NYC Department of Education to provide safe spaces for students to talk about great books, queer life, and how to thrive as an LGBTQ+ person. The program will continue to serve students across all grade levels, K-12, and provides access to award-winning books and authors as well as professional development on how to deliver an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum.

Lambda Literary Review: We are rebuilding this critical resource and will continue to offer book reviews, interviews, industry news, and calls for submission of interest to LGBTQ+ book lovers around the world as well as new and in-depth coverage of the LGBTQ+ literary landscape.

I'm very proud of the comprehensive programming Lambda Literary provides to LGBTQ+ writers, and in the coming year, our offerings and support will expand.

As we look towards the future, Lambda Literary will continue to grow in its service to LGBTQ+ voices – our writers and our readers.

Join with Lambda Literary today. Please, make a year-end donation in support of Lambda Literary as we look towards 2023 with vision, compassion, and hope.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Samiya

DONATE

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Samiya Gives the Love

Text FIFTY11 to 44-321 & Help Samiya Make the Magic!

Gifting Love!

Samiya Bashir Celebrating her fifty-somethingth birthday in support of Lambda Literary

Join Us As We Welcome the Season of the Starry Night!

Halloween Weekend!

[Costumes Encouraged but Not Required 😎)

SATURDAY NIGHT!

October 29, 2022
9:00pm – 12:00am

Pangea :: 178 2nd Avenue (btw 10th & 11th Streets), NYC

Featuring a special appearance by Ronaldo V. Wilson!

Free hors d'oeuvres for the first hour

DJ & Dancing All Night!

Hello My Dearests,

I am thrilled and honored to be the new Executive Director at Lambda Literary!

Since 1987, Lambda Literary has nurtured and advocated for LGBTQIA+ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives.

| Emerging Writer's Retreat |

| Lambda Literary Awards "The Lammys!" |

| Lambda Literary Review |

| Learn with Lambda |

| LGBTQ Writers in the Schools |

Through our programs we harness the past and build the future of LGBTQIA+ writing, communities, stories, songs, imaginations, carefully researched facts, actual lives.

Help us go further.

I have a big vision for Lambda Literary. I look forward to sharing that in even greater detail in the coming weeks and months. I look even more forward to working together to make it happen!

In the next year, I hope to meet with our communities, across the country, face to face. The input, support, and investment of our communities in ourselves, our work, and the dedication to service that Lambda Literary represents is critical.

Lambda Literary is at the cusp of flower. I am here to ask your help so that we can really blossom!

On behalf of the most kick-a** staff in the game, of a Board of Directors who has met my JOY with joy at every step I am taking this opportunity to reach out to my own particular love networks.

My assumption of leadership at Lambda Literary coincides with my fifty-something'th birthday—what a gift! To return the gift of trust that has been placed with my by our communities, I have a passionate and personal goal of raising at least $50-something-thousand for Lambda Literary.

To kick-off my inaugural fundraising campaign, I am hosting a 50-Somethingth Birthday Party. I am grateful to Pangea NYC for their support of this event, including the donation of complimentary hors d'oeurves throughout the first hour of the evening and to poet and performer Ronaldo V. Wilson -- don't miss him! -- for donating time and talent.

Join us!

Reservations are Required because space is limited.

For my very first fundraiser, I lovingly ask everyone to consider digging deep to support the work of Lambda Literary, and the LGBTQ+ literary arts communities we all love. No registered attendants will be turned away based upon their ability to give, so I hope you'll consider adding an additional gift of $50 to cover the attendance of a party-goer with more limited means.

I have begun conversations around this campaign and am deeply moved by the support I've received so far from friends and family.

I couldn't be more proud of our team at Lambda Literary. I am honored to lead and support a staff of queer writers who whose work is to lead and support queer writers in their work.

How lucky we are to have us working for each other, together, in this passionate effort to make even a bit of our world a bit of a better place.

We all benefit from every single piece of it, from every line of poetry, from every scene in a play, from every moving song lyric, from every story that didn't quite earn mainstream recognition, and yet continues to change so many people's lives.

We're lucky. And I truly believe we're about to just get luckier. But I need your help. I also hope to ensure that your generosity leaves you feeling just as fortunate. What gifts we are to each other.

Thank you,

Samiya

Support Samiya >>

Samiya's Birthday Gift to Lambda Literary

Saturday, December 3, 2016

FRIDAY FIELD NOTES :: 14

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© 2016 Samiya Bashir
A weekly winter fix from the FIELD. Get a sneak peek of the poetry, film, and word on the street. FIELD THEORIES comes to you this Spring. Don't miss a thing!
Samiya Bashir 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. Portland, OR 97202 USA

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

going home

My last morning. It's kinda sad actually.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Good Night, Pënz

December 28, 2008.

Last Night.

Linguist signs off with a song dance.

Remembering an Art Year.

Thank you Penz.

-Scryptkeeper, Linguist, Samiya, Night.

Penz in Denton, TX

Before? After? The Labyrinth

(Clockwise from left corner)
VictorJose Santana
Annette Lawrence
Ruth MacFarlane
Shay Youngblood
Wura-Natasha Ogunji
Ana-Maurine Lara

Guest Penz at Last Twilight

Unnamed by Noon at Twilight

We are Spirals of Life
VictorJose Santana

Making Peace
Shay Youngblood

I Like This Labyrinth
Annette Lawrence

Ruthuary
Ruth MacFarlane

In Denton, round the round table.

Last Twilight

Last twilight. now what?
xo ana

goodbye noon

turtle islands

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Medicine

by VictorJose Santana
Chelsea, MA

Notes on a Sandal

I like sandals. I like that I wore sandals all day today, Friday December 26, 2008. I like the way I almost touch dirt and stone and floor and pavement when I wear sandals. In fact, I'd prefer it if I could walk around barefoot. All the time. Without sandals, even.

Sandals in Spanish is: sandalias or chancletas. But chancletas always has the accompanying image of children running fast in one direction. Sandalias is refined like sand. Sandy-les. Yes, that's me - a sandy-les. Sand-less is a stone beach, although don't be fooled: it just requires deeper contemplation.

Sandals don't fit into hourglasses, though sand does. And the Penz hourglass is very much on its last tilt. Without sandals or sandy lesbians. I am sad about this. Thought you wouldn't know it from my (in)conspicuous absence. I've been a truant. It's cause I've been playing in the sandbox. Or rather, building castles out of sand and sky. My last hurrah is Sunday or Sand-day, whichever you prefer.

Alas, my twilight has arrived...or shall very shortly. A year has been shrinky-dinked into small square gesso tiles, of which a few remain, though really, I should only have one. Have I mistakenly kept souvenirs of my trip? There were 91 + 13 tiles at the beginning. Oh yes, that's right: I betrayed my canvas. Told Penz I'd be there at 7pm for our scheduled rendezvous but instead, ended up lingering in the crowd left behind. Shadows of the scorned tile replicate themselves in my paint box.

Perhaps my twilight will be a glorious rendering of time. Or perhaps, it will be stifled by silence. It is late morning, noon is on the horizon and night is on the other side.

Do tell - do you wear toe rings?

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Twilight's Eve

art.every.ink.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Guest Pënz

3 Visions
-Andrea Ruiz

Monday, December 22, 2008

Oh no youz guys!

I forgot to bring tiles! and i forgot today was my day. I'll make one tomorrow to make up for it. forgive me?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Living in the Moment

Or, according to young Mr. Brett Bailey: "The best day in my whole
entire life!!!"