Bronski Beat’s “Small Town Boy” is an anthem to the liberation of a young gay man as he runs away to the safety of the city. The chorus echoes the words, “run away, run away, run away.” Some say this story is counterproductive, and leaving no longer serves the queer community. At The Kudzu Crossroads, artists will share their art and personal experience on the topic of leaving and staying, and on how and why they made their choice. Additionally, the artists will discuss the possibility of a queer souther aesthetics, the responsibility of artists to represent and face down the history of the South, and what ghosts they carry with them from the region.

This is a free event, but donations to support the Bureau’s work are very much appreciated! You can make a donation when you register for this event. Thank you for supporting the Bureau!

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Moderator/Organizer: Dudgrick Bevins is a queer interdisciplinary artist who infuses poetry into all other forms of art, including film, fiber, painting, and publishing. He is an MA candidate at Kennesaw State College in American Studies and an MFA candidate in Poetry at City College of New York. He is the author of the collaborative chapbooks Georgia Dusk with luke kurtis (bd studios), Pointless Thorns with Nate DeWaele (Kintsugi Books), the books Vigil (bd studios, forthcoming) and Route 4 Box 358 (bd studios), and the solo chapbook My Feelings Are Imaginary People Who Fight for My Attention (Poet’s Haven). You can follow his endeavors at www.dudgrickbevins.com.

Panelists:

Jill Fredenburg is an author and filmmaker from Memphis, Tennessee. Her first book, LGBTQ+ Revolution 2.0, is a celebratory collection of narratives from queer-identifying individuals who have yet to see adequate representation in traditional media. She now runs A Sign on the Door, a digital publication by and for folks who want to share in productive cultural critique. You can find her book in stores and online and reach out to @JillFredenburg on most social media platforms

Marie Hinson is an artist cultivating care and insurrection in poetry, performance and documentary cinematography. Raised in rural Appalachia, she lived in Philadelphia for almost ten years after college. Her recent chapbook, Please Remit My Qubits (The Operating System, 2020) shakes at the lines between her trans embodiment and extractive technologies in placemaking and imagination. In 2019 she debuted her first full length, site transformative performance, Stop on the object / move on the image, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her verite documentary work focuses on portraits of artists and places. Marie’s upcoming directorial debut, Frank Bey, was supported by the 2019 IFP Documentary Lab and the 2019 Chicken and Egg Nest Knight Fellowship. Her first documentary feature as a cinematographer, Queer Genius, premiered at Frameline43.

Kyle Jackson is an educator, writer and actor currently spending the bulk of his time between New York, New York and London, England. He is an active member of both the bear and leather communities and is a proud member of the MidAtlantic Chapter of ONYX.

Jeff Mann grew up in Covington, Virginia, and Hinton, West Virginia, receiving degrees in English and forestry from West Virginia University. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many publications, including Arts and Letters, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Willow Springs, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Crab Orchard Review, and Appalachian Heritage. He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks, Bliss, Mountain Fireflies, and Flint Shards from Sussex; five full-length books of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology, A Romantic Mann, and Rebels; two collections of personal essays, Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leather Bear and Binding the God: Ursine Essays from the Mountain South; three novellas, Devoured, included in Masters of Midnight: Erotic Tales of the Vampire,Camp Allegheny, included in History’s Passion: Stories of Sex Before Stonewall, and The Saga of Einar and Gisli, included in On the Run: Tales of Gay Pursuit and Passion; five novels, Fog: A Novel of Desire and Reprisal, which won the Pauline Réage Novel Award, Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War, which won a Rainbow Award, Cub, Country, and Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War, which won both a Lambda Literary Award and the Pauline Réage Novel Award; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and three volumes of short fiction, Desire and Devour: Stories of Blood and Sweat, Consent: Bondage Tales, and A History of Barbed Wire, which won a Lambda Literary Award. In 2013, he was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Karlié Rodríguez is a writer, translator, and theorist from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Their work has appeared in American Book Review, Rogue Agent, Sabanas Magazine, and a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. It is also forthcoming in El humor es cosa seria, a Puerto Rican anthology of humorous writing. Their geographical time is split between Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico.