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Kay Kassirer – Poetry

Surrounded by a background of dark grey-blue, the main image is a photo Kay Kassirer. Kay is young and white, crouched relaxedly atop a cement ledge, with a chain fence behind. They are wearing an oversized faded jean jacket, daisy-print pants, a black hoodie, a purple knit cap, and dark rimmed glasses. Kay’s head is turned towards us, their red curly hair peeking out from under the cap, with an open, friendly smile. The logos for Under the Table, the Province of Manitoba, and AANM appear along the bottom.

 

This is a photo of Kay Kassirer, a young white person with curly red hair and dark-rimmed glasses. They look at us with a mischievous smile. They sport nose jewellery, a purple knit cap, and are wearing a blue jumper over a black shirt with a drawn image of a tough looking girl with pink skin, white hair and tank, and black bike gloves. The background of the headshot is bright yellow fading to orange at the top.

Statement
This collection of poems by Kay Kassirer weaves together stories of disability, queerness, and sex work, examining the interconnectedness of these topics. Kassirer speaks about the ways being in community with other queer disabled people has helped them feel more comfortable and confident in their identities. Many disabled performance artists, including Kassirer, have been isolated from these communities as venues and organizers refuse to enforce covid protections at their events. This isolation has fueled a desire for them to create covid safer performance spaces, including the virtual open mic that this collection of poems was recorded at. This open mic was co-produced with Under the Table Poetry, a collective of artists co-founded by Kassirer who organize covid safer poetry events centering disabled and/or queer artists.
Bio

Kay Kassirer (they/them) is a spoken word poet currently residing on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations – colonially known as Vancouver. Their autobiographical poetry focuses on gender & sexuality, grief, disability, and sex work.

Kay has toured internationally performing at venues like Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Busboys and Poets, and the Bowery Poetry Club. They have competed at over a dozen national and international poetry slam festivals earning their place on several competitive final stages. Notably, Kay placed 2nd at Capturing Fire International Queer Slam (2016) while representing Hot Damn! It’s A Queer Slam, and 3rd at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (2018) and the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (2019) while representing Vancouver Poetry Slam.

Kay is a Co-Founder and Event Producer with Under the Table Poetry Collective, organizing poetry shows centering disabled and/or queer artists. They curated and edited ‘A Whore’s Manifesto: An Anthology of Writing and Artwork by Sex Workers’ published by Thornapple Press. Their work has been featured in numerous places including Button Poetry, Write About Now, Slamfind, and Arc Poetry Magazine.

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