As a part of our Queer Experience Exhibition, this event is for members of the LGBTQ+ community to tell their stories and share their experiences, be it through poetry, literary readings, song, or traditional storytelling, in a safe, welcoming space.
Emergence, by Merriam-Webster’s standards, is defined as “The process of coming into view or becoming exposed after being concealed,” or “The process of coming into being, or of becoming important or prominent.”
This may mean coming out of the closet, or falling into truth; allowing oneself to be perceived differently or changing into a different state. Maybe it just means to be seen and heard.
This event is free to the public with limited seating, so please RSVP below. Donations are very much appreciated and help us continue to produce these events. Thank you.
Your Storytellers:
Mitchell King: Host and MC for the evening, Mitchell is a poet, educator, and published author committed to community building and cooperative learning through arts and education.
Korea Kelly - Midwest Ambassador Founder of Cavalli Entertainment, a creative incubator cultivating spaces centering LGBTQIA, ballroom and pageant communities specifically geared toward people of color. LGBT advocate, community leader, and one of Kansas City’s leading historians of local Black & Brown queer culture.
Nyla Foster - Nyla Foster is a Black woman of Trans experience, Organizational Strategist , and Trans & Youth advocate. She has been living in her truth since the age of 14 and is well known within the Kansas City LGBTQIA community. She is the current Miss Black Trans International and a former: Miss Missouri State, Miss Black Trans Kansas, Miss Kansas City Black Pride, and Miss Kansas City Gay Pride. She’s currently a Youth Rapid Rehousing Specialist with reStart.
Maite (MG) Salazar - Maite Salazar is an activist, artist, author, culinary stylist, and candidate for MO’s 5th Congressional District for 2020-2022. Salazar was part of a team that passed a Conversion Therapy Ban in KC, and successfully organized against for-profit detention center, VisionQuest. Salazar is the founder of La Resistencia Poetry Group and Press, KC Gig Workers Support Group, KC Bartenders Watch, and the Maite Salazar and Friends Community Library. Salazar has worked for Queer Eye, NBC, Food Network, Netflix, and more.
Lily Wulfmeyer - Lily Wulfemeyer is a poet, fiction writer, and journalist with half of their heart in KC and the other half in Houston. In their poetry and fiction, they examine the act of having and molding a physical body, being genderqueer / an inbetweener, and the bizarrely perfect ways that we learn to deal with trauma. You can find their creative work in Defunkt Magazine Vol. 6 and R2: The Rice Review, where they were formerly editor-in-chief. They also have bylines in The Rice Thresher and KC's alternative news source, The Pitch, where they currently work as the content strategist. In college, they studied English and Museums and Cultural Heritage; they graduated in 2020, which was HUGE cosmic error of timing. But it's fine, everything is fine.
Zachary Norris-Hoyt - Zachary’s artwork is an exploration of traditional icons and ephemera, filtered through a pop-art lens, referencing his childhood in the Midwest, religion, and the decorative arts. His moniker “The Polished Rake” is a tongue in cheek nod to 18th century moralist, William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress painting series and reflects hi own transformation from stodgy, closeted, opera singer to stodgy, queer artist and maker. He lives with his husband and their combined 5 children in KCMO.
Miguel M Morales - Miguel grew up in Texas working as a migrant/seasonal farmworker. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow and an alum of VONA Voices and of the Macondo Writers Workshop. Miguel is co-editor of Pulse/Pulso: In Remembrance of Orlando and Fat & Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives.
Jessica Ayala - Jessica is an Indigenous Colombian American, Two Spirited, multi-discipline artist. Her work is a fusion of her heritage , merging oral tradition, storytelling, poetry, and native percussion to create spaces for dialogue and education. As a writer, Ayala draws inspiration from the untold stories of the undocumented, indigenous, immigrant voice.
