About this Event
A Time Traveler crashes into a gay bar… so begins T.S. Leonard’s debut poetry collection Another Anthem of Fabulous Survival. Moving through glitter, ash, memory, and music, these poems follow a queer time traveler across decades and geographies, from turn-of-the twenty-first-century Missouri to 1970s San Francisco to imagined origins of music itself. Along the way, they come of age, try drag, lose friends, and fall in love, tracing a life shaped by history’s ruptures and its celebrations.
T.S. Leonard is joined for the Chicago launch of Another Anthem of Fabulous Survival by local poets and performers Temperance Aghamohammadi, Amari Amai and country singer Andrew Sa. Laugh, cry, dance, and imbibe at this sure-to-be special time warp of poetry, history, and song.
Guests are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite moment in queer history. There will be books for sale and drink specials at the bar.
Tickets are PWYC or a suggested donation of $10 or $15. You can purchase a PWYC ticket via the "Donation" ticketing section. See you there✨
Meet the Performers
Temperance Aghamohammadi is an Acolyte of the Exquisite. A trans Iranian-American poet, medium, and critic, she is the author of BATTALION SHAPED GIRL and Behnt, selected by Dorothea Lasky as the winner of the New Delta Review Chapbook Prize.
Amari Amai (he/they) is a Black nonbinary storyteller, poet, playwright, and worldbuilder born and raised in Chicago. As a Great Migration baby with roots in Jackson, Mississippi, Amari’s work is rooted in oral tradition and archival resurrection on and off the page, using poetry, folklore, soundscapes, and performance to bend time towards a pre-colonial past and decolonized future.
T.S. Leonard is a poet, performer, and author of works published in Foglifter, Poetry, and Fourteen Poems. Leonard’s debut poetry collection, Another Anthem of Fabulous Survival (Fordham University Press, 2026), was selected for the 2024-2025 Poetic Justice Institute Prize. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, he lives and teaches in San Francisco.
Andrew Sa is a queer country singer-songwriter currently living in Chicago, IL. His latest album American Rough, released on Bloodshot Records in 2026, is "a sonic tapestry woven with pedal steel, jaunty horns, and Sa's signature 'siren-like' croon, drawing inspiration from titans like Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison while being deeply informed by the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and Ocean Vuong."
Event venue & nearby stays
The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, United States
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