Speaking with Queer Ancestors: A Poetry Night Hosted by Velvetpark

City Lore is pleased to celebrate April as Poetry Month, with Speaking with Queer Ancestors: A Poetry Night Hosted by Velvepark in conjunction with our current exhibition, “What did it feel like to be There?: 12 Portraits from the Addresses Project, created by artists Gwen Shockey and Riya Lerner. This evening of poetry features Yamilett Vizcaino Rivera, Sarah Bridgins, Gabrielle Randall, Ty Little, Alexander Cavaluzzo, Mia Arias Tsung, & Sarah Drepaul (Video projection).

What did it feel like to be there?: 12 Portraits from The Addresses Project presents twelve portraits by photographer Riya Lerner, selected from a larger multi-disciplinary project entitled , created by Gwen Shockey with Riya Lerner, featuring lesbian and queer individuals who have dedicated their lives to creating and holding space in New York City from the 1950s to today. The exhibit is on view through June 30th at the City Lore Gallery.

For more info: https://citylore.org/about-the-gallery/current-exhibition/

Riya Lerner, Cassandra Grant at Home, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY, 2020, Archival pigment print, 16 x 20 in, Courtesy of the artist

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Yamilette Vizcaino Rivera - is a Dominican American writer and educator based in Brooklyn. She has received fellowships from the HUES Foundation and Sundress Academy for the Arts, and was the inaugural writer in residence at Velvetpark. She is also A Tin House and VONA alum. Her chapbook Little, Little, Little, Big, Big, Big is available from the Hellebore Press.

Sarah Bridgins - is the author of the Sexton Poetry Prize winning collection Death and Exes (Eyewear Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in Tin House, BuzzFeed, Bustle, and Joyland, and other publications. A co-founder of the Ditmas Lit Reading Series in Brooklyn,. And she was on Velvetpark's Residency Selection Committee for 2024.

Gabrielle Randall - is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. She works primarily with self-portraiture in photography, sculpture, video, mixed media, and writing. In 2018 she earned a BFA in Filmmaking from the School of Visual Arts, and in 2019, Gabrielle received the President’s Scholarship Award from The New School to pursue an MFA at Parsons School of Design. Gabrielle was the visual artist in residence at Velvetpark in 2021.

Ty Little - is a poet and performance artist. She is currently an MFA candidate in the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. Her debut chapbook, Zero, was published by Ursus Americanus Press. Ty is a spotlight artist on Velvetpark Media.

Alexander Cavaluzzo - is an interdisciplinary artist based in the East Village. His work has been shown at Miami Art Basel, and in a pop-up exhibition sponsored by Streetlab at Chelsea Market. His poem “Marilyn’s Lips” was included in the award-winning 2022 anthology, “I wanna be loved by you” from Milk & Cake press. Alexander is a spotlight artist on Velvetpark Media.

Mia Arias Tsung - is a writer and freelance editor in New York City. Her work has been published in Autostraddle, Half Mystic Press, Fatal Flaw Magazine, Broad Recognition Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a copy editor for Identity Theory Magazine. She is a graduate of Yale, and currently works as Program Coordinator at House of SpeakEasy, a literary nonprofit. Mia is a spotlight artist on Velvetpark Media.

Sarah Drepaul - is an Indo-Caribbean multimedia creative artist. She was Velvetpark's 2023 writer in residence. Sarah works in documentary television, film, and digital video, and her creative works merge poetry and filmmaking.

VELVETPARK MEDIA is a nonprofit whose mission is to serve as a platform for artists, and writers, in the LGBTQ+ community through a Residency Program based in Brooklyn, and as an online publishing platform. For more info: Velvetparkmedia.com

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

City Lore, 56 East 1st Street, New York, United States