hey bbs just a heads up I finally did the whole squarespace thing and made a “real” website over at tommy-pico.com, so that’s where I’ll be updating everything from now on. Oh and I posted a new poem that’s kind of a mash up of some old work with new work as the connective tissue between the stuff called “I See the Fire that Burns Within You” that I was commissioned to make for a conference on healing indigenous trauma on my rez. You can read the text and hear me read it too! CHECK IT OUUUUUUT:
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High resolution 12 “ x 18″ poster of two Indigenous Diné Nádleehí taken during Hwéeldi (the Long Walk, which was the forced removal/ relocation of the Diné to an internment camp located near Bosque Redondo, New Mexico in 1864. Diné were forced to walk over 300 miles by gunpoint and the aftermath of the Long Walk has had a substantial impact on the trauma experienced by a resilient people. As with all our posters, feel liberated to print out and wheatpaste at will!
The photograph shows two Diné Nádleehí (trans.: “the one is changing”), which is the equivalent to Indigenous Queer and Trans identity in contemporary culture. It is accompanied by text that challenges Western perspectives on homosexuality by asking the viewer to imagine the pre-“history” of terms and issues that have become relevant to the construction of contemporary Queer culture. In this case, it inserts an Indigenous narrative prior to genocide, colonization, health epidemics, and forced assimilation to Western notions that include but are not limited to gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, same-sex marriage, queer history, and romanticization of nature and feminine/masculine identity. R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment Follow R.I.S.E.: burymyart.tumblr.com instagram.com/RISEindigenous
TONITE TONITE TONITE TONITE TONITE TONITE
Junk (Tin House, 2018) is an epic poetic ode to refuse, thrift stores, and eggplant emojis and is the third book in my “Teebs” trilogy. It’s been named one of NPR’s most anticipated books of 2018 and hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “build[ing] into an apocalyptic crescendo via Pico’s propulsive fervor, junk piling on junk.”
The book also implores you to value Junk itself, because “Junk has the best stories.” Instead of a typical reading, I asked six cultural and literary luminaries to bring a piece of junk from home and tell its story, old school show-and-tell style:
+ Nichole Perkins + Matt Ortile + Bukem Reitmayer + Chris Campanioni + Natalie Eilbert + Max Steele
RSVP encouraged but not required. Admission will be first come, first serve based on capacity. It is suggested you arrive at, or a few minutes before 8pm.
oooh hey there nothing much just the Los Angeles Review of Books shouting out JUNK WOOOHOOO https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/canoodling-with-junk-food-on-tommy-picos-junk/
bbs! So I’ve got a book coming out next week and I’m going on tour. I’ll have a couple other dates in the PNW starting May 8th. Here’s a run down of all the dates and venues!
May 8-Seattle @ Mount Analogue, w/Kim Selling, Anastacia-Renee Tolbert, Aidan Fitzgerald, and Willie Fitzgerald
May 10-Portland OR @ Powell’s, in conversation w/Matthew Dickman
May 13-New York City @ the Ace Hotel, w/Nichole Perkins, Matt Ortile, Bukem Reitmayer, Chris Campanioni, Natalie Eilbert and Max Steele
May 15-Washington DC @ Colony Club, w/Joe Osmundson, Gary Fincke, Jesse Wang, Amy Woolard, and Jonathan McClure
May 16-Baltimore @ the Crown, w/Joe Osmundson, Alain Ginsberg, and Janea Kelly
May 17-Philadelphia @ Tattooed Mom, w/Jos Osmundson, Kristen Arnett, and Salas Rivera
May 18-Brooklyn @ the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, in conversation w/Joe Osmundson & moderated by Angel Nafis
May 19-Northampton @ APE Gallery, w/Joe Osmundson, Patrick Bella Gone, Andy Nicole Bowers, and Aba Micah Collins-Sibley
May 20-Providence RI @ Ada Books, w/Joe Osumundson and Charlotte Abotsi
May 21-Portland ME @ Print Bookstore, w/Joe Osmundson
May 23-Boston @ Brookline Booksmith, w/Joe Osmundson and Dorothea Lasky
cousin dies of an overdose and another cousin has a daughter an incel man plows into ppl in a truck in toronto mostly women and there are something like 7 million more men than women in India and China and it turns out a literal part of roy’s heart has died it says in the echocardiogram he got before starting a new ADD med but it’s fine he just needs to eat more salad and mamihlapinatapai is the most precise word according to linguists bc it means something like when two ppl look at each other and the look is that they both know what the other shd do but neither wants to initiate and wilkes says john krazinski is the shortest of three brothers the others are 6′8 and 6′9 and i start to palpitate and my booty falls the fuck off on the link light rail on the way to drop off my stuff at rich’s in cap hill before making a zine with aidan at cold cube and IMAGINE BEING THE MOZARELLA IN BETWEEN THAT FUCKING SLICE OF BAGUETTE ARE YOU KIDDING ME 6′8 AND 6′9 I NEED TO BE IN A SMALL CLOSET IN A SHOE BOX APARTMENT IN THE STICKS LIKE TOTALLY BY MYSELF SUFFOCATING INTO A PAPER BAG and jess texts me she’s got a mass inside of her the size of an orange and she’s going in next week and I’m practicing lines for when I officiate Becky’s wedding some kind of grand metaphor about the golden hour and wanting to experience things vs dissect them and someone tells me they used to say you shd wait five years before publishing yr next book like seriously what’s yr rush it’s encouraged and I’m like did u not just read? my cousin died today he’s only two years older than me like binch i would LOVE to imagine being alive in five years but I have these bones u feel me? and just like that i’m writing a poem
again
I will always remember you
on the drive to seattle, platelets in the artery of the 5 shunting into the city’s heart bc usually I take the bust bc of course usually I’m by myself and the bus meanders off the freeway and comes in on the sneak, dropping me in the international district like a side piece and this is the last sentiment abt boys I will ever write bc I’ve already written those poems I mean those books lol Connective tissue wears down over time causing all sorts of problems, including________
I’m hungry and I said it and I’m not taking it back I guess time really has passed even though now it feels like gurgling rainbow sprinkles I remember being a common teenage anorexic in the throws I mean the throes of whittling myself invisible and saying “I’m Hungry” was like saying “Kill Me Slowly With Blunt Force Trauma You Fucking Dog Bitch” and while I’ve gotten better at saying the word and in fact all words and in fact it turns out I have a very loud ass face buried under the mirepoix of self-censorship and extreme doubt and cool ranch doritos I don’t know what it means in the sense that I’m hungry like is that something I shd take care of with food?
Okay. Yes. Got it. But pizza nachos or a salad and like life says do both do it all stupid or none of it and I shame face still embargo fashion magazines and as self actualized or whatever as i can get I still can’t step on a scale without invoking somewhere in my ankle chakra the weights I would wear at weigh ins so my mom would feel okay at the tail end of their marriage and when the suns set on our family And later Rich and Willie and Chase talk about the ProudBoys stalking up to Cap Hill 70 strong twice the size the were last year “not to fight” chase says intones that they’re mostly non violent frat boys just trying to disrupt the community and I feel disrupted and disrupted is the literal outcome terrorism Not like Syria or Pakistan where the journalists lay or Mogadishu bustling city center bombs or ICE at every
turn targeting churches Sanctuaries and sanctuary cities and ppl targeting Michelle Wolf for calling out liars at the WHCD in the corrupt regime like arent we supposed to be rallying around her? Where to we place the feelings of white women over literal families being torn apart and the the bombs and the bombs and the bombs in other countries
and murdered and missing indigenous women never get an article on any paper its like idk if I’m even here
Reblogged christiandiorhypnoticpoison
autumnalsonata-deactivated20190
“Every storm blows in on a scent, or leaves one behind.”
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platypuspress-deactivated202401
FIVES is live! 😍
Featuring mini-interviews with @chenchenwrites, @heyteebs, @blankslate, @antililies, @safia-elhillo, and many more.
»blackboard 3 (unpredictable)» by david foggo
Source: visual-poetry
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as we all celebrate adam rippon and his brilliant performance this past week for the figure team competition at the winter olympics in pyeongchang, i want to remind the universe of the fabulous rudy galindo, a latinx HIV positive gay man who queered the figure skating world more than 20 years ago.
after winning a few junior championships, rudy got a taste of national success skating with kristi yamaguchi, when they won the US national championships in both 1989 and 1990. their partnership soon ended as kristi began her very successful career as a solo skater. rudy’s solo skating career was quite the opposite.
although surviving extreme poverty, rudy’s family had sacrificed everything to support his dream as a figure skater. during the late 80s and early 90s, rudy struggled personally as two of his coaches and his brother George succumbed to HIV. his sister laura became his coach.
after taking 8 months off from competing, the 1996 US championships were taking place in his hometown of san jose, california. rudy decided to give his skating dream one more shot and decided to compete. he would skate one of the most beautiful and most remembered long programs ever.
with thousands of people cheering for him, rudy became the oldest US national champion. he became the first out national champion. he became the first mexican-american national champion. that night, rudy became a gawd damn legend!
rudy would go on to win the bronze medal at the world championships. he retired from competing soon after but still skated professionally and chyle, he gave you performances! in april of 2000, he disclosed that he was living with HIV. he skated to “ soon in the clowns” soon after.
“HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence. you can go out there and do what you want.” rudy galindo. he has become an HIV advocate and now coaches kristi yamaguchi’s daughter. and despite not initially having the support of the skating world, rudy is now celebrated as a pioneer.
fun fact: when i was in the hospital w/ a t-cell count of 100, the woman i shared a room with, in an attempt to make me feel better, said, “you know who rudy galindo is? he is so lovely. like you, so lovely.” that shit still stays with me. “if he can survive this, so can you”
much like rudy, i survived and found that place over the rainbow to shine.
we celebrate you, rudy!
Reblogged chescaleigh
Some knowledge ✊🏾
yoooo this is dope