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Kit Yan
Kit Yan

I.D. Festival — Kit Yan

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Featuring opening performances by Justice Ameer, Kaleigh O’Keefe, and Chrysanthemum Tran.

Kit Yan is an award-winning, queer, trans, Asian-American poet from Hawaii. Queer Heartache is his solo slam poetry show that explores his identities, asks what queer hearts and families are made of and interrogates the forces that constantly work to break them apart. Queer Heartache is a testament to the resilience of queer love in all its forms—between cis and trans siblings, lovers, pride parade attendees, and many more—in the face of heartbreaking barriers everywhere from the dating pool to the medical establishment. If you’ve ever had your heart broken, wondered how your pets self-identify, or wanted to tell someone your gender is none of their business, this show is for you.

Queer Heartache has been featured in the 2015 Chicago Fringe Festival, where it won the Artist’s Choice, Audience Choice, and Spirit of Fringe awards, and 2016 San Francisco Fringe Festival, where it won Volunteer’s Choice and Best of Fringe, and had its New York premier at the first annual 2016 Transgender Theater Festival. A print adaptation is out now through TransGenre Press (2016). Queer Heartache is directed by Jessi Hill.


Presented in conversation with A.R.T.’s production of Trans Scripts, the I.D. Festival series celebrates the diverse experiences of the trans community, explores issues of gender identity, and continues OBERON’s engagement with trans artists and stories. See more I.D. Festival events here! Buy a ticket for an I.D. Festival show and Trans Scripts and get a discount. Discount cannot be applied for Zone C tickets.

Credits

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Kit Yan (Playwright/Poet/Performer/Lyricist) is an Asian-American Brooklyn based artist by the way of Hawaii. Yan’s work has received recognition from Campus Pride, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and the OUTmusic awards.  Kit holds a B.S. from Babson College and is a nationally touring artist whose poetry and performances have been reviewed by New York Magazine, Bitch, Hyphen, and Curve Magazines . Kit is currently working on a theatrical poetry investigation that has been supported by a fellowship from the Civilians R&D Group. It focuses on the effect of testosterone on transgender bodies aiming to disrupt common transgender narratives that reinforce binary happiness and the “born into the wrong body” story.—Justice Ameer is a Black genderfluid and transfeminine poet based out of Providence, RI. Xyr work is a practice in becoming unapologetic and unafraid, writing in dedication to xyr community and xyr name. Xe is a Pink Door Fellow and a three-time semifinalist at CUPSI and competed at the 2016 National Poetry Slam. You can find xyr work on Glass Poetry Press and Wusgood Mag. Xe will be proudly representing Providence Poetry Slam at the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam as one of the first Black trans women to compete.Kaleigh O’Keefe is a queer and gender non-conforming poet, visual artist, musician, photographer, designer, educator, organizer, activist, antique frame restorer, and the only performer in Boston to host a series of open mics while wearing footy pajamas. A member of the artist collective Flatline Poetry, Kaleigh has performed everywhere from dingy basements and downtown Boston sidewalks during protests, to the Boston Pride Festival, TEDx Vail Colorado, and the United Nations Headquarters in NYC. Kaleigh writes on family, relationships, loss, gender, sex [good and bad], politics and activism, and occasionally, Batman. When not behind a mic, you can probably find Kaleigh reading radical feminist comic books, quoting communists, or chillin’ with cats.Chrysanthemum Tran is a queer Vietnamese American trans woman poet and teaching artist in Providence by way of Oklahoma City. In 2016, she became the first trans woman finalist of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Chrysanthemum won “Best Poet” and “Best Poem” at the 2016 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, and “Pushing the Art Forward” in 2015. A 2016 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam champion and Pink Door Fellow, Chrysanthemum has been a member of the Providence national slam team and coaches the Providence youth slam team. She has work published or forthcoming in The Offing, The Blueshift Journal, and Muzzle Magazine.