✨🪼Dena Igusti 🪼✨

I’ve been asked multiple times how I had the “right timing” to show WHAT YOU ARE TO ME. Of course, I wanted to showcase a queer Indonesian story. Of course I wanted to show the interpersonal effects of two generations and two systems of censorship. But my first and most selfish reason to make this play was to prove to myself that maybe everything I’ve felt, about love and family and country and community and archive weren’t as complicated as I thought. My second was to place my grief elsewhere, to write odes to everyone who one way or another, I have loved and lost in this city. Having the right timing was never intended. This play coming out as free speech and archives are under threat by both governments wasn’t because of right timing, but because the systems that continually impact queer people of color never went away. Thank you for everyone who loved the characters and play well beyond me. Thank you @adamodsessrubin_92 and @nationalqueertheater for the opportunity to bring this story to life. Thank you @keng_s_meateanuwat for pouring so much love into this script and creating a stunning story with my musings on migration, love, and loss. Thank you to @bemitos for your patience with me as a budding playwright and trusting my vision as I was learning the reigns of my own writing through you. Thank you @fluorescent_mango and @clio_barrett for your kindness, passion, and level headedness to keep the show going. Thank you to this absolutely incredibly talented cast who not only acted out these characters, but illuminated this play and my writing career so far. Thank you @micheleseleneang @debbiedotmusic @jsoelistyo and @_graceduah for taking a chance on me theatrically. Thank you @actingminority and @lei_nico_ , for returning to this story with me, over and over and over again, for believing in me as I grew as a writer over the years, for wanting and playing these roles time and time again. Thank you @nongki.nyc and @kekoais for being my muses since the first iteration of this script, and being a part of the zine programming. And thank YOU! everyone who saw the play, for the gift of your time and a sold out run. I can’t wait to see you all again.

Dena Igusti (@dispatchdena ) unboxes their pamphlet ‘ecdysis: cacophony of skins’ available from @14poems now! Thanks for all your pre orders and support! fourteenpoems.com/shop

Take a trip with us to Palms with Dena Igusti, a queer non binary Indonesian Muslim poet, playwright, filmmaker, producer, and FGC survivor & activist. Listen to Dena recite their piece “On the Next and Last Time We Go.” Watch the full episode now on YouTube. Link in the bio. 🎥 @clopezestrada

Meet Dena @dispatchdena , one of the featured artists performing at From Sea to Sea: The NYC Southeast Asian Festival. ✨ A queer Indonesian Muslim writer, poet, and playwright from Queens. They are the author of Cut Woman and ECDYSIS: Cacophony of Skins and the recipient of the 2023 NYFA Ryan Hudak Award. Through poetry and performance, their work explores identity, memory, faith, and belonging. ✨ ‘indonesian will still finds its way out of my mouth like smoke but i will always know the shape of its lips’ Event Details: ⏰When: May 31st, 1 - 6 PM 📍Where: The Chocolate Factory (70 Scott Ave) 🌊 Where:NYC’s annual festival highlighting Southeast Asian vendors, performers, food & drinks, activities, and community orgs across the city. Whether you’re Southeast Asian or not, come for a day of community and joy:) 🎟️Ticket link in bio! Limited space, grab your tickets today!✨ #Fromseatosea #southeastasian

Few more weeks till you see me perform some poems for the second edition of From Sea to SEA: The NYC Southeast Asian Festival. Brought to you in partnership across 12+ different Southeast Asian community orgs across NYC, we are so excited to bring together a day that celebrates the diversity and depth of the Southeast Asian community across NYC. ​This will be an immersive lineup featuring ~30 vendors, ~12 different orgs/non-profits, several performances, and multiple sets of cultural activities. Whether you’re Southeast Asian or just SEA-curious, this is your invitation to experience the joy and depth of the Southeast Asian community in NYC. Ticket link in bio! Hosted by: @vcs.nyc @singaporeunbound @thaitheatrefoundation @dear_community and more!

Thank you @artsanddemocracy for having me for this year’s Kensington Iftar. Grateful to Council Member @shahanafrombk @cmshahanahanif for honoring me with a City Council Citation alongside these incredible Muslim women artists 💖💖💖 Belated Ramadan & Eid Mubarak everyone ✨✨✨ Thank you to the incredible @brooklynstani for always connecting everyone

Why does solidarity matter in conversations on the conflation of FGM/C and gender-affirming care? Dena Igusti shares in this clip from #CSW70. #EndFGM #FGC #GAC

Has the conflation of FGM/C and gender-affirming care affected how survivors access care? Dena Igusti shares their perspective. #EndFGM #GAC

Findings from being 28 that made my heart sing: - mirror selfie while my mom prayed in our hotel in italy - travel toothbrushes with labeled with our names by my mom - my brother’s home grown lettuce - my cousin sending photos of my mom when she was younger during eid - my dad’s first plane ticket to america, found in the sun visor - bootleg sonny angels i got with kiana on my birthday - my name in other places: [opening cake, on a seat chart next to halibut, on my book, on a projector for my book release, next to a tote bag for my first writers’ room] - beyblades gifted to me for my bachelorette - test photo taken the night before my wedding - flowers and cigarettes from my book announcement - my wedding jewelry laid out - 2 monchichis - four drinks from reunion w/ angel and corey - first snowman from the second blizzard -polaroid midway through me changing for my second wedding outfit 29.

Kicking off turning 29 with a month-long tour starting on my birthday 2.27 - @nongki.nyc Jatuh Cinta Lagi @thecommunityboutique_ 3.09 - back to back panels with @sahiyovoices and @equalitynoworg on intersectionality in survivor advocacy for the UN CSW 70 3.16 - @artsanddemocracy Kensington Community Iftar poetry feature 3.31 - Publishing Your Manuscript workshop with @bklynlibrary Library for Arts & Culture

"i didn’t know him. i thought i knew him. i never knew him before. i never knew him like this. i / knew this whole time but couldn’t tell anyone." New poem up today, "cento for all the things we said when they realized they should have believed us" by Dena Igusti (@dispatchdena ), with artwork by @kayajoan . Read at the link in our bio.

OTHER MAPS — Call for Submissions An independent literary platform bringing Indonesian literature into global conversation. We invite bold, thoughtful writing that maps voices, memory, and lived worlds beyond the center. Submit your work. Be part of the first map. Visit othermaps.id (link in bio) for submission details and to learn more about us. #idwriters #indonesianwriters #othermaps #indonesianliterature #submissions