Given Q Davis

#burlynomicon M A Y is right around the corner, and we do hope that you'll join us for an incredible showcase of darkly decadent delights next T U E S D A Y at @coffinclubpdx !! 🦇 We have 2 new - to - Burlynomicon performers and vendor, and 2 of Burlynomicon's fav ghouls! Get your 🎟️ nao at thee 🔗 to witness, live and direct.... BEVIN VICTORIA | GIVEN | LUNA LYNN DAY | LADY DREW BLOOD Be sure to check out our ✨ glorious ✨ vendors... GREEN WITCH! @greenwitchbyselena & BURLYNOMICON merch! Get your fortune told and made with OPHELIA DARKLY'S Victorian Doll Tarot! @opheliadarkly Advance tickets are highly recommended, as capacity is limited. This show WILL sell out..get yours now at thee 🔗 in bye-oh OR thecoffinclubpdxdotcom OR burlynomicondotwixsitedotcom/mysite BURLYNOMICON - M A Y!!! T u e s d a y, M a y 12 The Coffin - 421 SE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 7pm doors 8pm show GHOUL - LA - LA! @gothinpdx @portlandmercury @travelportland @traveloregon @portland.seattle.events @do503 #portlandtuesdays #whattodoontuesdaypdx #burlesquedrag #tuesdaynightlifepdx

✨️Upcoming collab with @photo.galluzzo I'll be facilitating “Invoking Trans Divinity" - a trans/GNC writing workshop* inspired by Ebenezer Galluzzo's installation "You are the Beacon, You are the Storm" Workshop Description: Participants will be guided in locating reflections of trans divinity within their personal relationships, communities, and beyond. This creative space is a timely call to create entities in our own image capable of providing strength, comfort, and courage while illuminating our collective path ahead. *Other mediums welcome! Art supplies will be provided, or feel free to bring your own. May 8th: 7PM - 9PM (Trans/GNC participants) May 21st: 7PM-9PM (Trans/GNC BIPOC participants) Sliding scale: $0 - $20 Masking recommended ---- Given Q Davis (they/he) is an interdisciplinary artist and magic maker. Their creative practice dances between poetry, performance, music, and the healing arts. Given’s work is an ongoing love letter to the complicated, hilarious, and beautiful versions of ourselves we have been, who we are today, and to the people we are always already becoming. He hosts @queerpdxpressions - an audaciously queer poetry open mic - every 3rd Thursday at Always Here Books @alwaysherebooks Ebenezer Galluzzo (he/him) is driven by the symbology associated with traditional westernized gender, and redefining those gender systems through his art practice Elements from the landscape are incorporated into his work, countering the notion that certain bodies and identities are not natural. Through his art, Galluzzo finds new possibilities of existence where all expressions are sacred, honored, and a vital part of the human ecology TO REGISTER EMAIL: [email protected] (space is limited) held at Carnation Contemporary 8371 N Interstate Ave Portland, OR 97217

LAST MIC OF 2025!! 🤯 The December mic is THIS THURSDAY 12/18 at Always Here Books @alwaysherebooks with featured poet: @rebelonpageangie Angie Ebba (she/they) is a queer, disabled writer, educator, and performer who teaches writing workshops and performs online and across the United States. She has poetry published in Closet Cases, Queering Sexual Violence, Moon Water, and multiple other anthologies and literary magazines. She is a published essayist focusing on writing about disability and chronic illness, relationships and sexuality, and body positivity. She believes in the power of words to help us gain a better understanding of ourselves, to build connections and community, and to make personal and social change. Angie can be found online at rebelonpage.com THURSDAY 12/18 Always Here Books 4555 N Williams Ave Portland, OR 97217 MIC SIGN-UPS @ 6:30PM SHOW @ 7:00PM Hosted by @givenqdaviswrites $5 Suggested Donation/$GAY AF * (GIVE AS YOU'RE ABLE, FRIENDS!) In-person dolla dolla bills preferred! 💚 Donations go to featured poets, future mics, and making the night more accessible by bringing on ASL interpreters in the future. *Please DM or email [email protected] to request an interpreter or with questions about the mic! 😷MASKING REQUIRED😷 If at all possible, please keep it on <3 Always Here Accessibility Info: /accessibility ✨️Take the mic. Leave inspired.✨️

The next Queer Poetry Takeover is Thurs 10/16 @alwaysherebooks with our featured poet (and the first author I've had the pleasure of interviewing): @mickmakesmagic m. mick powell (they/she) is a queer Black Cabo Verdean femme, poet, artist, Aries, and the author of DEAD GIRL CAMEO (One World Books, 2025) and threesome in the last Toyota Celica & other circus tricks, winner of the 2023 Host Publications Chapbook Prize. An assistant professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Connecticut, mick enjoys chasing waterfalls and being in love. THURS 10/16 Always Here Books 4555 N Williams Ave Portland, OR 97217 MIC SIGN-UPS @ 6:30PM SHOW @ 7:00PM Hosted by @givenqdaviswrites $5 Suggested Donation/$GAY AF (GIVE AS YOU'RE ABLE, FRIENDS!) Paypal: @givenqdavis Cash App: $given88 Venmo: @givenqdavis Tip our feature! cashapp & venmo: @mmpowell paypal: [email protected] 💚 Donations go to featured poets, future mics, and making the night more accessible by bringing on ASL interpreters in the future. *Please DM or email [email protected] to request an interpreter or with questions about the mic! 😷MASKING REQUIRED😷 (masks may briefly be pulled down while reading, if needed. If at all possible, please keep it on <3) Always Here Accessibility Info: /accessibility Stay connected. Stay audaciously queer. Stay inspired!! ✨️

Missed the due date? Due date for the 1st issue extended to Wednesday 10/1! Yanno, the times are timing - and we all deserve grace. If you have questions or would like support with completing the form, hit up my DMs. 💕 [NOTE: Any Black Trans folks with a connection to PDX are invited to submit work.] I will also be holding an event at IFCC on Saturday 10/18 and inviting a handful of poets who have submitted pieces to the anthology to read their work. This is a compensated opportunity. ...And, yeah. You read that right. First. 😁

Ready for the open mic this Thursday at @alwaysherebooks ? (Um, how is it September?!?) I have been eager to have this months fab feature, and the time has come: Sossity Chiricuzio (she/they) @SossityWrites is a fat femme outlaw poet, a working class crip storyteller. What her friends' parents often referred to as a bad influence, and possibly still do. A Lambda Fellow and sensitivity reader at Writing Diversely, they write as activism, connection, and survival. Author of the memoir Honey & Vinegar: Recipe for an Outlaw and the poetry collection bouquet of thorny rose, their work can also be found in a variety of publications including Salty, Rooted in Rights, The Library Journal, Stirring, and Rogue Agent, as well as anthologies like The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices On Health and Health Care, and Not My President. THURS 9/18 Always Here Books 4555 N Williams Ave Portland, OR 97217 MIC SIGN-UPS @ 6:30PM SHOW @ 7:00PM Hosted by yours truly @givenqdaviswrites 😷MASKING REQUIRED😷 (masks may briefly be pulled down while reading, if needed. If at all possible, please keep it on <3) Always Here Accessibility Info: /accessibility $5 Suggested Donation/$GAY AF (GIVE AS YOU'RE ABLE, FRIENDS!) Paypal: @givenqdavis Cash App: $given88 Venmo: @givenqdavis 💚 Donations go to featured poets, future mics, and making the night more accessible by bringing on ASL interpreters in the future. *Please DM or email [email protected] to request an interpreter or with questions about the mic! Stay connected. Stay audaciously queer. Stay inspired!! ✨️

Mark your calendar for the next QUEER POETRY TAKEOVER on Thurs 9/18!! Yup, you heard that right. We're going back to the name given to the mic by its original host, Bryony Blaze. I can't wait to see you 💕✍️🏾💕

This Thursday with @angelfaceloverbabe & @mxmarchandt at @alwaysherebooks Hosted by @givenqdaviswrites

QueerPDXpressions poetry open mic is this Thursday 7/17 at Always Here @alwaysherebooks with TWO featured poets! Introducing Ebony Frison! @ebony_frison_ Ebony Frison is a multidisciplinary artist, social worker, and Air Force veteran whose practice weaves together painting, printmaking, prose, and archival research. Rooted in a lineage of Black labor, Frison’s work explores the intersections of memory, generational trauma, and healing, often engaging with overlooked or suppressed historical narratives. Her recent MFA thesis project, Echoes of American Apartheid, reimagines images from a rare archive of African American WWII photographs through photogravure and text, confronting the visual legacies of segregation and nationalism. Frison is the founder of an artist collective based at The Harlow Hotel in Portland, Oregon, where she builds community through exhibitions and storytelling. Inspired by ancestors, honeybees, and the transformative power of land stewardship, her evolving vision includes establishing an urban honeybee farm and artist residency dedicated to collective healing and creative freedom. TIPPING INFO <3 (show our features some love!) Cashapp: $brownbearbrownbear Venmo: @brownbearbrownbear THURS 7/17 Always Here Books 4555 N Williams Ave Portland, OR 97217 MIC SIGN-UPS @ 6:30PM SHOW @ 7:00PM Hosted by @givenqdaviswrites 😷MASKING REQUIRED😷 (masks may briefly be pulled down while reading, if needed.) Always Here Accessibility Info: /accessibility $5 Suggested Donation/$GAY AF (GIVE AS YOU'RE ABLE, FRIENDS!) Paypal: @queerpdxpressions Cash App: $given88 Venmo: @givenqdavis 💚 Donations go toward featured poets, future mics, and making the night more accessible by bringing on ASL interpreters in the future. *Please DM or email [email protected] to request an interpreter or with questions about the mic! Stay connected. Stay audaciously queer. Stay inspired!! ✨️

Psst...check out our timeline for 24 hours of writing prompts courtesy of @corporealwriting ! AND, the next poetry open mic is on Thursday 7/17 at Always Here @alwaysherebooks with TWO featured poets! Introducing our first feature: ✨️Vanessa Micale✨️ @elle_bosque Vanessa Micale is a mixed Uruguayan American multidisciplinary artist who creates across monikers and mediums as a poet, writer, singer-songwriter and performer. Their work appears in The Hopper, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, and more, with support from VONA, Anaphora, Latinx in Publishing, Literary Arts, and the Randolph College MFA Blackburn fellowship. As a queer neurodiverse being currently in the shape of a person, Vanessa experiments with lyric, hybrid genres and forms. Vanessa appreciates soft nightlife, forest baths, animals (especially dogs), and lush glimmers of joy. They are a somatic coach, facilitator, and pleasure activist who draws from various modalities of movement, sound and language. TIPPING INFO <3 (show our features some love!) Venmo: @luzlight THURS 7/17 Always Here Books 4555 N Williams Ave Portland, OR 97217 MIC SIGN-UPS @ 6:30PM SHOW @ 7:00PM Hosted by @givenqdaviswrites 😷MASKING REQUIRED😷 (masks may briefly be pulled down while reading, if needed.) Always Here Accessibility Info: /accessibility $5 Suggested Donation/$GAY AF (GIVE AS YOU'RE ABLE, FRIENDS!) Paypal: @queerpdxpressions Cash App: $given88 Venmo: @givenqdavis 💚 Donations go toward featured poets, future mics, and making the night more accessible by bringing on ASL interpreters in the future. *Please DM or email [email protected] to request an interpreter or with questions about the mic! Poem of the Moment Flames transmute my shame braise what they have left inside me burn what they have set between us make ash of tools they craft to bleed us breathe so I may speak the words that need us Wind weave through my skin raise the fire they have made of me like children who still know hand games who are still best friends with outside raise me like the whispers of dry leaf embers reaching for the sky Stay connected. Stay audacious. Stay inspired! 🌟

I BELIEVE IN YOUUUUUU!!! Congrats on making it this far. You're so close - you can do it!! 19) Archaeological materials, according to Marija Gimbutas, are not mute. They have voices & stories. Your own past is not mute either; you can dig up artifacts, voices, stories. What stories do you create & move forward with? Remember that stories are made things, they can be unmade & remade. Go back into your past & dig up an artifact from your past. Detach it from its prior meanings. Change its history. Give it a new story or myth. How might it become a totem or relic or artifact of intense new meaning? 20) What is something you’ve forgotten that you would like to remember? If you could remember it fully and vividly, would you want to? If so, what would it feel like? Is there a trail of breadcrumbs or a bright star that could to guide you back to this person/place/thing/idea/ emotion/sensation/wisdom/etc? *Prompt courtesy of Given Q Davis @givenqdaviswrites 21) Start a poem with: “If I ruled the world…” *Prompt courtesy of Alone ft. Company @aloneftcompany 22) Think about what supports a creative journey. What is your/my pace? When do you have the space to do this/your creative work? Prompt courtesy of Dey Rivers @artbydey 23) Compare yourself to one childhood toy or a series you watched as a child *Prompt courtesy of Alone ft. Company @aloneftcompany 24) Write a piece about your most audacious dreams coming true from the perspective of someone who loves you dearly. How are you thriving? What do they see? *Prompt courtesy of Given Q Davis @givenqdaviswrites ✨️💕🎉CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!🎉💕✨️ You made it all the way to the end of the 2025 QueerPDXpressions 24-hour Poetry Marathon! Thank you all for writing along with us! All.our gratitude to @corporealwriting for the amazing prompts! ✍️🏾 Remember to tag us to have you work shared in our stories. Hope to hear some of your brand new at the July open mic on 7/7 at @alwaysherebooks with TWO phenomenal featured poets. 💋

YOU'VE GOT THIS!! Is your brain word soup yet? Your heartbeats lyrical? That's one of my favorite sensations. 😌 Ever take a walk around the block while composing a poem? There's no time like the present! Before you start in on the Hour 13-18 prompts, remember to snack, stretch, and hydrate, lovies! 13) You had a dream last night when a part of yourself reached out to you. What was it? Even if you don’t remember your dreams, what is the reaching that you can sense when you close your eyes? 14) Breathe into your body. Let the body lead you. The body knows, remembers, & intuits how to process what we don’t yet have words for. What are some of the ways that we can write around the wound or heartbreak of the experience without naming the thing itself? Make a short list of some of the non-verbal ways that you can convey what has happened (gesture, color, image, metaphor): all of the things that surround & live under the surface of the linear story. Breathe into the body again. Let the breath guide your listening. Make a list of image constellations – short bursts (like photographs) of things that are happening near the “thing” but are not the thing itself. 15) What is the first lie you remember being told? What is the first lie you remember telling? 16) What ghosts have you inherited? What are the silences of your past that linger? What haunts you & what are you haunted by? Choose a form or space to inhabit. This might be a poetic or narrative form, such as a sonnet, sestina, villanelle, fairy tale. Or this might be a physical space, such as a house, room, body. Use this form, space, or container as the backdrop for your haunting. Haunt the form or space itself, as you yourself are haunted. 17) Recently, you thought you saw something, maybe out of the corner of your eye. But when you turned to look again, you realized that your mind was just playing tricks on you. The thing is, your mind doesn’t play tricks on you, at least not in the way you might think. It conjures, recalls, sees patterns. The question is why? The question is, what is it inside of you, a desire or need, that conjured that thing in that moment for you to see? 18 cont'd in comments...