Leahlakshmiwrites

Hey everybody. I was supposed to be physically in Atlanta this Saturday to do a book launch at @charisbooksandmore but I got a concussion mild but still hanging around when I was in Minneapolis so we made the decision to pivot to make it fully online. The incredible. @yesaurielle is opening. You can go register for the zoom at this link. If there’s any issue with registration, I’m told that you have to have a Zoom account which you can get for free to do it – this is a security measure after a speaker there was attacked by racist and sexist bots six months ago. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3LpJvTzOSSSSmzqFdaYy1Q#/registration image Description is pictures of me Aurielle and the book and info about the book launch happening at charis this Saturday at 7:30 Eastern standard – sorry I can’t do more detailed description. I am speaking at the phone without looking at it because concussion. If you have been waiting for another virtual event, this one has ASL and Cart and will be a good one.

It’s been exactly two years and four months, 28 months, of our project. As of today @crisps4esims raised more than $3,333,333CAD and sent over 23K eSims, topping up more than 40K times. An example of the impact is in our airalo account alone. Alice, did you know that @vicmmic has had our fundraiser pinned on Bluesky for the past year? How cool is that!! We miss you so much. <3 
Due to low donations, we have unfortunately not been able to purchase many new eSIMs for people. The good news is that we are climbing out of the red and can afford to do so soon, with your help! It’s independent bookstore day so I (Jane) want to give a shoutout to @smokiisumac . All proceeds of Smokii’s wonderful book Born Sacred: Poems for Palestine goes towards Gaza, including recently to our project. Thank you so much Smokii, for modelling what poetry can and needs to be. Order today from your fave indie bookstore! Boycott *ndigo! Send us $5! Thank you you to the lovely @carrianneleung for your launch fundraiser too. Can't wait to grab a copy of Wonderland Road!! Thank you, @bordersbookstore , for the very successful matching campaign a few weeks ago as well. ❤️ Free free *points the mic to the reader* "It is never too late to change heart or to let our hearts be ripped open." - @poemsbyzaynab in Born Sacred

Today is my birthday. It also marks around one month of being on tour. Thank you to everybody who let me crash in their spare room or couch, help me with rides, worked at a bookstore or community space, did ASL, did access copies, agreed to open, loan me their car, blessed me with magic safety before I went to the airport, showed up, stayed home, all of it. I’m really grateful. As the third slide shows, we made it last week onto the US independent books best seller list, which is really wild and we are really good company. It means a lot, that you choose this disabled grief love poetry book. Thank you. Annnnnnd if you want to do a birthday gift, you can consider making a donation to crips for eSIMs– we’re still going, we’re often in the hole, no the wireless infrastructure in Gaza was not magically rebuilt, and we have been topping up a lot of people eSIMs for the last two and a half years. This mass active international Asian disabled that solidarity is a beautiful thing that continues. Link here, in my bio and stories in a sec. /project/crips-for-esims-for-gaza . Image descriptions this first slide is a shot of me in a yellow hat and leather jacket, leaning up against a blooming cherry tree that kinda almost died, but is blooming, second is an image of a bunch of cartoon disabled animals holding up cell phones buying eSIMs, third is a screenshot of the Indie books best seller list for April 12 that shows the way disabled people love each other at number 24.

Lambda Award-winning poet and disability justice advocate Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (@thellpsx ) is today's featured poet with their long-awaited fifth collection of poems THE WAY DISABLED PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER (@arsenalpulp ), written over five years of pandemic lockdown, during which time they lost a cherished friend and comrade and met their estranged parents’ end of life. Read our #ALUPoetsResist interview with Leah and more about their book at the link in our bio.

Join Moon Palace Books and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha on Monday, May 4th at 7:00pm to celebrate the release of their newest collection of poems, The Way Disabled People Love Each Other. **This is an in-person event, and masks are required in the store. We offer free masks at the front door, but deeply appreciate you bringing your own!**

NYC come see me and @cyreejarelle celebrating the launch of the book at @thewordischange 10 days from now, on Sunday April 19, 7 PM. wheelchair accessible, tight bathroom, more accessible bathroom across street, masks required. come party and celebrate our improbable survivals. (making public version of this on other IG in a sec.)

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha presents "The Way Disabled People Love Each Other" Weds April 8th, 7pm The Way Disabled People Love Each Other is a fierce crip reckoning with all the ways disabled people love each other, in all our complexity. A book that will speak to any kind of griever, but particularly disabled BIPOC queer trans ones sitting with the endless mass grief and possibility of this time, and those with violent family from whom we still yearn to claw out beauty from the trauma rubble. It's a road map for survivors looking for something that's neither a happy Hollywood ending nor a transformative justice fairy tale - not the healing we wished for, but the healing we find anyway. This collection is a rigorous, rueful documentation of a specific time of pandemic fascist grief and possibility. Brimming with odes, elegies, and mourning songs, these poems sparkle like switchblades and offer new possibilities for love, grief, and memory. #Disability #Love #Poetry #Grief #Memory

Thank you @notyouravgho101 for curating this beautiful zine, where I have a poem alongside others, offering some words for our friend Alice @alicatsamurai . I feel like Alice and I bonded in a quiet way about our respective relationships to academia and I wanted to channel a lil bit of that here. 🖤🕯️ A regular reminder that @crisps4esims is significantly in the red in both CAD, USD, and pounds, but the gears of our western lives still pummel Palestinians in Gaza and other places towards elimination. That reality does not necessitate helplessness, and Alice knew that. Internet connection continues to be crucial; we are still topping up thousands of dollars worth of them every single day. Send a few bucks over to, continuously, throw sand into the gears of genocide, as Rasha Abdulhadi says. I am so glad to have spent time with Eden Robinson at Banff where I got to personally thank her for contributing to the Authors for eSims auction last year. From Coast Salish territories to Palestine, occupation is a crime! #AliceIsLove

Come lay down your grief and join @thellpsx and myself tonight for ritual readings and wordsmith healings 2 APRIL 2026 at the wooden shoe 704 south street PHILLLLLAAAAADELPHIA ☆☆masks REQUIRED☆☆

Coming up: we’re thrilled to co-present the Toronto launch of Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s new poetry collection THE WAY DISABLED PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER with Tangled Art + Disability and Arsenal Pulp! Join us at It’s Ok* Studios for readings by the author and by the wonderful Kai Cheng Thom, as well as an installation of the Disabled Grief Portal Altar. The rent will be interpreted in ASL by Phoenix The Fire. It’s Ok* Studio has a double door with no steps at the entrance. This event will be held on the first floor. There is a wheelchair accessible single-person washroom located on the first floor of the venue to the back right. This is a masked event, and N95 masks will be provided in small, medium, and large sizes. The Way Disabled People Love Each Other is a fierce crip reckoning with all the ways disabled people love each other, in all our complexity. A book that will speak to any kind of griever, but particularly disabled BIPOC queer trans ones sitting with the endless mass grief and possibility of this time, and those with violent family from whom we still yearn to claw out beauty from the trauma rubble. It’s a road map for survivors looking for something that’s neither a happy Hollywood ending nor a transformative justice fairy tale - not the healing we wished for, but the healing we find anyway. This collection is a rigorous, rueful documentation of a specific time of pandemic fascist grief and possibility. Brimming with odes, elegies, and mourning songs, these poems sparkle like switchblades and offer new possibilities for love, grief, and memory.

Thank you Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha @thellpsx the San Francisco @disabilityculturalcenter for this amazing experience. Buy Leah’s new book of poems “The Way Disabled People Love Each Other”. [/news-events/] They launched their book tour at SF DCC with readings from the book and an opening from Stefani Echeverría-Fenn and Tre Vasquez. Afterwards there was a book signing and a delightful hang. They also brought their community installation Disability Grief Portal Altar. It’s a place where people can come together to make a sacred space for disabled, mostly BIPOC, grief and loss - there will be candles, flowers, fruit, and folks can write down and leave the names of their ancestors. It was a cozy, lovely, and most beautiful evening of crip art, love, and community. Read more about the evening here > [/the-way-disabled-people-love-each-other-book-release/]

Join Lambda Award–winning poet, memoirist, and disability justice movement worker Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha as they launch their long-awaited fifth collection of poems, THE WAY DISABLED PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER—a fierce crip reckoning with all the ways disabled people love each other, in all our complexity. — ☆ THE SPEAK/EASY TOUR ☆ NOTE: All in-person events are wheelchair accessible. Some dates and details are still in progress; follow @thellpsx for updates. SAN FRANCISCO, CA Fri, March 27, 7:00 p.m. Disability Cultural Centre (@disabilityculturalcenter ) With Stefani Echeverría-Fenn and Tre Vasquez. Masked in-person and hybrid event with ASL and CART. Sales courtesy of @medicinefornightmares . SEATTLE, WA Sun, March 29, 7:00 p.m. Pipsqueak Community Space (@pipsqueak.seattle ) Masked in-person event; ASL and CART to be confirmed. Sales courtesy of @leftbankbookscollective . PHILADELPHIA, PA Thurs, April 2, 7:00 p.m. Wooden Shoe Books (@thewoodenshoebooks ) With M. Téllez. Masked in-person event. BALTIMORE, MD Wed, April 8, 7:00 p.m. Red Emma’s Books (@redemmas ) Masked in-person event. HALIFAX, NS *VIRTUAL* Sun, April 12, time TBD Venus Envy (@venusenvyhfx ) Virtual event with ASL and CART. TORONTO, ON Wed, April 15, 7:00 p.m. It’s OK* Studios (@itsok.world ) With Kai Cheng Thom. Masked in-person event with ASL. Co-sponsored by @anotherstorybookshop (register via Another Story Bookshop) and @tangled_arts . BROOKLYN, NY Sun, April 19, 7:00 p.m. The Word Is Change (@thewordischange ) With Cyrée Jarelle Johnson. Masked in-person event. CHICAGO, IL Wed, April 29, 7:00 p.m. Women and Children First (@wcfbook ) Masked in-person and hybrid event with ASL by @accessliving . MINNEAPOLIS, MN Mon, May 4, 7:00 p.m. Moon Palace Books (@moonpalacebooks ) Masked in-person event. ATLANTA, GA Sat, May 9, 7:30 p.m. Charis Books (@charisbooksandmore ) Masked in-person event with ASL. DURHAM, NC Date & time TBD NorthStar Church of the Arts (@northstardurham ) LOS ANGELES, CA To be announced soon.