I founded Reading Queer to promote queer literary culture in South Florida. One way we are doing this is through our first annual Reading Queer Literary Festival, a Knight Arts grantee, which drew a large, enthusiastic crowd to its Inaugural Reading at B Bar at The Betsy hotel. Writers Jan Becker, Sandra Simonds and Julie Marie Wade shared work that spoke to the complexity of identity and the beautiful queerness of human experience.

Reading Queer Executive Director Neil de la Flor (right) and Program Director Jose Portela (left). Photo by JeanPaul Mallozzi

In her poem, “I Grade Online Humanities Tests,” Simonds confesses, “at McDonalds where there are no black people/ and there’s a multiple choice question/ or white people about Don Quixote/ or Asian or Indian people I don’t want to be around/ people I want to be here where there is/ free wireless…”

The Betsy Hotel-South Beach surprises with an inaugural cake. Photo by JeanPaul Mallozzi

This poem reveals a patient-impatience and a queerness about how we interact with the world. We seek out public spaces (to be alone) and then find ourselves crowded out. In many ways, this is how queer literary culture feels—too often left out of literary party. But, Reading Queer created its own party.

Audience members listen to Sandra Simonds during the Reading Queer Inaugural Reading. Photo by JeanPaul Mallozzi

As the title suggests, Julie Mare Wade’s new book, “When I Was Straight,” reflects upon a time when being and becoming queer wasn’t a question for her, but a future possibility she had yet to imagine. “I did not love men as I do now./ I loved them wincing & wanting to please./ I loved them trying too hard.” Ironically, when she gave up trying to please a hetero-normative culture,  she freed herself from the confines of her upbringing. She freed herself to embrace her sexual identity, but this also gave her the tools to turn that experience into art.

Jan Becker (left) and Sandra Simonds (right) listen to poet Julie Marie Wade. Photo by JeanPaul Mallozzi

The evening concluded with emerging writer Jan Becker, who read a short story she had just completed the night before. Becker represents the hopes and aspirations of Reading Queer—to provide queer writers, at any level, with a platform for self-expression and foster their literary aspirations.

The Reading Queer Literary Festival continues with two more performances: “Cruising Hialeah or Ghosts of Public Sex” and “Sacrilegion: The Gospel Truth,” To RSVP for these events, visit www.readingqueer.org.