play, Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of
Tennessee Williams. He is best known
for his recurring role (Serge) on Steven
Soderbergh’s Amazon Original Series,
Red Oaks. Since debuting Tennessee
Rising at The United Solo Festival in
New York, Storms has gone on to
perform at The St. Louis Williams
Festival, NY Live Arts, and Club
Cumming. This is his New Orleans
debut!
David
Swatling
was a 2015
Lambda
Literary
Award finalist
for his debut
novel Calvin’s Head. He grew up
in New York, studied theatre, and
escaped to Amsterdam in 1985.
He produced arts and culture
documentaries for Radio Netherlands
and is a three-time winner of the
NLGJA Excellence in Journalism
Award, among other international
honors. His short story Poets’ Walk
appeared in the UK magazine Chase
the Moon. He has contributed to
online publications such as Chelsea
Station and The Big Thrill.
Colm Tóibín
is an Irish
novelist, short
story writer,
essayist,
playwright,
journalist,
critic, and poet. He is currently
the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman
Professor of the Humanities at
Columbia University. Tóibín’s novels
include The South, The Heather
Blazing, The Story of the Night, and The
Blackwater Lightship (1999). His fifth
novel, The Master, is a fictional account
of author Henry James. Tóibín is also
the author of two non-fiction books
and two short story collections, one
of which was shortlisted for the 2011
Frank O’Connor International Short
Story Award.
Poppy
Tooker, food
personality,
teacher,
and author,
champions
the food ways
of New Orleans and the world in her
award winning, NPR-affiliated radio
show, Louisiana Eats! Poppy provides
restaurant and food news weekly on
the PBS show, Steppin’ Out on WYES
TV. Recognized internationally and
across the U.S. as one of New Orleans’
food ambassadors, her writing reflects
a deep knowledge of Louisiana’s food
and its people. Tooker’s sixth book is
Drag Queen Brunch.
Peter
Trapolin, a
native New
Orleanian, is
the founding
principal of
Trapolin-Peer
Architects and has dedicated nearly
four decades of professional experience
to the city he calls home. Peter’s
dedication to historic preservation
and detailing has saved many local
historic buildings and helped repair
the urban fabric in and around New
Orleans’ historic districts. Today,
he continues to be renowned for
both innovative and contextual new
buildings as well as environmentally
sensitive yet appropriate renovations
and restorations.
John
Whittier
Treat is a
Seattle writer
whose novel,
The Rise and
Fall of the
Yellow House, was a finalist for 2016
Lambda Literary Foundation award
for best gay male fiction. His short
story “The Pond” won the Christopher
Hewitt Prize in 2018, and his 2019
short story “Good Humor” has been
nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His
novel about a stutterer who saves the
world, First Consonants, is forthcoming.
Treat’s 1991 Great Mirrors Shattered:
Homosexuality, Orientalism, and Japan
will be discussed in the Taboo Busting
panel discussion.
Chris
Turner-Neal,
managing
editor of
64 Parishes,
holds a BA
in history
from Tulane University and an MA in
history from Villanova University. He
has previously worked as a freelance
writer and editor, writing tutor, history
teacher, and as Arts and Entertainment
Editor for Country Roads Magazine.
Vinsantos
is an Avante
Queer
Cabaret
artist who
works with
live music, storytelling, comedy,
and visual arts to create a unique
and intimate atmosphere with
his audience. He is also the Head
Mister-ess of the New Orleans Drag
Workshop, a ten-week boot camp for
aspiring Drag artists and an OOAK
art doll maker. FInd out what makes
him tick at galerievinsantos.com.
Edmund
White is
a novelist,
memoirist,
and essayist
whose books
include The
Joy of Gay Sex, A Boy’s Own Story,
The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and
The Farewell Symphony, as well as
his biography of Jean Genet. The
American/Russian novelist Vladimir
Nabokov called his debut novel,
Forgetting Elena, “a marvelous book.”
From 1980 to 1981, White was a
member of a gay writers’ group, The
Violet Quill, which included Andrew
Holleran and Felice Picano. White
also published critically acclaimed
memoirs, including Our Paris:
Sketches from Memory, My Lives, Inside
a Pearl: My Years in Paris, and The
Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading.
Basil Wiesse
is a Ph.D.
student and
research
assistant
at the
professorship
for process-oriented sociology at the
Catholic University of Eichstätt-
Ingolstadt, Germany. His focus
lies in ethnomethodology, practice
theory, and qualitative methods.
Recent publications include a
co-edited volume on moods and
atmospheres and a review of the
concept of affective practice. His
current research interests deal with
the relationship between situation
and affect, deconstructions of
presence in contemporary practices,
and performativity of the imaginary.
Clive Wilson,
originally
from
England,
arrived in
New Orleans
in 1964 and
studied trumpet with legends like
Kid Howard, DeDe Pierce, Punch
Miller, and Alvin Alcorn, and was a
member of the Young Tuxedo Brass
Band and Papa French’s orchestra.
Wilson formed the Original Camellia
Jazz Band in 1979 and toured and
recorded with clarinetist Herb Hall
and pianist Jeanette Kimball. In
2001, he formed the New Orleans
Serenaders with pianist Butch
Thompson to celebrate the centennial
of Louis Armstrong’s birth. Following
their success at the New Orleans
Jazz & Heritage Festival, this band
has toured Britain and played jazz
festivals in Switzerland.
Carolyn Nur
Wistrand’s
plays include
Magdalena’s
Crossing
(2019 Jane
Chambers
Honoree); She Danced with A Red
Fish (Inkslinger National Award);
Rising (Mario Fratti-Fred Newman
Political Playwriting); When
Marie Took the Power (Savannah
Black Heritage Festival); Tahirih
(International Baha’i Youth
Conference). Her plays are published
with Brooklyn Publishers, Africa
World Press, One Act Play Depot,
and Coachella Review. Carolyn is a
member of the Dramatists Guild and
an Assistant Professor of English at
Dillard University.
Rita Woods
is a family
doctor and
the director
of a wellness
center.
When she’s
not busy working or writing, Dr.
Woods spends time with her family
or at the Homer Glen library where
she serves on the Board of Trustees.
Remembrance is her debut novel.
Michael
Zapata is
the author
of The Lost
Book of Adana
Moreau. He
is a founding
editor of the award-winning MAKE
Literary Magazine. He is the
recipient of an Illinois Arts Council
Award for Fiction and the City of
Chicago DCASE Individual Artist
Program award. As an educator,
he taught English in high schools
servicing drop out students. He
has lived in New Orleans, Italy,
and Ecuador. He currently lives in
Chicago with his family.
MARCH 25-29,
25-29, 2020
2020
MARCH
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