Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha on The Laura Flanders Show

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (born April 21, 1975, in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

) is a U.S. /Canadian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, writer, educator and

social activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. Their writing and performance art focuses on documenting the stories of

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

and

trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (film ...

people of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

, abuse survivors, mixed-race people and diasporic South Asians and Sri Lankans. A central concern of their work is the interconnection of systems of colonialism, abuse and violence. They are also a writer and organizer within the disability justice movement. They are

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

, and disabled.

Personal life

Piepzna-Samarasinha was raised in

and are of

Burgher Burgher may refer to: * Burgher (social class), a medieval, early modern European title of a citizen of a town, and a social class from which city officials could be drawn ** Burgess (title), a resident of a burgh in northern Britain ** Grand Bu ...

/ Tamil Sri Lankan and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

ascent. They have lived in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and currently reside in South

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Duwamish Duwamish may refer to: * Duwamish tribe, a Native American tribe in Washington state * Duwamish River, in Washington state * ''Duwamish'' (fireboat) See also * Elliott Bay Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is ...

territories. They are non-binary and use she and they pronouns. In comparison to climate activist

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

, they have described themself as "an autistic femme."

Education

Piepzna-Samarasinha graduated from

Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1997. They received their

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

Career

Healing

Piepzna-Samarashinha is a member of Bad Ass Visionary Healers, a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

-based activist healing collective and has an "intuitive counseling" practice, Brownstargirl Tarot. they has been involved in organizing healing justice practice spaces at the Allied Media Conference, Safetyfest and other spaces.

Performance art

Piepzna-Samarasinha has been performing spoken word since 1998. As a spoken word artist they have performed widely in the United States, Canada and Sri Lanka and have been featured at Bar 13,

Michelle Tea Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik, 1971) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, sex work, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachuset ...

's RADAR Reading Series, The Loft, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, as well as at universities including Yale, Sarah Lawrence, Oberlin, Swarthmore and the University of Southern California. In 2001, frustrated with the racism of the local white-dominated queer and trans poetry scene and the homophobia in the local poetry spaces for people of color, they began Browngirlworld, a reading series with the goal of creating a poetry and performance space for queer and trans people of color. Initially held weekly, the event became a biannual, large-scale poetry event in partnership with the

Toronto Women's Bookstore The Toronto Women's Bookstore was the largest nonprofit, feminist bookstore in Canada, before its closure in November 2012. It was run and staffed primarily by women of color, and sold fiction, poetry and non-fiction by women writers to promote ...

, bringing artists such as Mango Tribe and

D'Lo 'D'LO is a transgender Sri Lankan-American performer, writer, and community activist, who performs in America, Canada, the UK, Germany, Sri Lanka, and India. He starred in a golf commercial held for Connor Smiths luxury hotel The Shlanger. He is ...

. Piepzna-Samarasinha began teaching writing to queer, trans and Two Spirit youth at Supporting Our Youth Toronto's Pink Ink program. In 2004, inspired by radical Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) arts and poetry youth education programs at the APIA Spoken Word Summit, Piepzna-Samarasinha and Gein Wong started the Asian Arts Freedom School. The following year, Piepzna-Samarasinha traveled to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

to study poetry with

Suheir Hammad Suheir Hammad (born October 25, 1973) is an American poet, author, actress, performer, and political activist. Biography She was born in Amman, Jordan. Her parents were Palestinian refugees who immigrated along with their daughter to Brooklyn, N ...

at Voices of Our Nations, an experience they credit with changing their life as a writer. In 2006, Piepzna-Samarasinha wrote and premiered their first one-woman show, ''Grown Woman Show'', in which they discuss being "a queer girl of Sri Lankan descent" who is a survivor of incest perpetrated by their mother.' Grown Woman Show has since been performed at the

National Queer Arts Festival National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF) is an annual queer festival in San Francisco organized by the Queer Cultural Center and established in 1998 to coincide with Pride Month. Other organisations which have assisted over the years include the Har ...

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

, and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. Later that year, Piepzna-Samarasinha met Ctheirry Galette on Friendster and created Mangos With Chili with the goal of creating an annual tour of performance artists who are queer and trans people of color. Piepzna-Samarasinha is also involved with the biannual Asian Pacific Islander Spoken Word and Poetry Summit. They were the 2009-2010 Artist in Residence at UC Berkeley's June Jordan's Poetry for the People. From 2009 to the present, they has been a commissioned performer with

Sins Invalid Sins Invalid is a disability justice-based performance project that incubates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and LGBTQ / gender-variant artists. Led by disabled people of color, Sins Invalid's performance work explores t ...

, the national performance organization of queer people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. While in Toronto, with

Syrus Marcus Ware Syrus Marcus Ware is a Canadian artist, activist and scholar. He lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is an assistant professor in the school of the arts at McMaster University. He has worked since 2014 as faculty and as a designer fo ...

, they co-created Performance.Disability.Art (PDA), a performance based disability arts collective. Through PDA, the pair co-curated Crip Your World: an Intergalactic Mad, Sick and Disabled Extravaganza for Mayworks Festival.

Teaching

In 2001, Piepzna-Samarasinha taught writing to LGBTQ youth at

Supporting Our Youth Supporting Our Youth (SOY) is an organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which runs programs and events geared to supporting the special needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual and intersex youth."Programs that do help str ...

Toronto (SOY) through the Pink Ink program. This included working with the zine ''10 Reasons to Riot'' which won Best Zine in Toronto in 2006. For this work they were awarded the Community Service to Youth Award from the City of Toronto in 2004. In 2005, along with Gein Wong, co-founded the Asian Arts Freedom School, a community-controlled school teaching writing, performance and radical education on Asian/Pacific Islander history to youth. They were also involved with The Canadian Sri Lankan Women's Action Network, an activist group seeking to promote peace with justice through a feminist lens to end Sri Lanka's 24 year civil war. In 2007, they moved back to the U.S. and studied community-based poetic teaching through

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

's June Jordan's Poetry for the People (P4P) Program, culminating in teaching for and being P4P's visiting writer from 2009 to 2010. She has taught in living rooms and college campuses and everywhere in between, and loves and believes in the delicious liberation of places to learn and live freely outside traditional school systems.

Writing

Piepzna-Samarasinha has published nine books independently, been included in ten anthologies, and edited two anthologies. Their work has also appeared in '' Yes'', ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'', ''

Room In a building or large vehicle, like a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure that connects it to either a passage (architecture), passageway, another roo ...

'', ''

Autostraddle Autostraddle is an independently owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer femin ...

'', ''

ColorLines ''Colorlines'' is a digital media platform that seeks to build a political home for everyday people and activists. The platform creates accessible multimedia to power its vision of a just multiracial democracy where all thrive. History ''Colorlin ...

NOW Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

Xtra Extra or Xtra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper * '' Extra!'', an American m ...

Bitch Bitch may refer to: * A female dog or other canine * Bitch (slang), a vulgar slur for a human female Bitch or bitches may also refer to: Arts and media Film and television * ''The Bitch'' (film), a 1979 film starring Joan Collins * ''Bitc ...

, theirizons'' and other publications.

Awards and honors

Self

Written works

Bibliography

Anthology contributions

* ''Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class'', edited by

(2004) * ''Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme'', edited by Ivan E. Coyote and Zena Sharman (2011) * ''Letters Lived: Radical Reflections, Revolutionary Paths'' (2013) * ''Namjai: A Tribute Anthology of Bay Area Asian Pacific Islander Poets, Volume 1'', edited by The ReWrite (2013) * ''Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements'', edited by

Adrienne Maree Brown Adrienne Maree Brown, often styled adrienne maree brown (born September 6, 1978), is a writer, activist and facilitator. From 2006 to 2010, she was the executive director of the Ruckus Society. She also co-founded and directed the United State ...

and

Walidah Imarisha Walidah Imarisha ( am, ወሊዳ ኢማሪሻ) is an American writer, activist, educator and spoken word artist. Career Writing Imarisha is co-editor, with Adrienne Maree Brown, adrienne maree brown, of ''Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Storie ...

(2015) * ''Whatever Gets You Through: Twelve Women on Life After Sexual Assault'', edited by Jen Sookfong Lee and

Stacey May Fowles Stacey May Fowles (born 1979) is a Canadian writer. Fowles first novel, ''Be Good'', was published by Tightrope Books in 2007. In fall 2008 she released an illustrated novel, ''Fear of Fighting'', and staged a theatrical adaptation of it with Nig ...

(2019) * ''Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century'', edited by

Alice Wong Alice Wong Chan Siu-ping (; ' Chan, born June 30, 1948) is a Canadian politician and a member of the Conservative Party who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the electoral district of Richmond Centre from 2015 to 2021. She previousl ...

(2020) * ''Disabled Voices Anthology'', edited by S.B. Smith (2020) * ''Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good'', edited by

(2020) * ''Read Women: An Anthology'', edited by Amanda Fuller, Carolann Madden, and Carly Joy Miller (2020)

Anthologies edited

* ''The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities'', with

Ching-In Chen Ching-In Chen is a genderqueer Chinese American poet and multi-genre writer. They graduated from Tufts University, University of California, Riverside, and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. They are the author of ''recombinant'', ''The Heart ...

and Jai Dulani (2011) * ''Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement'', with Ejeris Dixon (2020)

Authored works

* ''Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home'' () * ''Consensual Genocide'' (2006) * ''Love Cake: Poems'' (2011) * ''Brown Femme Survivor'' (2013) * ''Bodymap: Poems'' (2015) * ''Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice'' (2018) * ''Tonguebreaker: Poems'' (2019) * ''Bridge of Flowers'', illustrated by

(2019) * ''The Future is Disabled'' (2022)

References

External links

brownstargirl WebsitePoetry exampleMangos With Chili TSAR Publicationsrabble.ca interview
by

Elizabeth Ruth Elizabeth Ruth (born 1968) is a Canadian novelist. Early life and education Elizabeth Ruth was born in Windsor, Ontario, was raised by a single, unmarried mother, and moved frequently while growing up, including living in Detroit, Michigan, in C ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi Writers from Toronto American people of Sri Lankan descent Canadian people of Sri Lankan descent Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts Canadian LGBT poets LGBT people from Massachusetts LGBT memoirists Eugene Lang College alumni The New School alumni 1975 births Living people Journalists from Toronto American writers of Sri Lankan descent Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry winners American newspaper journalists Canadian newspaper journalists Canadian women journalists American women journalists American women poets Canadian women poets 21st-century American poets 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers American women memoirists 21st-century American memoirists Canadian women memoirists Canadian memoirists People on the autism spectrum American LGBT people of Asian descent Mills College alumni