#we is a bi-monthly talk and reading series of queer perspectives in Oakland, CA. Each installment features two presenters from various segments of the queer spectrum, each of whom give a prepared talk on their perspective on or experience of queerness, followed by a reading or performance of their creative work. The series has an emphasis on marginalization from without and/or within the queer community, though does not require that exclusively. This is a long-form event, meaning that each presenter is given up to half an hour to go into depth about their lives and into their writing. The presentations are followed by a Q&A and chat time.

#we ran from November 2018 through January 2020, then preferring an in-person experience, shut down due to the pandemic. It might start up again in 2022. Curated by Richard Loranger

Richard Loranger is a multi-genre writer, performer, musician, visual artist, and all-around squeaky wheel, currently residing in Oakland, CA. He is the founder of Poetea, a monthly literary conversation group. His recent book of poetry titled Be A Bough Tit (as in “be a songbird on a branch”) from Be About It Press was released during the pandemic, and he has a new book coming soon from Collapse Press titled Unit of Agency. He’s also the author of the books Sudden Windows, Poems for Teeth, The Orange Book, ten chapbooks, and work in over 100 magazines and journals. Before COVID, he curated the reading series Babar in Exile, and the queer talk and reading series #we; he is considering restarting Poetea and #we once we can all be safely in rooms together. You can find more about his work and scandals at www.richardloranger.com.

Shilpa Kamat is a writer, educator, and healing arts practitioner with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She was a finalist for the 2018 Gloria Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and her chapbook, Saraswati Takes Back the Alphabet, was published by Newfound in 2019. She has taught writing at the Loft Literary Center, K-12 schools and colleges, shelters and community centers, and in forests; she is currently offering online classes. (Shilpa's #we talk received shelter-in-home orders in 2020 and is awaiting the day when it may safely unmask in public.)

Hilary Brown is a queer disability activist living in Chicago. Their collection, When She Woke She Was an Open Field (2017) is available from headmistress press. Their poem "Philomela in Idaho" was the winner of The Bloom's 2021 Outlier's award. Their work can be found or is forthcoming in Queerly, Apt, The Ocotillo Review, A Disabled Woman's Reader, and The South Carolina Review.

Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, and activist. She is the author of three nonfiction books, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, and Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism. Julia’s first foray into fiction, entitled 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel, won the Publishing Triangle’s 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was an Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction. The book is a humorous account of a bisexual female absurdist short fiction writer who dates ninety-nine different people named Eric for literature’s sake. It is more surreal than slutty. Not that there is anything wrong with slutty. More info at juliaserano.com.

Jan Steckel’s book Like Flesh Covers Bone won the 2019 Rainbow Awards for LGBT Poetry and Best Bisexual Book. Her poetry book The Horizontal Poet won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital also won awards. She lives in Oakland, California.

Bisexual artist/activist Juba Kalamka is most recognized for his more recent work with queer POC performance troupes Sins Invalid and Mangos with Chili, and as co-founder of the queer hip hop group Deep Dickollective (D/DC). He produced the annual East Bay Pride sponsored PeaceOUT World Homo Hop Festival from 2002-2007. His essays and creative writing appear in numerous journals and anthologies including Working Sex: Sex Workers Write About A Changing Industry (2007), The Yale Anthology of Rap (2010), and the award-winning Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men (2014). His first solo poetry collection Son of Byford will be released by Nomadic Press in 2022. He lives in Oakland with his partner of 19 years, their daughter, a neurotic standard poodle, and an enthusiastically territorial rescue dog. He practices polyamory both locally and globally.