Incite: Queer Writers Read – July

A Northwestern University journalism graduate, Nicky Nicholson-Klingerman has been published in various media forms and outlets, including the Buckman Journal, Fertile Ground Festival and the Oregon Children’s Theatre. Her work focuses on life as a mixed Black queer artist navigating a system not made for her.

Born in Tucson, Arizona, Tashon Phoenix is a Black Queer Non-Binary Transmasc Creative and Spoken Word Artist. They moved to Oregon from Nebraska in their Jeep, Fall of 2020 with their cat, Otto, and dog, Bentley - embarking on a new journey shortly after their physical transition. Encouraged by their English teacher to write, their passion for poetry was a flame ignited when they were in 8th grade, snuffed out later at 18 by a church leader. A decade after in 2021, a match was again struck, beginning with writing words of affirmation. Tashon is creating and sharing their voice once more.  

Juan Antonio Trujillo (he/him, él in Spanish) is an independent scholar and artist whose autoethnographic exploration of intersectional queer and Latinx identities encompasses academic and creative writing in Spanish and English, photography, and experimental nonfiction film. A linguist by training, Juan Antonio’s work reflects deep curiosity about non-verbal languages we create around complex marginalized identities and desires. His creative writing has appeared in Feminist Formations and the Headcase anthology on queer mental health, and his short nonfiction film Topografías Eróticas exploring his own erotic geography within Portland’s queer spaces screened at Ethnografilm 2022 in Paris.