We are so excited to host Indigena Collective, a reading series & platform for marginalized creatives in the community. There are many incredible performers lined up for this reading: Keith Amboya as DIKARA BAO, ANTINO ART, HAUSSON BYRD, and DESTINY HEMPHILL. The reading will be followed by a curated hot-mic night.
KEITH AMBOYA AS DIKARA BAO
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DiKara Bao is a mosaic of queer, trans, Filipino experiences in the American South. As an artist navigating the scene of performance, they find an intimate connèction through the lens of poetic and artistic gender expression. Their words often explore the connections of gendered natural bodies, queering of Catholicism, and the anger of colonized history. DiKara/Keith can only be found in small intimate spaces where their existence is a liminal experience for those that chance on seeing them.
ANTINO ART
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Antino Art is a magician with words. His award-winning work has been featured at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas, The Green Mill poetry slam in Chicago, a TV show in the Philippines, and the Hard Rock Casino in Miami opposite David Blaine. As a full-time writer, he believes poems have the power to create a new reality.
HAUSSON BYRD
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Hausson Byrd is an Artist, Organizer, and Collaborative Curator who uses his words, actions, and energy to create change and encourage positive growth. He is a Graduate of NCAT, and a Relapsing Book Addict trying his absolute hardest to make his sister proud. Hausson Byrd has been on Ted Greensboro, NPR, and the Bull City Slam Team. He is currently the 7th Ranked Individual Poet in the South, a poetry coach for the Aggie Live Poets and North Carolina A&T State University, and the Community Arts Organizer for the NC Museum of Art in Winston-Salem. One day soon, he hopes to be the very best that no one ever was, to catch them is his real test, and to train them is his cause. A plaque above the dining room at his mothers old house read “Never, Ever, Ever Give Up”, and so he never has and he never will. He hopes to inspire you to do the same.
DESTINY HEMPHILL
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Destiny Hemphill (she/her) is a chronically ill ritual worker and poet, living on the unceded territory of the Eno-Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation (Durham, NC). A recipient of fellowships from Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, Callaloo, Tin House, and Kenyon Review’s Writers Workshop, she is the author of the poetry collection motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life (Action Books, 2023), a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Prize Her work has also been featured in Poetry Magazine, Southern Cultures, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series. She served as the 2022-2023 Kenan Visiting Writer in Poetry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and currently holds a Reading Fellowship at Tin House.
