You Can’t Kill A Poet // April 2024

We’re back at it again in 2024! We’ll be at Tattooed Mom on Wednesday, March 20th for some gayyyy poems. Doors at 7:30pm, reading at 8pm. Come hang out in our joyous and boisterous room full of queerness and listen to some amazing poets share their work.

 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: FB EVENT

 

Featured Readers:
TBA

 

Follow You Can’t Kill A Poet on Instagram.

 

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

Wednesday, 4-10pm | Burger Wednesday is BACK y’all! Come slam some Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! Plus $3 PBR! Recently named one of the top burgers in the city by The Philadelphia Inquirer!

Daily Happy Hour | All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

You Can’t Kill A Poet // March 2024

We’re back at it again in 2024! We’ll be at Tattooed Mom on Wednesday, March 20th for some gayyyy poems. Doors at 7:30pm, reading at 8pm. Come hang out in our joyous and boisterous room full of queerness and listen to some amazing poets share their work.

 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: FB EVENT

 

Featured Readers:
Boston Gordon
Claudia Cortese
Ber the Poet
Temi 
Ari Villeda Martinez
Sarah Solomon

 

Follow You Can’t Kill A Poet on Instagram.

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

Wednesday, 4-10pm | Burger Wednesday is BACK y’all! Come slam some Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! Plus $3 PBR! Recently named one of the top burgers in the city by The Philadelphia Inquirer!

Daily Happy Hour | All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

 

You Can’t Kill A Poet // Pride Month Edition

Happy Pride Month! You Can’t Kill A Poet is back and they are bringing you phenomenal Philly queer and trans poets to share their work and fill the room with queer joy. Come join us at Tattooed Mom for a fun and gregarious night full of feelings. Doors at 7:30pm, reading at 8:00 pm.

This is a 21+ event, free to attend! Please feel welcome to wear masks but please sit this one out if you’re feeling sick. This reading is offered in partnership with the Free Library of Philadelphia with support from The Pennsylvania Department of Education.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: FB EVENT

Featuring Readings By:

Lydia Host is a transgender writer, poet, and literary translator living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in The Southern Review, The Global City Review, Stone of Madness Press, The Raven’s Perch Magazine, and others.

Khem Chanthavong (He/Him) is a 24 year old Lao Trans Tom and Queer multidisciplinary artist. Through spoken word poetry and R&B + neosoul music, Khem explores his movement through the world as a gender abundant brown trans person. His work highlights the significance of unpacking desirability politics while being fetishized, exploring queer intimacy as well as demanding respect and celebrating QTPOC joy under white supremacist America. His work also highlights finding self love and liberation while moving through grief, generational trauma and poverty. Khem hopes to always bring intentionality to a space whether that’s with warmth and intimacy or much needed disruption. QTPOC voices should always be centered and amplified when we have “Pride” in mind.

Dev Kiyota is an editor living in Philadelphia. A graduate of Temple University’s MFA in Creative Writing, they’re currently typing this bio, which you’ve just finished reading.

Evangeline Brooks is a coffee-worker, singer, poet & actress based in South West Philadelphia. Van is an unpublished poet, whose work revolves around Black Trans ancestry, feminine poz divinity, & the richness, weight, & cost of living in a body that is both desired & discounted. She is a daughter, a sister, a lover, a muse. She stands on the shoulders of many.

Julia Gwiazdowski is a Philly-born and based poet and musician. She often writes on queerness, gender, and mental illness but also can’t resist dabbling in ekphrastic pieces and love poems. She’s been published in Wizards In Space, Stone of Madness Press, and Moss Puppy Magazine.

Trina Sanyal (they/them) is a comic and poet based in Philly. After their first You Can’t Kill a Poet, they were so encouraged and moved by the space that they went on to organize a community reading at Partner and Sons connecting other writers and friends to each other,  and have also read their work at the Kelly Writers House as a part of their Philly Artist series for WXPN. They hope to keep reading, writing, laughing, loving etc etc.

 

 

What’s Up at TMoms:

Burger Wednesday – Come slam some Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! Plus $3 PBR! Wednesdays, 4-11pm.

• Enjoy Mom’s happy hour! All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

 

You Can’t Kill A Poet // Nine Year Anniversary!

It’s our nine-year anniversary! Come celebrate! We’re bringing you phenomenal queer and trans poets from Philadelphia to share their work and fill the room with queer experience. Come join us for this rowdy, raucous, fun event full of feelings! We’re back at Tattooed Mom! Doors at 7:30pm, reading at 8:00 pm.

This is a 21+ event, ids are checked at the door. Free to attend! Please be vaccinated, masks are welcome. Please sit this one out if you’re feeling sick. This reading is offered in partnership with the Free Library of Philadelphia with support from The Pennsylvania Department of Education.

 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: FB EVENT

 

Featuring Readings By:

Lauren Yates is a writer, visual artist, & burlesque performer from Philadelphia by way of San Diego. Lauren has represented Philly at the National Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Her work has been featured in bedfellows, Voicemail Poems, GLITTERBRAIN, Bettering American Poetry, and more. Lauren is also a teaching artist and is currently developing a workshop that marries poetry and burlesque. Find her on Instagram @i_am_yates.

S. Brook Corfman is the author of two collections of poetry and several chapbooks, including My Daily Actions, or The Meteorites, one of The New York Times’ Best Poetry Books of 2020, and Luxury, Blue Lace, chosen by Richard Siken for the 2018 Autumn House Writing Riser Prize. They are also an essayist, critic, and the Translation Editor at The Offing.

Stephanie Cawley is a poet in Philadelphia and a 2023 NEA Fellow. They are the author of My Heart But Not My Heart, winner of the Slope Book Prize chosen by Solmaz Sharif, and the chapbook A Wilderness from Gazing Grain Press. Poems and other writing appear in Prolit, bedfellows, Peach Magazine, and the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series, among other places.

Evangeline Brooks is a coffee-worker, singer, poet & actress based in South West Philadelphia. Van is an unpublished poet, whose work revolves around Black Trans ancestry, feminine poz divinity, & the richness, weight, & cost of living in a body that is both desired & discounted. She is a daughter, a sister, a lover, a muse. She stands on the shoulders of many.

Alexa Smith is a poet from D.C. doing her best in West Philly. She works in publishing and teaches creative writing at Temple, UArts, and sometimes Blue Stoop. Her work can be found on Entropy, Interim, Peach Mag, Spotify and elsewhere.

Warren C. Longmire is an uncle, writer, technologist and an educator from the bad part of North Philadelphia. He is the host and co-creator of House Poet: A Spoken Word Dance Party, and is a Board member for Blue Stoop. His work blends language play, performance and his own preoccupations with cities, masculinity, blackness and the modern world. His latest book, Bird/Diz [an erased history of bebop] was released in Nov. 2022 through BUNNY Presse.

 

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

Burger Wednesday is BACK y’all! Come slam some Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! Plus $3 PBR! Wednesdays, 4-11pm.

• Enjoy our new happy hour! All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

You Can’t Kill A Poet // March 2023

After a few months off, You Can’t Kill A Poet is back at it again! We’re bringing you phenomenal queer and trans poets from Philadelphia to share their work and fill the room with queer experience. Come join us for this rowdy, raucous, fun event full of feelings!

Mask-wearing is welcome. Please sit this one out if you are feeling sick.

 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: FB EVENT

 

 

Featuring readings by:

Janiel // @manroyallvr @queeribbean
aniel (she/they) is a queer, immigrant Jamaican-American, eldest daughter, writer, lover. Through her writing, she attempts to grasp at the root ideas, concepts, generational fears and the freedome of love and empathy. First, for their own understanding and second, to contribute to the human discourse in history-shaping. Poetry is their first step in a liberatory pursuit, each line is a crumb in what she hopes will become a full trail that reinforces the necessity of voice, of talking back, of feeling.

Karyn // @THEKuhren
Karyn is a poet, community builder, DJ, and all around creative. Hailing from the wonderful world of Brooklyn, poetik has spent most of her life writing, whether it may be poems, stories, essays, journal articles, or long Facebook statuses. Karyn self published collection of poems “Labyrinth of a Melaninated Being” and “seasoned bellows” in 2018 and 2020. Her poems often center Black womanhood, relationships, mental health, and sexuality.

Ari Villeda Martinez // @haunted.bodega
bio: Ari Villeda Martinez, Transgender / Pendeja / 5.10 / Fickle

Mary Zhou // @maryzzzhou
Mary Zhou (they/she) is a poet, dancer, and visual artist based in Philadelphia. Their poetry is shared or forthcoming in Oversound, ANMLY, and Philadelphia Poet Laureate Trapeta B. Mayson’s Healing Verse Poetry Line.

Gabriel Ramirez // @ramirezpoet
Gabriel Ramirez is a Queer Afro-Latinx poet and teaching artist. Gabriel has received fellowships from Palm Beach Poetry Festival, The Watering Hole, The Conversation Literary Arts Festival, CantoMundo, Miami Book Fair, and a participant in the Calloloo Writer’s Workshops. You can find his work in publications like The Volta, Split This Rock, VINYL, Acentos Review as well as Bettering American Poetry Anthology (Bettering Books 2017), What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwest University Press 2019), and The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Press 2020). Follow Gabriel @RamirezPoet and RamirezPoet.com.

Elijah Faye // @jotunnme
Faye is a transsexual poet, and author of What Youth? who highlights the beauty in life while also addressing the hardships that come with it. Faye writes to inspire others to take power in their trauma and to show people that there is always a reason to keep living.

 

This reading is offered in partnership with the Free Library of Philadelphia with support from The Pennsylvania Department of Education.

 

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

Burger Wednesday is BACK y’all! Come slam some Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! Plus $3 PBR! Wednesdays, 4-11pm.

• Enjoy our new happy hour! All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

You Can’t Kill A Poet // November 2022

It’s the last You Can’t Kill a Poet of 2022! What a joy to have come back and shared queer space with ya’ll this year. It’s going to be a good one!

Featuring an amazing list of queer and trans readers, including Quinn Rodriguez, Mónica Gomery, Raena Shirali, Alina Pleskova, Cam Simmons, Boston Gordon, Kareal Amenumey, and Monica Huang! Mónica Gomery has a brand new book out this month, Might Kindred, and Raena Shirali also has a brand new book out, Summonings!

Come celebrate these new books and ALL of our readers amazing work! Masks encouraged!

 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: FB EVENT

 

 

Tattooed Mom will be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.
Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

Queer Spoken Word: A Poetry and Fundraiser Event

Sip City Mixer and Tattooed Mom bring you Queer Spoken Word: A Poetry and Fundraiser Event benefiting LGBTQIA youth at the Attic Youth Center.

Come for the poetry, stay for the delicious food and drinks! Grab your queer friends and partners and experience a night of spoken word that will leave you laughing, crying, and ordering negroni sbagliatos with prosecco. If you are alcohol-free, there’s plenty of delicious TMoms food to indulge in (plus some N/A beers, and all house cocktails available alcohol-free!)

 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH
DOORS @ 6PM
NO COVER // SUGGESTED DONATION $5
RSVP: FB EVENT

Readers include:
Khem Chanthavong (he/him)
Jan (she/her)
Noah David Roberts (they/them)
Boston Gordon (they/he)
Jamie Sawczyszyn (she/her)
Hyde (they/them)
Cyn Jones (they/them)
Mel (she/her)

Sip City is strongly encouraging the usual $5 cover for Sip City events, of which 100% will go to the Attic Youth Center. A QR code for donations will be available at the event, or you can just ask the host, Jamie.

Vaccinations highly encouraged by event host.
Tattooed Mom will be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.
Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

The Too Much Poetry Party: Book Release and Reading

A night of poetry and celebration! Award winning trans poet Gion Davis is on tour for the release of their debut collection, Too Much. Called “an uncompromising wonder” by Chen Chen and “a lonely, vulnerable, sexy book” by Willi Carlisle, Too Much looks at what it means to be queer and punk in the age of climate change and social imbalance. Davis’s book examines the detachment that comes along with growing up in rural America, guiding the reader through heartbreaks, road trips, bus rides, and loss while asking how much is too much in a world that is both overflowing and desolate.

The night will also feature readings from Philly poets Sadie Dupis, author of Cry Perfume and Mouthguard, Alina Pleskova, author of What Urge Will Save Us, and Amy Saul-Zerby, author of Deep Camouflage.

 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH
DOORS @ 6PM
SUGGESTED DONATION $5 | NOTAFLOF
RSVP: FB EVENT

 

Featuring:
Gion Davis
Sadie Dupuis
Alina Pleskova
Amy Saul-Zerby

 

Tattooed Mom will be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.
Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.