WEBVTT

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Bit of an outsider-- a category
she reinvents and subverts.

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Michelle is also a
self-identified queer writer,

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yet she is one who is opposed
to the ghettoising queer

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literature.

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In this respect, she manages to
give voice to her experiences,

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speak her truth, but still
subvert and challenge

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the perceptions that
queer is "other"

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or that as a queer person
she can automatically

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speak for everyone who
identifies as queer.

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The recent media attention
to a seemingly endless series

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of suicides of teens who were
cast to the margins of culture

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makes it abundantly clear
that we have a long way

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to go in our society to
combat the negativity

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and hatred that
"other" identified

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people continue to face.

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Michelle's work nurtures
and challenges us

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in the right direction,
and her reading tonight

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will likely stimulate
our vision for change.

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All of the above in
one glorious sentence--

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Michelle Tea's
work invites cracks

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into the foundations of
artificial boundaries

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by waking up fresh spaces
where we could live.

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And that she does by seeing
and pointing unflinchingly

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with the raw eye at what
and how it actually is.

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Tonight, please join me
in welcoming to the stage

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the unparalleled Michelle Tea.

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