The Pride Reading

June commemorates the Stonewall uprising of 1969, when gays, lesbians, and transgender people fought back against a police raid, demanding fair treatment. Prior to Stonewall, patrons of gay bars were frequently arrested for wearing fewer than three pieces of “gender appropriate” clothing, beaten, photographed, and fired. From Boston marriages to McCarthyism to the Compton’s Cafeteria protest to AIDS to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to marriage equality and beyond, the history of LGBTQ people is a history of the struggle for personal freedom in America. Join us as the Watershed Reading Series at Arts + Literature Laboratory celebrates Pride Month with a reading from Joey Belonger, Bridget Birdsall, Lissa McLaughlin, Ali Muldrow, Alaura Seidl, Abigail Swetz, and Tobias Wray--seven poets who examine not only what it means to be LGBTQ in Wisconsin today, but also what it means to be human.

The Watershed Reading Series is supported by Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc, charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

Joey Belonger

Joey Belonger is a genderqueer poet, digital artist, and upcoming MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. They are the recipient of the Hicks Prize in Poetry, the Tichenor Prize, and the Bertrand A. Goldgar London Fellowship. Recent poems have appeared in Tropos. They currently coach students with cognitive differences here in Madison.

Bridget Birdsall

Bridget Birdsall, MFA, is a multi-disciplinary artist, an award-winning author, educator and inspirational speaker who overcame dyslexic challenges to pursue her dream to write books that make a difference, especially in the lives of young people. Bridget teaches writing, yoga, and daylong workshops that inspire others to dream big, to be who they are and to live authentic lives. To learn more visit www.bridgetbirdsall.com.

Lissa McLaughlin

Lissa McLaughlin has her M.A. in fiction writing from Brown University. Four of her books (the latest in 2015) were published by Burning Deck Press in Providence. Lissa has taught fiction writing at The Rhode Island School of Design, San Francisco State University, University of California-Berkeley Extension, and UW-Madison. Currently she works in McFarland as an expressive arts facilitator with children with autism. She also edits short fiction, novels, and work for young audiences.

Ali Muldrow

Ali Muldrow is a parent, partner, writer, instructor, advocate, and doula. She began her work in education in 2006 when she became the after school spoken word club liaison for the East High School in partnership with UW-Madison’s First Wave program. Ali played a key role in creating Wisconsin’s first Spoken Word class; a class that allowed high school students to receive academic credit for their study of urban art forms. Ali facilitated the Spoken Word course for 4 years as an artist in residence at East High School in Madison, WI. Ali went on to partner with Madison School & Community Recreation (MSCR) to create and host spoken word clubs at 5 Madison public high schools. Ali is currently the Director of Youth Programming and Inclusion at GSAFE, where she has for the last three years authored the curriculum for and taught Foundations of Leadership, a course based in the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth of color that recruits high school students from the entire Madison public... Read More

Alaura Seidl

Alaura Seidl is a queer+feminist educator, writer, and socially engaged artist based in Madison, WI. Alaura is the director of the ArtWrite Collective.

Abigail Swetz

Abigail Swetz is a former teacher, former foster mom, and current policy advocate and speech writer. She spoke at the 2017 Women's March on Madison and is the author of An UnCommon Core: the spoken word journey of one middle school classroom, which won the award for Most Outstanding Solo Performance at the 2018 Fresh Fruit Festival in NYC.

Tobias Wray

An editor, reading series and festival organizer, and critic, Tobias Wray’s poems have found homes in Blackbird, Bellingham Review, Meridian, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. Some are forthcoming in anthologies such as The Queer Nature Anthology (Autumn House Press) and The Queer Movement Anthology of Literatures (Seagull Books). He directs the University of Idaho's Creative Writing Programs.

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Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.

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