DATE: June 12, 2026
TIME: Doors Open at 6:30 PM; Performance at 7 PM
LOCATION: Flushing Town Hall Gallery, 137-35 Northern Blvd, Queens, NY
General Admission: $5; RSVP recommended
Queens World Film Festival and FTH proudly present Prideful Poetry, an intimate, high-energy evening centering LGBTQ+ voices through the power of poetry and spoken word. This curated event invites poets and community members to gather, connect, and share their work with an enthusiastic audience in the FTH gallery. Hosted by Avant Garbage, Prideful Poetry will feature Pelayo AF, Cerulean Chen Long, KayTheePoet (Kayla Dudley), Hoshiko Hsu, Stevie Latham, Joseph O. Legaspi, David Nazario, and Kir O'Hanlon. The lineup is curated by Queens World Film Festival Founding Executive Director Katha Cato who, alongside FTH, welcomes audiences to a special experience where every poem is an offering and every listener is part of the exchange.
Doors open at 6:30 PM with music to set the tone for the evening. Performances begin promptly at 7 PM, offering a dynamic hour of poetry and spoken word. At 8:15 PM, the program transitions into refreshments and mingling, creating space for connection, conversation, and community.
Featured Poets
Avant Garbage (host) is a downtown icon and radical joy generator, known for turning any room into a glitter-soaked, truth-telling celebration. As host, they bring razor-sharp wit, fearless queerness, and a deep commitment to community that makes every voice on stage land beautifully and shine brighter.
Pelayo AF crafts performances that blur the line between poem, confession, and theatrical ritual. Moving between humor and heartbreak, Spanish and English, his work transforms everyday moments into something surreal, intimate, and disarmingly honest.
Cerulean Chen Long creates work that holds multiple truths at once, blending poetry and performance to challenge, transform, and heal. As a queer, international artist, they explore form and language as spaces where identity can expand and contradictions can coexist.
KayTheePoet (Kayla Dudley) is a poet and artivist whose work lives at the intersection of healing and social change. Through powerful storytelling and community-rooted practice, she amplifies marginalized voices and creates space for transformation, resilience, and truth.
Hoshiko Hsu writes with striking clarity about identity, justice, and the layered experience of becoming. A nationally recognized young voice, she is the 2026 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, and her work bridges the personal and the political, inviting audiences into deeper reflection on self, country, and connection.
Stevie Latham is a lifelong creator whose work channels decades of lived experience into bold, radiant expression. As a queer trans artist, Stevie's voice is both defiant and celebratory—a reminder that authenticity is its own form of resistance and light.
Joseph O. Legaspi is a celebrated poet and cofounder of Kundiman, whose work traces migration, identity, and belonging with lyrical precision. A Fulbright scholar and longtime Queens resident, his poetry is both intimate and expansive, rooted in history and alive with possibility.
David Nazario brings a deeply embodied, spiritual presence to the stage, weaving love, identity, and liberation into every performance. A Nuyorican Poetry Slam winner, his work is both a call to action and an invitation to live more truthfully and expansively.
Kir O’Hanlon writes with unflinching honesty at the intersection of art and justice. Drawing from lived experience, their work exposes hidden systems, challenges dominant narratives, and insists on the power of storytelling to create change.
About Queens World Film Festival
Queens World Film Festival is expanding its work beyond independent film to support storytelling across artistic disciplines. Many filmmakers in the Queens World community are multidisciplinary artists, moving fluidly between film, writing, and performance. Prideful Poetry reflects this commitment to amplifying diverse voices, fostering creative exchange, and building meaningful connections between artists and audiences across Queens and beyond.
Parking Information:
Flushing Town Hall has a small parking lot at the rear of the building, which fills up quickly during events. Additional paid parking is available nearby at:
PEC Parking – 35-15 Farrington St, Flushing, NY 11354
The Farrington Parking – 33-66 Farrington St, Flushing, NY 11354
