I wrote a little bit about my experience at Reading Out Loud over on my writer blog. But, for those who were wondering, I thought I’d post this information here:
When I introduced my pieces, I explained that I came out twice. Once as bisexual, while being a goth chickie in my teens (seriously, no big thing), and again, about ten years later, as a het-married gal who was poly, kinky, and still bisexual but a lot gayer than I’d originally thought. The pieces I performed were all from books that I read during 2007-2008, books that gave me language to talk about myself, and books that showed my my own reflection at a time when I badly needed to see my own face in the pages.
I read from works by two authors, both of whom are also bisexual, kinky, poly, and femme. Like me.
Here’s what I read at Reading Out Loud:
Femme: Feminists, Lesbians and Bad Girls
“On Being a Bisexual Femme” By Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha – under the name Leah Lilith Albrecht-Samarasinha
(Femme hunger; “I must choose who I lie down with very carefully”)
Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity
“Whores and Bitches Who Sleep with Women” by Kathryn Payne
(“Do you know your lineage?”)
AND
“Gonna Get my Girl Body Back” This is a Work in Progress” by Leah Lakshmi
(“I take one step past what I know”)
Longing at Least Is Constant
“Bi-Nary”
(“Why do I have to write it? / […] / To laugh, yell, and taste it all”)
syrens 
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[…] So, as-you-know-bob, I read at Reading Out Loud yesterday. The pieces I chose went over really well, and I had a lot of people come up to me afterwards to thank me for reading. It’s a weird thing to be thanked for performing someone else’s words. Not because I’ve never done that. As a singer (who, granted, hasn’t done much singing in the past decade or so), I’ve had a lot of experience performing other people’s work. Part of me is very aware that the performer has as much to do with how the work is received as the writer/libretist/composer does. And yet… It’s still weird for me, as a writer, to perform someone else’s work and recieve the same kind of praise as I would if I’d written it myself. “When you said you felt [X], it really resonated for me.” And the thing is, I did feel X. It’s why I chose to read the pieces I did. Because what they expressed was something I had felt, too. Maybe that’s part of why this feels weird. That I’m using someone else’s words to express something I, myself, have felt – like I’m plagerising or something, even though everyone at the event knew I, and the other readers, were performing work by authors who inspired us. Anyway. Regardless of feeling weird about reading someone else’s work, I’m still glad that it found a home in people’s minds and hearts. The number of femmes (and fems) who talked to me afterwards and said “That bit you read about XYZ? That’s true for me, too.” was significant. I think a lot of us – and there are sooooooooooooo many of us – who don’t get to see our full selves (or even part selves) reflected all around us[1] tend to go looking for things that show us who we are, that say “you’re real” and “it’s not just you” on some level or another. I think maybe that’s part of the point of Reading Out Loud. Gods know I lent out all the books I read from, inside of ten minutes after the show ended, and had a few other people ask me for titles and author names so that they could go and look them up for themselves. NOTE: If you want to look them up, I have links to each of the books available here). […]
[…] in another day, and my mom for the second time in a month. I was even able to participate in Reading Out Loud – a local Pride event – last night, which was wonderful. I lent out the books I read […]