Apr 8 2026

Poetry Talk with Kay Ulanday Barrett

April 8, 2026

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Location

BSB 231 & on Zoom

Address

1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60622

Zoom Registration

https://go.uic.edu/KBarrettZoom

Calendar

Download iCal File
A deep purple background dappled with stars features the cover of More Than Organs, with the same background and bold gold capital letters that read MORE THAN ORGANS. The text is over a big red anatomical heart with a small beam from a flashlight just below, held by the silhouette of a person trying to light up the sky. Bold gold letters at the bottom read KAY ULANDAY BARRETT. The cover also has medals marking it as a Stonewall Honor Book and a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards. Below is a photo of Barrett, a light brown, round queer performing at a microphone with transgender and rainbow flags in the background. They wear a gray blazer and glasses. Their hand is outstretched to the crowd. All flyer text transcribed above.
A deep purple background dappled with stars features the cover of More Than Organs, with the same background and bold gold capital letters that read MORE THAN ORGANS. The text is over a big red anatomical heart with a small beam from a flashlight just below, held by the silhouette of a person trying to light up the sky. Bold gold letters at the bottom read KAY ULANDAY BARRETT. The cover also has medals marking it as a Stonewall Honor Book and a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards. Below is a photo of Barrett, a light brown, round queer performing at a microphone with transgender and rainbow flags in the background. They wear a gray blazer and glasses. Their hand is outstretched to the crowd. All flyer text transcribed above.

Join the UIC Library Undergraduate Engagement Program, Disability Cultural Center, Gender & Sexuality Center, and Asian American Resource & Cultural Center for an afternoon of poetry and conversation with Kay Ulanday Barrett, poet, performer, and educator, navigating life as a disabled Filipinx-amerikan transgender queer in the U.S. with struggle, resistance, and laughter. 

 

During our time together, K. will perform a selection of poems, and we’ll also have time for conversation and Q&A.

 

About Kay Ulanday Barrett: 

KAY ULANDAY BARRETT, a poet, essayist, cultural strategist, and A+ napper is a 2024 Disabled Futures fellow awarded by The Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and United States Artists. They are the winner of the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, a winner of the 2022 Next Book Residency with Tin House, a James Baldwin Fellowship at MacDowell, and most recently in 2023, residencies at Baldwin for the Arts and Millay Arts awarded by Lambda Literary. Their second book, More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) received a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book Award by the American Library Association and is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. They have featured at The United Nations, The Lincoln Center, The Hemispheric Institute, The Whitney, The MoMA, Symphony Space, The Ford Foundation, Brooklyn Museum, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Manchester PRIDE, Sesame Street, & more. Their contributions are found in The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, Colorlines, Literary Hub, The Advocate, Poetry Unbound, Split This Rock, Al Jazeera, NYLON, Vogue, The Rumpus, The Lily, and elsewhere. For more info: kaybarrett.net & @Brownroundboi on social media.

 

Audience note: All are welcome to join! 

Covid safety information:

UIC does not require masking, but we are still masking indoors as an accessibility measure for chronically ill / immunocompromised folks and those living interdependently with them. Please wear a mask! We’ll have extras on hand. 

Access information:
CART (live captions) and ASL will be provided in the Zoom. If joining in person, the DCC is located on the 2nd floor and is accessible via elevator. We use fragrance free cleaning supplies in our center, but UIC is not a fragrance free campus. Please skip the cologne or perfume to make this a fragrance reduced environment!

Contact dcc@uic.edu or 312-355-7050 with any questions or requests!

Contact

DCC Staff
dcc@uic.edu

Date posted

Mar 19, 2026

Date updated

Apr 2, 2026