David Nazario in conversation with Sophia Stopper
Published: February 1, 2024
Image features Poems Written in the Bathtub While Cumming Out (SDJ Press 2022) by David Nazario.
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“One night while soaking in the bathtub, trying to figure out how to be a newly Gay Afro-Puerto Rican man, David Nazario decided that the poetry he was writing - to soothe and navigate his pain and discomfort - would one day be birthed into a collection. This is that collection. There are three acts. Each act represents a different stage of this spirit-led journey of self-discovery, vulnerability, acceptance, strength, unlearning, liberation, and healing.”
—David Nazario, Author of Poems Written in the Bathtub While Cumming Out
—David Nazario, Author of Poems Written in the Bathtub While Cumming Out
David Nazario in conversation with Sophia Stopper
SS: I really loved your write up that you did about your book reading that made me feel like it's a very intimate book. It's very much about identity and your own journey into who you are as a person, both within your ethnic and racial background, as well as your gender and sexuality. My first question was: can you talk about your personal inspirations for writing this book? What in your life caused you to put this collection together?
DN: I guess I'll start with the second part of that question. The book came about because I figured out at the age of thirty that I was gay. That I liked the same sex. So that was what prompted the book. Figuring this out was a tough thing for me because I knew that the world doesn't necessarily love gay people or gay, Black, and Puerto Rican people. I know the stigma within my own family, within my own two cultures that I exist in. So it was a really trying time for me. It was something that I wasn't afraid of exploring because I knew that there was growth to be had and that there was learning that would come from it. And then figuring out—Okay, now, what do I do now that I have this information? What do I do with it? How does it manifest in my life? How am I dealing with the fear? The fear of telling my very Christian parents and telling my very straight best friends and brothers and things like that.
So what I would do is I would go into the bathtub and the apartment that I was living in at the time and I would soak in the bathtub as a way to give myself comfort. A lot of poetry was cumming while I was in the bathtub. So I was literally writing the poems about how I was feeling in the bathtub. And so if you notice the beginning part of the book, the first act is very different from say the last poem because I wrote them pretty much in chronological order. So that first act is really just about being in the bathtub, feeling like the ceiling is falling. Knowing that there was never an option for me to stay in the closet. I didn't have that experience. My experience was very different with my sexuality. And I feel like the experience that I had was the closer that I got to my spirit and myself as a person that everything in my life expanded, including my sexuality. So I don't have the experience of growing up and liking the same gender, but hiding it, just isn't my experience. And I know that might be hard for some people to believe, but I didn't have my first liking or knowing of wanting or attraction for the same gender until I was thirty years old. So my experience is very different.
And then I just I feel like Source or God or whoever you believe Source to be gives you very specific challenges, so to speak, and a story. And I just feel like this is part of my story. So I said, okay, you're gay now and you're a poet. What are you going to do about it? You know what I mean? Are you going to write about it? Are you going to make it a little easier for the next generation of Black and Brown gay boys? Or are you going to keep it to yourself? I knew it was something that I had to share. So that's how the book came about.
SS: I guess you really weren't even given an option then because of course you're going to write about it. You know what I mean? Like, of course you're going to put it out there. Of course you're going to be reflective and put it into your art because that's what artists do.
DN: I guess I'll start with the second part of that question. The book came about because I figured out at the age of thirty that I was gay. That I liked the same sex. So that was what prompted the book. Figuring this out was a tough thing for me because I knew that the world doesn't necessarily love gay people or gay, Black, and Puerto Rican people. I know the stigma within my own family, within my own two cultures that I exist in. So it was a really trying time for me. It was something that I wasn't afraid of exploring because I knew that there was growth to be had and that there was learning that would come from it. And then figuring out—Okay, now, what do I do now that I have this information? What do I do with it? How does it manifest in my life? How am I dealing with the fear? The fear of telling my very Christian parents and telling my very straight best friends and brothers and things like that.
So what I would do is I would go into the bathtub and the apartment that I was living in at the time and I would soak in the bathtub as a way to give myself comfort. A lot of poetry was cumming while I was in the bathtub. So I was literally writing the poems about how I was feeling in the bathtub. And so if you notice the beginning part of the book, the first act is very different from say the last poem because I wrote them pretty much in chronological order. So that first act is really just about being in the bathtub, feeling like the ceiling is falling. Knowing that there was never an option for me to stay in the closet. I didn't have that experience. My experience was very different with my sexuality. And I feel like the experience that I had was the closer that I got to my spirit and myself as a person that everything in my life expanded, including my sexuality. So I don't have the experience of growing up and liking the same gender, but hiding it, just isn't my experience. And I know that might be hard for some people to believe, but I didn't have my first liking or knowing of wanting or attraction for the same gender until I was thirty years old. So my experience is very different.
And then I just I feel like Source or God or whoever you believe Source to be gives you very specific challenges, so to speak, and a story. And I just feel like this is part of my story. So I said, okay, you're gay now and you're a poet. What are you going to do about it? You know what I mean? Are you going to write about it? Are you going to make it a little easier for the next generation of Black and Brown gay boys? Or are you going to keep it to yourself? I knew it was something that I had to share. So that's how the book came about.
SS: I guess you really weren't even given an option then because of course you're going to write about it. You know what I mean? Like, of course you're going to put it out there. Of course you're going to be reflective and put it into your art because that's what artists do.
David Nazario presents: Who is God?
DN: Yeah, I didn't, I don't, really have a choice. I was thinking about that question before we started and I feel like first it was the book and then it gives me the title. It’s like, oh yeah, the title has “cumming” in it. Are you going, are you going to use it, or you're not going to use it? Yeah, gonna use it. I've had family members tell me that they didn't come to the book launch event because of that word. So it can be a polarizing thing, but it's deeper than just using a word to grab attention. It's definitely doing that and I'm not naive to that. I like that. I think it's fun and funny. But it's also a deeper meaning to it. It's also about coming out and looking at the experience of coming out as something pleasurable. Because so many times when we're coming out as queer people it's horror and it's scary and it's, so it's just like flipping the word in a way and looking at it from a kind of like a double entendre type of thing.
SS: Totally. I definitely see that. A tongue in cheek use of that word there is a powerful thing. It definitely grabs your attention. It's got some humor to it. It's hard because the experience of coming out can be a delicate thing. But with the use of the way you spelled the word “cumming” in the title, it kind of opens the door for—we can laugh here. It doesn't have to be so serious. Like, it can be, like you said, a pleasurable thing. It can be a community thing even. And we can all come here and have a laugh together. We can all come here and exchange our stories and really be who we are together. And with The Neighbors I really hope that people feel like they can come to the table with their full self. That’s why I was just really inspired going to your book launch event and being able to flip through the book. It's really good to hold in your hands. It's a hard cover. Kurt Vonnegut has this quote where he says, “books will never go extinct because we like the heft in our hands”. I love that and your book definitely has that great feeling to it. One thing that I thought was really interesting was your use of the word “acts”instead of “part” or “section” or anything else you could have used. It was more like a playwright. There was drama behind it. Was that intentional? Did you have an intentionality behind using the word “act”? Was there a forethought for specifically using that word to describe the sections of your book?
DN: I think it was just chronological, chronologicalness, if that's a word, the chronologicalness of it. I felt like it was just another thing that was kind of dropped to me from Source. It was like, okay, “acts”, and I liked it. I just kind of liked it from the beginning. I like the way you talked about it when you wrote it in a question and I was reading it because there is a drama to it. I guess now it's a very dramatic thing. Maybe after you've gotten through it, it feels. Like, when you were in it, it was a little more dramatic than it is now and that's not to slate anybody's coming out journey or to say my own, but I like the drama of it now. I like that acts make you think of drama.
SS: It made me think of something very story-like and it makes sense. I've written a couple books myself and I've always written them in pieces. So to hear that you wrote yours pretty much from cover to cover from start to finish is really inspiring and really like totally out of my wheelhouse to think of, how does one even go about doing that? Was it difficult for you to write it from start to finish like that? Or did it really just flow for you?
DN: It really just kind of flowed because I was writing the things as they were happening. So the first act “Poems Written in a Bathtub”, I was just writing about the fear, about figuring it out, about just having the experience. And then in act two it's like, okay, now we figured it out. Now act two is cumming. So like now we're exploring this. We're having fun. We're meeting people. We're in relationships. So you get that in act two and it just was chronologically how it was happening and then out the last act is like, okay, we're fully out. We have opinions about things. We're learning about things. We're speaking for and celebrating this new community that we're a part of. We're unlearning things. We're deciding how we're going to love. So it just kind of happened as I was living it. It was kind of, I was ready to get.
SS: Totally. I definitely see that. A tongue in cheek use of that word there is a powerful thing. It definitely grabs your attention. It's got some humor to it. It's hard because the experience of coming out can be a delicate thing. But with the use of the way you spelled the word “cumming” in the title, it kind of opens the door for—we can laugh here. It doesn't have to be so serious. Like, it can be, like you said, a pleasurable thing. It can be a community thing even. And we can all come here and have a laugh together. We can all come here and exchange our stories and really be who we are together. And with The Neighbors I really hope that people feel like they can come to the table with their full self. That’s why I was just really inspired going to your book launch event and being able to flip through the book. It's really good to hold in your hands. It's a hard cover. Kurt Vonnegut has this quote where he says, “books will never go extinct because we like the heft in our hands”. I love that and your book definitely has that great feeling to it. One thing that I thought was really interesting was your use of the word “acts”instead of “part” or “section” or anything else you could have used. It was more like a playwright. There was drama behind it. Was that intentional? Did you have an intentionality behind using the word “act”? Was there a forethought for specifically using that word to describe the sections of your book?
DN: I think it was just chronological, chronologicalness, if that's a word, the chronologicalness of it. I felt like it was just another thing that was kind of dropped to me from Source. It was like, okay, “acts”, and I liked it. I just kind of liked it from the beginning. I like the way you talked about it when you wrote it in a question and I was reading it because there is a drama to it. I guess now it's a very dramatic thing. Maybe after you've gotten through it, it feels. Like, when you were in it, it was a little more dramatic than it is now and that's not to slate anybody's coming out journey or to say my own, but I like the drama of it now. I like that acts make you think of drama.
SS: It made me think of something very story-like and it makes sense. I've written a couple books myself and I've always written them in pieces. So to hear that you wrote yours pretty much from cover to cover from start to finish is really inspiring and really like totally out of my wheelhouse to think of, how does one even go about doing that? Was it difficult for you to write it from start to finish like that? Or did it really just flow for you?
DN: It really just kind of flowed because I was writing the things as they were happening. So the first act “Poems Written in a Bathtub”, I was just writing about the fear, about figuring it out, about just having the experience. And then in act two it's like, okay, now we figured it out. Now act two is cumming. So like now we're exploring this. We're having fun. We're meeting people. We're in relationships. So you get that in act two and it just was chronologically how it was happening and then out the last act is like, okay, we're fully out. We have opinions about things. We're learning about things. We're speaking for and celebrating this new community that we're a part of. We're unlearning things. We're deciding how we're going to love. So it just kind of happened as I was living it. It was kind of, I was ready to get.
David Nazario presents: Hunted in Your Own Home
SS: Oh, wow. That's fabulous. That's really cool to hear that it kind of was parallel with your lived experience. Because I think a lot about life as art and thinking about that and it seems like you really were experiencing life as art and just putting it down on the page along the way. That's like a really beautiful process. So I commend you for that. Do you have a favorite poem in the book or one that you might like to perform? I guess those might be two different questions.
DN: I do have a favorite. I would say probably the last poem in the collection is probably my favorite.
SS: And what's the title of that?
DN: It is I'm Going to Love One Way or Another.
SS: Okay, yeah, and I will say as somebody who's experienced hearing that poem performed—very powerful. And I've heard it and I'm pretty sure I've heard you perform it live as well as heard recordings on your Instagram. And there's just such a sing-songy nature to it. You know, I'm going to love one way or another I'm going to, and then you go in and you have this rhythmic kind of cadence to it. That is really exciting to hear. I just know you pretty well at this point, you know, you've been a friend of mine for a few years and I always think of you as a spoken word artist first. Maybe because I love spoken word poetry. Maybe that's why, but also you have such a presence about you, even in the way that you dress, the way that you kind of carry yourself. It's really exciting to hear that you had this kind of revelation later on in life where you found out that you're queer and you're gay and you are coming out at 30. That's inspiring for other people who may feel like they can't approach their own identity or they can't be something new later on in life. We all experience these twists and turns of our identities as we grow older, but oftentimes we’re made to think that we should stay on the same road. That we can't divert our path. But it's really exciting to hear that you really took it in stride and you were like, “I'm a gay man now I'm gonna write about it.” I'm gonna take a bath and I'm gonna put a pen to paper and I'm gonna soothe my soul by submerging in warm water and writing some poetry.
DN: Yes, and I think to add on to what you're saying, I think that so many times in our society we're taught that sexuality is this very binary black and white thing. And it's not, it's fluid. Nature is queer, so I know that part of my writing and my life is about us kind of getting back. There's many indigenous tribes and places where queer people were revered amongst their people, where two spirited people were looked at as the ones who would provide wisdom and give knowledge to other people. So I think that a part of not just me celebrating my queerness, but the world celebrating queerness and having a different opinion about what queerness is and how natural it actually is. It's just going back to what it is supposed to be. And I'm grateful to just throw my book in the conversation.
SS: Yeah. Awesome. That makes sense. And, you know, I definitely feel like it's more common than you'd think to kind of come out later in life. To have these experiences where you realize something about your identity. For instance I'm non binary and I remember the first time somebody asked me what my pronouns were. And I remember saying, “I'm not sure.” And it was post college too. It was right after college, I was probably 23. I lean femme but there's something very androgynous and very genderless about me as well. And I always thought that that was very powerful, but I never knew how to approach it. And I think approaching it through art, art is just like nature. It's just like flowers, like they may seem gendered in one way, or they may seem like they lean a certain way, but there's so many multitudes to something that you can't really pinpoint it. You have to let it grow and sprout and bloom. And I just think that it's so exciting to hear that you had such an empowering coming out story that you put it in a book. That's what artists do. That's what writers do. They put it in a book and they make it accessible for other artists and people and readers to be able to see your experience and be inspired by that. And I'm inspired by you as always. There's a lot to be said for writing even a book in linear order.I'm just very intrigued by that. For Make Love Your Religion, how did you write that one? if I'm going back a little bit further in your repertoire of writing?
DN: I do have a favorite. I would say probably the last poem in the collection is probably my favorite.
SS: And what's the title of that?
DN: It is I'm Going to Love One Way or Another.
SS: Okay, yeah, and I will say as somebody who's experienced hearing that poem performed—very powerful. And I've heard it and I'm pretty sure I've heard you perform it live as well as heard recordings on your Instagram. And there's just such a sing-songy nature to it. You know, I'm going to love one way or another I'm going to, and then you go in and you have this rhythmic kind of cadence to it. That is really exciting to hear. I just know you pretty well at this point, you know, you've been a friend of mine for a few years and I always think of you as a spoken word artist first. Maybe because I love spoken word poetry. Maybe that's why, but also you have such a presence about you, even in the way that you dress, the way that you kind of carry yourself. It's really exciting to hear that you had this kind of revelation later on in life where you found out that you're queer and you're gay and you are coming out at 30. That's inspiring for other people who may feel like they can't approach their own identity or they can't be something new later on in life. We all experience these twists and turns of our identities as we grow older, but oftentimes we’re made to think that we should stay on the same road. That we can't divert our path. But it's really exciting to hear that you really took it in stride and you were like, “I'm a gay man now I'm gonna write about it.” I'm gonna take a bath and I'm gonna put a pen to paper and I'm gonna soothe my soul by submerging in warm water and writing some poetry.
DN: Yes, and I think to add on to what you're saying, I think that so many times in our society we're taught that sexuality is this very binary black and white thing. And it's not, it's fluid. Nature is queer, so I know that part of my writing and my life is about us kind of getting back. There's many indigenous tribes and places where queer people were revered amongst their people, where two spirited people were looked at as the ones who would provide wisdom and give knowledge to other people. So I think that a part of not just me celebrating my queerness, but the world celebrating queerness and having a different opinion about what queerness is and how natural it actually is. It's just going back to what it is supposed to be. And I'm grateful to just throw my book in the conversation.
SS: Yeah. Awesome. That makes sense. And, you know, I definitely feel like it's more common than you'd think to kind of come out later in life. To have these experiences where you realize something about your identity. For instance I'm non binary and I remember the first time somebody asked me what my pronouns were. And I remember saying, “I'm not sure.” And it was post college too. It was right after college, I was probably 23. I lean femme but there's something very androgynous and very genderless about me as well. And I always thought that that was very powerful, but I never knew how to approach it. And I think approaching it through art, art is just like nature. It's just like flowers, like they may seem gendered in one way, or they may seem like they lean a certain way, but there's so many multitudes to something that you can't really pinpoint it. You have to let it grow and sprout and bloom. And I just think that it's so exciting to hear that you had such an empowering coming out story that you put it in a book. That's what artists do. That's what writers do. They put it in a book and they make it accessible for other artists and people and readers to be able to see your experience and be inspired by that. And I'm inspired by you as always. There's a lot to be said for writing even a book in linear order.I'm just very intrigued by that. For Make Love Your Religion, how did you write that one? if I'm going back a little bit further in your repertoire of writing?
David Nazario presents: Joy
DN: For that one, I did not write it in order, I just knew the chapters that I wanted and then so once I started each chapter and knew kind of where I wanted to go with each chapter, then I would just hop around for one day. I would be working on Love of God, another day I'll be working on Love of Self, another day Love community. But once they were all pretty much finished, I feel like I got kind of lucky. I knew that there needed to be some type of chronologicalness to it. I think in the way that I ordered the chapters, it lended itself to that a little bit and I kind of got lucky in the end where kind of all came together.
SS: Awesome. I guess that one was a little bit different because it was more like prose essay, whereas Poems Written in the Bathtub While Cummming Out is all poetry. Maybe poetry and a little bit of prose, but poetic prose, nevertheless. I've heard murmurs of your next book. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Like what you're planning for your next book? Or did you want to save that for under wraps?
DN: No, no, we can talk about it. I'm working on another book of poetry. It's going to be called Make Grief Your Religion and it'll be a book of poems having to do with grief. I'm excited about that. And I feel like it's a topic a lot of us can relate to. So it seems like a natural evolution to kind of have this identity. An identity focused book, and then kind of go into the grieving because you are leaving something behind in order to obtain something new for yourself. And even with that there comes some grief, the grief of self, as well as grief for others as well. And grief for society, there's a lot of really rich content there that you can mine.
SS: Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. So do you imagine these books as a series? They all come from you, so they all are intertwined into a certain capacity, but you have one that mirrors the title and then one that mirrors the genre. Are you seeing these as like a body of work that's all connected?
DN: Yes. Yes. I want to keep that part under wraps, but the answer is yes. I want there to be three parts of Make Love Your Religion. I'll say that. So, I want to put out this, I want to put out Make Grief Your Religion, and then I want to put out another book of poetry called, Poems Inspired by Love, Life, and Blackness. And then after that, I want to put out Make Love Your Religion II. I want it to be a trilogy.
SS: And will Make Love Your Religion II be poetry or will that be more essay?
DN: That will be very similar to part one, but talking about all the stuff that I don't like about part one now. That's not going to be the whole, the whole book, but something that's going to be in there. I've learned a lot of my opinions, even some opinions that I have from this less from Poems Written in the Bathtub, for example, having a poem called, um, Girlfriends and Boyfriends. I probably wouldn't have a poem with that title now. Just because I've grown and learned more about the need to do away with gender binary and I feel like we're always learning and growing. So the work is always changing and how we present it is going to change.
SS: I love that fluidity and your ability to be gentle with yourself and your past and all of your past selves. That's really important as an artist and the idea of going back and reworking something, too, and really adding on to something is so important as an artist. To have longevity to your career. We never stop growing as people, and we never stop growing as artists, and just because we've made something and released something in the past doesn't mean it has to be the end point of that, too. So that's really exciting that you're looking to develop these projects further. That's really, really cool. It's been really a pleasure talking to you about this. I'm really excited to see your other books that are coming out. It's really exciting to hear that you have a variety of books coming out and you have multiple too. You've got a really colorful career and a very vibrant career. And that's really exciting to see. I think I had one question on there that was about where you could perform, if you could perform anywhere? Just a little potpourri question. Because you're such a traveler too, that seems like such a part of your career.
DN: Yeah, I feel like I get a lot of good material when I travel. I'm supposed to go to South Africa in a few months for a wedding. So if I go there, I would love to perform in Cape Town. I haven't performed in Puerto Rico yet, and I would love to perform in Puerto Rico. There's a cafe in San Juan that I like a lot and I would love to perform there.
SS: When I wrote that question, I wondered if you would say that as your answer.
DN: What, Puerto Rico?
SS: Yeah, just because home and you've got family there, if I'm correct, right? And it's just such a big part of who you are as a person. There's not really David without David's poetry. David's poetry is part of who David is as a person. It's embedded in your body. Being a spokesperson poet, it's just so part of who you are, you really live and breathe through it, poetry, and you've always been that way.
SS: Awesome. I guess that one was a little bit different because it was more like prose essay, whereas Poems Written in the Bathtub While Cummming Out is all poetry. Maybe poetry and a little bit of prose, but poetic prose, nevertheless. I've heard murmurs of your next book. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Like what you're planning for your next book? Or did you want to save that for under wraps?
DN: No, no, we can talk about it. I'm working on another book of poetry. It's going to be called Make Grief Your Religion and it'll be a book of poems having to do with grief. I'm excited about that. And I feel like it's a topic a lot of us can relate to. So it seems like a natural evolution to kind of have this identity. An identity focused book, and then kind of go into the grieving because you are leaving something behind in order to obtain something new for yourself. And even with that there comes some grief, the grief of self, as well as grief for others as well. And grief for society, there's a lot of really rich content there that you can mine.
SS: Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. So do you imagine these books as a series? They all come from you, so they all are intertwined into a certain capacity, but you have one that mirrors the title and then one that mirrors the genre. Are you seeing these as like a body of work that's all connected?
DN: Yes. Yes. I want to keep that part under wraps, but the answer is yes. I want there to be three parts of Make Love Your Religion. I'll say that. So, I want to put out this, I want to put out Make Grief Your Religion, and then I want to put out another book of poetry called, Poems Inspired by Love, Life, and Blackness. And then after that, I want to put out Make Love Your Religion II. I want it to be a trilogy.
SS: And will Make Love Your Religion II be poetry or will that be more essay?
DN: That will be very similar to part one, but talking about all the stuff that I don't like about part one now. That's not going to be the whole, the whole book, but something that's going to be in there. I've learned a lot of my opinions, even some opinions that I have from this less from Poems Written in the Bathtub, for example, having a poem called, um, Girlfriends and Boyfriends. I probably wouldn't have a poem with that title now. Just because I've grown and learned more about the need to do away with gender binary and I feel like we're always learning and growing. So the work is always changing and how we present it is going to change.
SS: I love that fluidity and your ability to be gentle with yourself and your past and all of your past selves. That's really important as an artist and the idea of going back and reworking something, too, and really adding on to something is so important as an artist. To have longevity to your career. We never stop growing as people, and we never stop growing as artists, and just because we've made something and released something in the past doesn't mean it has to be the end point of that, too. So that's really exciting that you're looking to develop these projects further. That's really, really cool. It's been really a pleasure talking to you about this. I'm really excited to see your other books that are coming out. It's really exciting to hear that you have a variety of books coming out and you have multiple too. You've got a really colorful career and a very vibrant career. And that's really exciting to see. I think I had one question on there that was about where you could perform, if you could perform anywhere? Just a little potpourri question. Because you're such a traveler too, that seems like such a part of your career.
DN: Yeah, I feel like I get a lot of good material when I travel. I'm supposed to go to South Africa in a few months for a wedding. So if I go there, I would love to perform in Cape Town. I haven't performed in Puerto Rico yet, and I would love to perform in Puerto Rico. There's a cafe in San Juan that I like a lot and I would love to perform there.
SS: When I wrote that question, I wondered if you would say that as your answer.
DN: What, Puerto Rico?
SS: Yeah, just because home and you've got family there, if I'm correct, right? And it's just such a big part of who you are as a person. There's not really David without David's poetry. David's poetry is part of who David is as a person. It's embedded in your body. Being a spokesperson poet, it's just so part of who you are, you really live and breathe through it, poetry, and you've always been that way.
Photograph taken by Jordi Sabaté
David Nazario is a spirit, human, brother, sun, friend and lover. He is also a Queer Afro-Puerto Rican writer, speaker, educator, and spoken word artist from Reading, Pennsylvania, currently residing in Queens, New York. These identifiers inform his lived experience, thus informing his work, service, and perspective. This unique perspective is one the cornerstones to David’s learning, unlearning, interpretation and expression of the world around him. David is a Nuyorican Poetry Slam winner and an internationally published writer who released his first book, Make Love Your Religion: How To Put Love First & Succeed at Doing What You Love (SDJ Press) in 2018. His work has been read and featured in publications like Reading Eagle Newspaper, El Palo Magazine, Cititour.com, Swaay.com and Blk Voices Magazine. David has spoken at institutions like: Penn State University, Shippensburg University, Kutztown University, Olivet Boys & Girls Club, ASSETS, Bronx Eagle Academy, and GoggleWorks Center for the Arts. David’s debut book of poetry, Poems Written In The Bathtub While Cumming Out (SDJ Press) was released in 2023.
Sophia Stopper (they/she) is a visual artist, poet, and curator. They received their MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their BFA in Studio Art from New York University. Sophia has held positions as Curator at the Bridgeport Art Center (Chicago, US) and Exhibitions Coordinator at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts (Reading, US). Exhibiting internationally, Sophia has shown in the NYUAD Project Space Gallery (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Kalerie s čupr uměním Saigon (Ostrava, CZ), and the Water Tower Art Festival (Sofia, BG). They were an artist in residence at De Liceiras 18 (Porto, PT). Sophia has had their writing published by HeadwayLit, in a car on a road going to a place, and Pen Street: City of Poems. Their spoken word poetry has been featured by Old Ways New Tools (Chicago, US), IMPACT: Performance Festival (Chicago, US), and Signal to Noise (Brighton, UK). Traveling by bookstore, Sophia has lived on four continents and cherishes flying in a hot air balloon above a field of poppies in the Turkish countryside as one of their fondest memories.