Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT
Let’s celebrate National Coming Out Day with an exploration of queer families by Meliza Bañales, Lane Igoudin, and Hazel Kight Witham!
Wednesday, October 9 · 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT
How do we give and receive love in the families we build or choose? How do we navigate pathways to LGBTQ+ parenting? What power does storytelling convey for queer families and folks in the margins?
On Wednesday, October 9, starting at 6:30 p.m. PT, writers will discuss these questions as part of a WeHo Reads panel discussion about creating queer families and communities.
Online via Zoom and YouTube
More info…
In celebration of National Coming Out Day, we gather authors and poets to discuss coming out and creating queer families and communities. Participants will reflect on the evolution of coming out with the rise in equality and visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals and families. Our conversation will address giving and receiving love in the families we build or choose, pathways to LGBTQ parenting, as well as the power of being out, the power of community, and the power of storytelling for families and folks in the margins.
Our guests include Meliza Bañales, poet and author of the 90s coming-out/coming-of-age novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific (Ladybox Books 2015), which was a 2016 Lambda Literary Finalist; Lane Igoudin, author of the foster-adoptive memoir A Family, Maybe (Ooligan Press, Portland State University 2024); and Hazel Kight Witham, author of the memoir-in-verse The Truth About Secrets (Strikethrough Press 2024).
WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. More information and events at www.weho.org/wehoreads. BookSwell, a literary events and media company dedicated to lifting up writers from historically excluded communities, is producing the WeHo Reads 2024 season. Additional support is provided by media partnerships with Book Soup and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Authors
Meliza Bañales
Also known as Missy Fuego, she is an author, advocate, and adventurer. They were a 2016 Lambda Literary Finalist for Best LGBTQ Debut Fiction for their novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific (Ladybox Books). Their new book, roōt for the underdog, arrives October 25th, 2022 from Dodsworth Books.
Lane Igoudin
Lane Igoudin, Ph.D., is the author of A Family, Maybe, a rollercoaster journey through foster adoptions to fatherhood (Ooligan Press, Portland State University, 2024). He has written extensively on foster adoption, parenting, faith, and LGBTQ issues for Adoption.com, FamilyEquality.org, Forward, Jewish Journal, Lambda Literary Review, LGBTQ Nation, and Parabola and spoken about his book on TV and radio shows, parenting podcasts, as well as to live audiences from Portland to SoCal to Mexico City. Lane is professor of English/ESL at Los Angeles City College. More information: www.laneigoudin.com.
Hazel Kight Witham
Hazel Kight Witham is a mother, educator, writer, and slam coach. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Antioch University Los Angeles. As a proud public school teacher in LAUSD, she loves listening to young people and challenging them to think more critically and creatively about their place in the world they wish to live. Hazel is a member of Women Who Submit, a collective dedicated to empowering women and nonbinary writers to submit work for publication. Her memoir-in-verse, The Truth About Secrets from StrikeThrough Press, joined the world in June 2024.
