Chicago, IL: From September 3-13, Kit Yan, a transgender, queer, Asian American poet from Hawaii, will be performing his show Queer Heartache at the Chicago Fringe Festival. Queer Heartache is a one-person SLAM POETRY theater show about the micro-aggressive societal failures that break our queer hearts. The show follows Kit from his childhood in Hawaii as a poor child of immigrants, to Kit’s move to the continental U.S. and his experiences with hate crimes, bathrooms, and gender. In this show, we hear about the importance and complications of family for Kit as a queer, transgender, polyamorous, sexual person. Queer Heartaches tackles the shortcomings of the medical and social services systems in America, and ultimately seeks to find a story within all of these struggles. Queer Heartache is the hurt and hope in these everyday stories.
About Kit Yan: Kit Yan is a queer, transgender, and Asian American Brooklyn based slam poet from Hawaii. Kit performs theatrical slam poetry pieces about his life as a queer, transgender, and Asian American through stories about family, love, and social justice. Kit has been seen on television programs such as HBO’s Asian Aloud, PBS’ Asian America and MYX TV. His recent performances include headliner at the True Colors Youth Conference, headliner at the New England Queer People of Color Conference, and the Brooklyn Museum.
Kit’s poetry has been reviewed in New York Magazine, Bitch, Curve, and Hyphen. His poetry has been taught all over the world and he has been seen on the SF Pride mainstage, National Equality March stage, and numerous international slam poetry stages. Kit’s work has been recently featured in Flicker and Spark andTroubling the Line, two new queer and transgender poetry anthologies, and has a forthcoming book with Transgenre Press.
Kit has toured internationally with Sister Spit, The Tranny Roadshow, and Good Asian Drivers. He is on both the Advocate and Campus Pride’s lists of top LGBT speakers.