Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (b. April 21, 1975 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a Toronto-based poet, writer, educator and social activist. Her writing and performance art focuses on documenting the stories of queer and trans people of color, abuse survivors, mixed-race people and diasporic South Asians and Sri Lankans. A central concern of her work is the interconnection of systems of colonialism, abuse and violence.

Her writing has been published in the anthologies "Homelands: Women's Journeys Across Race, Time and Place", "Bitchfest", "We Don't Need Another Wave", "Colonize This!" [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=tCZQo3aHhpIC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=leah+lakshmi+%22piepzna+samarasinha%22&source=web&ots=X3zVZJsN4U&sig=b_msDR2XcqSzqBUdUo46KUbh84w#PPP1,M1 "browngirlworld: queergirlofcolor organizing, sistahood, heartbreak"] , in "Colonize This! Young women of color on today's feminism", edited by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman, ISBN 1-58005-067-0] , "Dangerous Families", "With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn", the Lambda Literary Award-nominated "Brazen Femme", "Without a Net", "Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws" and "A Girl’s Guide To Taking Over the World". In April 2006 Piepzna-Samarasinha published "Consensual Genocide" (TSAR Publications), her first collection of work.

As a spoken word artist she has performed widely in the United States, Canada and Sri Lanka. She has featured at Bar 13, Michelle Tea's RADAR Reading Series, The Loft, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, as well as at universities including Yale, Sarah Lawrence, Oberlin, Swarthmore and the University of Southern California. Her first one woman show, Grown Woman Show, debuted at Toronto's Alchemy Theatre in August 2007.

Piepzna-Samarasinha teaches writing to LGBT youth at Supporting Our Youth Toronto (SOY), and, with Gein Wong, is an organizer of the Asian Arts Freedom School, a writing, performance and activist education program for Asian/Pacific Islander youth. She is also involved with The Canadian Sri Lankan Women's Action Network, an activist group seeking to promote peace with justice through a feminist lens to end Sri Lanka's 24 year civil war.

Her one-woman show, "Grown Woman Show" deals talks about being "a queer girl of Sri Lankan descent", and the incest by her mother that she suffered. [ [http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=3313&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2 Growing through pain: Theatre/ Looking for that love-fuck family connection] , by Fred Kuhr, "Xtra!", July 19 2007, accessed 19 February 2008.]

In April 2007, Piepzna-Samarasinha and Maria Cristina Rangel, aka Cherry Galette, launched Mangos With Chili, a "floating cabaret" annual tour of queer and transgender people of color writers, dancers and performance artists, "like Sister Spit, only all brown." Since 2004, she has curated and produced Toronto's Browngirlworld series of spoken word performance nights by queer and trans artists of color. She is also involved with the biannual Asian Pacific Islander Spoken Word and Poetry Summit.

Piepzna-Samarasinha's freelance journalism can be seen in magazines such as Colorlines, NOW, Xtra, Bitch, Bamboo Girl, Herizons and other publications, where she focuses on documenting LGBT of color artists and activists.

Her work has been reviewed in "Canadian Literature". [ [http://www.canlit.ca/reviews-review.php?id=13071 review of "Consensual Genocide"] , in "Canadian Literature", by Indran Amirthanayagam.]

Awards

Piepzna-Samarasinha is a 2004 recipient of the City of Toronto's Community Service Volunteer Awards. [ [http://www.toronto.ca/volunteer_awards/winners_2004.htm City of Toronto: Community Service Volunteer Awards - 2004 winners] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.brownstargirl.com brownstargirl Website]
* [http://www.lodestarquarterly.com/work/202/ Poetry example]
* [http://www.soytoronto.org/current/pinkink.html Supporting Our Youth (SOY) Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/mangoswithchili Mangos With Chili]
* [http://www.tsarbooks.com/ TSAR Publications]
* [http://www.rabble.ca/reviews/review.shtml?x=48942 rabble.ca interview] by Elizabeth Ruth