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Crow Rudd

Crow Rudd (they/them) is a disabled nonbinary queer internationally published punk poet, multiple slam champion, mentor, events producer, workshop facilitator and network founder based in York. Their work focuses on mental illness, queerness, activism, grief, identity, radical acts of love and the importance of cuddles.

Crow's mercenary style of free-form poetry and passionate performing style led to their first slam win at the Stanza Slam in Newcastle and the runner up spot at the Your Place Slam in New Zealand, as well as a publishing deal for their debut collection with Whisky & Beards Publishing.

Their debut poetry collection 'i am a thing of rough edges: DESTROY YOUR DEADNAME edition' is available to purchase from Whisky & Beards Publishing and was accepted into the National Poetry Library.

They are the creator and host of Sad Poets Doorstep Club, a queer-friendly mental health poetry night that seeks to promote marginalised poets and fight the stigma around mental illness, headlined by some of the UK's most exciting emerging talent as well as established performers; the founder of the UK Trans & Nonbinary Poets & Performers Network, a national network dedicated to uplifting and protecting trans and nonbinary poets and performers; a workshop facilitator for non-binary writers group They//Us; one of the producers behind Poeticon, a 2-day conference discussing the future of UK spoken word in a post-pandemic world; currently Chief Operating Officer for the Making Waves Arts Festival and are responsible for co-producing a mixed media arts exhibition and programming several poetry events for the festival.

They’ve been published by Slice of the Moon Books, Paper & Ink Literary Zine and Warning Lines, have headlined poetry events such as Punk in Drublic, Switchblade Society, Queer Fiction and Incite! and have featured performances for Leeds LGBT+ Lit Fest, Full House Lit Fest, Loud & Queer Arts Festival, Goole Pride, C-Arts Festival and Manchester Punk Festival.

Outside of poetry, their passions include Dungeons & Dragons, hand-holding and the destruction of capitalism.

IG: @stuffpunxdo Twitter: @stuffpunxdo Twitter: @stuffpunxdo

trans day of rage

after nico wilkinson

for nico, ashley & the colorado springs queer community

trans day of visibility

trans day of remembrance

trans day of let me just rest for a minute

trans day wearing matching shirts and going out for sushi

trans day of scary movies and popcorn buckets and blanket forts

trans day of my dog had puppies, come meet them

trans day of i'm having a bbq, byob

trans day of rage

this is a story older than the words we call ourselves, I soak myself in the words of queer poets a week after the Colorado Springs shooting, witness how they piece their hearts back together, struggle to make sense of the horror, tie up their hair and get their hands dirty, another shooting in another queer club means another target on backs already covered in bloodstains, so we carry each other through the fire, careful to contain our anger lest we prove to be the threat they make us, sanitise, sanitise, sanitise, scrub every last speck of ourselves bloody, family friendly, think of the children, don't dress so queer if you don't want to get jumped, jump through all these hoops just for them to hate you anyway, because we can never win, our mere existence is an affront to civilised society, pride is a party so put down the signs and dance, get wasted and see how many people you can swap spit with, don't mind the Tory stall since they're paying good money to be here, leave the cops alone they're just doing their job, just following orders, line the pockets of out-of-touch gay men since the struggle's over for them and now it's just business, stop drawing attention to corporate pinkwashing, stop whining about cops leading marches, stop ruining the names of well-meaning white boys, stop pointing out the blood on their hands, stop pointing out the blood on your face, stop putting yourself in the crosshairs, stop writing poems after shootings, stop glamourising violence, stop making a big deal out of everything, stop throwing it in our faces, stop infecting children with your sickness, stop acting like this is normal, stop acting like such a pussy, stop acting like such a victim, stop acting, stop pretending, stop resisting, stop existing, stop dying

trans day of i love you

this house is not in order

this shell is not fit for use.

hermit crabs pass it over

when

searching for a new home

i do not blame them

i would pass it over myself

if it didn't follow me

everywhere

on a good day

the damage is under the surface,

i can walk around my flat

without carefully placing

every step

things are orderly, tidy

to a point

i don't have to panic over

where my keys are

i can use a bowl or a plate with

no fuss

on a good day

i can live as

i was meant to

on the bad days...

i do not want to

write about the bad days

semantics

queer as in fierce

queer as in independent

queer as in grit your teeth & get on with it

queer as in found family

queer as in close-knit tight-packed support network

queer as in a friend in every city

queer as in magneto was right

queer as in flamboyant

queer as in understated

queer as in wearing clothes as armour

queer as in not going out in that

queer as in fashion is the second coming of this gay and everyone is going to know it

queer as in always looking over your shoulder

queer as in fuck it, wear the dungarees anyway

queer as in wear the skirt and heels anyway

queer as in wear the jeans and binder anyway

queer as in not knowing if the queer night at the club is ever truly safe

queer as in the queer club is now a queer-friendly club

queer as in knowing the difference

queer as in where do we go now?

queer as in act normal for this traffic stop, this stop & search, this friendly chat on the outskirts of a protest

queer as in acab includes your aunt and your uncle and your son and your cousin and your best mate

queer as in there are no queer friendly cops

queer as in don't let them march

queer as in don't let them dance and parade and invade our spaces

queer as in remember our history

queer as in don't let this happen again

queer as in fuck you

queer as in fuck me

queer as in don’t fuck me

queer as in you can fuck other people

queer as in kiss me

queer as in spoon me for a change

queer as in hold my hand in public

queer as in take me out on cute dates

queer as in i'll cook for you

queer as in lovers

queer as in deep connections

queer as in accidental friendship because you don't know if this one's queer or how they'll react if you ask

queer as in flirting so subtle that even you don't pick up on it

queer as in realising dyed hair doesn’t automatically mean… y'know

queer as in wanting to kiss everyone with dyed hair anyway

queer as in never read the comments

queer as in always reading the comments

queer as in chronic keyboard worrier

queer as in being plunged head-first into a fight you never asked for

queer as in fighting because what else is there to do?

queer as in fighting because they give us no other choice

queer as in taking every reported death like a knife to the chest

queer as in knowing that many will slip through the cracks

queer as in staring into those cracks

queer as in at what point is it too much?

queer as in we know who we are

queer as in and if we don't

queer as in we'll find out

queer as in together