Kirk Read

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Kirk Read is a writer, performer and event-maker who lives and works in San Francisco’s Mission district. He tours the United States as an author and solo performer.

He is the author of “How I Learned to Snap,” a memoir about being openly gay in a small Virginia high school. The book was published by Hill Street Press and released in paperback by Penguin/Putnam. His second book, “This is the Thing,” is a collection of performance essays which will be published in 2008. “How I Learned to Snap” has been translated into German and was named an American Library Association Honor Book. His writing has been published in over 150 newspapers and magazines, as well as several dozen book anthologies.

He co-curates the two longest-running queer open mic events in San Francisco, Smack Dab and K’vetsh. Since 2003, he has curated over 75 events in the Bay Area and has performed over 300 times in a wide variety of venues. He has worked with a number of non-profit organizations to create events that explore social themes like sex work, drug use and harm reduction. Some of these events have included Apocalypse Right Now, Booty Bump (with the Stonewall Project), Tina’s Café (with www.tweaker.org). He has also created performances in non-traditional venues, such as Smegma, an all-gender erotic performance series in the lobby of the gay men’s sex club Eros.

He received an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and is a visiting artist at San Francisco’s School of the Arts, where he teaches writing, performance and event planning to high school students.

He has worked at the St. James Infirmary, a free health care clinic for sex workers. At St. James, he has been volunteer coordinator, an HIV/STD counselor, a phlebotomist, a shift manager and a food and clothing donations coordinator. He was a member of the Gay Men's Health Summit collective and helped produce two national conferences to broaden conversations and public health responses around gay men's health. He spent several years working in the kitchen at Simply Supper, the Castro’s largest homeless meal program. He served for three years as editor-in-chief at the Virginia LGBT newspaper, Our Own Community Press, which was the longest running grassroots LGBT newspaper.

He was part of the Neo-Dandy Cabaret, directed by Keith Hennessy, which ran for six weeks at the New Conservatory Theater. He is a frequent performer at the Porchlight storytelling series and many other Bay Area venues, including Litquake and the San Francisco Public Library.

As a touring artist, he has toured the country in 2007 and 2008 with the Sex Workers Art Show tour, a cabaret of new vaudeville and storytelling that travels to 35 cities. He has performed and lectured at over 75 colleges and universities around the country.

His next full-length show will be produced in June 2008 by the Queer Arts Festival. The show is a collaboration with Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney, a multi-instrument musician who works with loopers and vocals to create a magical sonic atmosphere.

He has been a resident writer at TheatreVirginia, the Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat and Blue Mountain Center.

He is currently at work on a third book and is editing two anthologies, one about male sex workers and one about the intersections between gay men and transgender men.

He can be found at kirkread.com and myspace.com/kirkread