Following a reading from Sunu’s book, My Dear Comrades, she will be in discussion with three of Bozeman’s own activists around poetry, activism, and the lovely space where the two meet.

While traveling across the country sharing her poetry collection, Sunu has been inviting local creatives and activists to join her on stage in an acknowledgement of our many shared struggles and collective joys, and the solidarity that comes from making these connections.

The conversation will be followed by a book signing. You won't want to miss this evening of poetry and conversation on March 27th.

My Dear Comrades:

In this poetry collection, Sunu P. Chandy includes stories about her experiences as a woman, civil rights attorney, parent, partner, daughter of South Asian immigrants, and member of the LGBTQ+ community. These poems cover themes ranging from immigration, social justice activism, friendship loss, fertility challenges, adoption, caregiving, and life during a pandemic. Sunu’s poems provide some resolve, some peace, some community, amidst the competing notions of how we are expected to be in the world, especially when facing a range of barriers. Sunu’s poems provide company for many who may be experiencing isolation through any one of these experiences and remind us that we are not, in fact, going it alone. Whether the experience is being disregarded as a woman of color attorney, being rejected for being queer, losing a most treasured friendship, doubting one’s romantic partner or any other form of heartbreak, Sunu’s poems highlight the human requirement of continually starting anew. These poems remind us that we can, and we will, collectively rebuild.

Author Bio:

Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a social justice activist including through her work as a poet and a civil rights attorney. She’s the daughter of immigrants from Kerala, India, a queer woman of color, and lives in Washington, D.C. with her family. Her award-winning collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was published by Regal House in 2023. Sunu’s creative work can also be found in publications including Asian American Literary Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Poets on Adoption, Split this Rock’s online social justice database, The Quarry, and in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood and This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. Sunu is currently a Senior Advisor with Democracy Forward supporting work across the teams including, fighting back against the attacks on racial equity and inclusion, and working alongside partner organizations to help build a nation that does right by all of us. Sunu started out as a union-side labor and employment lawyer in NYC, and has worked for many years as a civil rights attorney, including as a litigator with EEOC for 15 years. She has also served as General Counsel for the DC Office of Human Rights (OHR), and as Deputy Director for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Sunu was also the Legal Director of the National Women’s Law Center for six years until August 2023, where she oversaw litigation, led LGBTQ+ equality work, and provided guidance on policy work relating to Workplace Justice. Sunu earned her B.A. in Peace and Global Studies/Women’s Studies from Earlham College, her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law and following that, her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Queens College/The City University of New York in 2013. Sunu is on the board of the Transgender Law Center, and was included as one the Queer Women of Washington and one of Go Magazine’s 100 Women We Love. Sunu is delighted to celebrate her first collection of poetry, My Dear Comrades, with all of you and with the book's fabulous cover artist, Ragni Agarwal.

Panelist Bios:

KD carries the ancestral strength, resilience, and wisdom of their communities into every aspect of their work. Their process of creation is based in reciprocity, healing, and intergenerational relationships with each other and the land. KD engages and invites ideation of indigenous futures, intersectionality, rematriation, decolonization, and freedom. KD lives and works with their family in Bozeman, MT. KD is a multidisciplinary artist and poet whose work has appeared in shows from Turtle Island to Hawai'i, and in print in multiple locations. They are a queer indigenous neurodivergent parent who spends most of their time engaging in the ideation of indigenous futures, solidarity, and freedom.

Jasmine James is a graduate of MSU Bozeman in English Literature (2020). They have lived in the Gallatin Valley since 2013, and have been managing the Bozeman Poetry Collective since 2017. You can hear their work in person regularly at the Steep Mtn. open mic.

Hazel Gonzalez McCord is a woman of trans experience who grew up in Bozeman, having moved to town when she was five. She has enjoyed being a part of various organizations and events here over the years including doing security for HATCH Fest, Warped Tour, and Porterhouse Productions. She was loosely involved with a Turner Youth Development Initiative teen center called The Blue Iguana and has dreams of actualizing another safe and entertaining space for young adults again. Hazel has also worked at Erotique for many years, passionately learning about and teaching healthy sexuality and kink. When she's not community building or doing her utmost to be a healthy and supportive elder queer role model and advocate for queer youth, she spends much of her spare time reading and cooking. Often simultaneously.

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