Open Word with Tommy Pico

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Friday, May 4th, 2018
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Electric indigenous American poet Tommy Pico will read at Open Space from his latest book, Junk. The third in a series kicked off by IRL and Nature Poem, Junk delves into the detritus of colonialism, pop culture, junk food, queer desire, and loss, examining the things we can’t let go—or that refuse to let go of us.

“This is poetry of the highest order, on the level of a pop song, with the crystalline visions of a seer.” —Jenny Zhang

Tommy “Teebs” Pico is an indigenous American poet and karaoke enthusiast. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he is now based in Brooklyn. Pico was a Queer/Art/Mentors inaugural fellow, a 2013 Lambda Literary fellow in poetry, 2016 Tin House summer poetry scholar, 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Poetry from the New Foundation for the Arts, and won the Brooklyn Public Library’s 2017 Literature Prize. He is the 2018 winner of the Whiting Award for poetry. Tommy Pico also co-curates the reading series Poets With Attitude (PWA) with Morgan Parker, is co-host of the podcast Food 4 Thot, and a contributing editor at Literary Hub.