(Please scroll down for events)
Sunu’s collection of poems,My Dear Comrades, is available through Regal House, bookshop, Amazon, or your favorite independent bookstore.
MS. MAGAZINE: THE BEST POETRY OF THE LAST YEAR
POETRY FOUNDATION, BOOK REVIEW
Queens College Magazine - Alumna Pursues Justice as a Lawyer and a Poet (Scroll down)
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Upcoming events
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Monday, June 30, 2025 from 7-9PM
Washington Writers’ Publishing House
Literary Salon: Pride Edition
Rhizome DC
6950 Maple St NW, Washington, DC 20012
Reading by contributors to the new anthology, Capital Queer, and a reception. Sponsored by Washington Writers Publishing House, and hosted by Jona Colson. Note: The writing workshop is at 7pm and the reading is at 8pm. Free admission. RSVP required for the workshop.
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Friday, August 22, 2025 from 6-8PM
Ann Arbor, Michigan
SOCIAL JUSTICE POETRY READING AND DISCUSSIOn alongside featured writers: Minal Hajratwala, Dr. LeConte Dill, and Isabella Moreno
Booksweet Bookstore
1729 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105
Please save-the-date for our awesome group reading and discussion at Booksweet Bookstore on Friday, August 22nd from 6-8pm. I will be sharing poems and in discussion alongside these three marvelous writer friends. As Booksweet highlights: Books have the power to bring people together, and together we can co-create good change.
Minal Hajratwala (they/she) founded the Unicorn Authors Club to guide authors of color (and allies who really mean it!) to finish books. She is currently at work on a book about creative practice, The Chakra Playbook: For Artists, Creatives, and People with Spines, under contract with Hachette (Spring 2026). Her first book, Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents, was called “incomparable” by Alice Walker and “searingly honest” by the Washington Post. It won a Pen USA Award, an Asian American Writers Workshop Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and a California Book Award. Minal is the author of poetry collection, Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment, and a travel guidebook, Moon Fiji. As a journalist, they were an editor-at-large at Zócalo Public Square, ran the Sunday Perspective section of the San Jose Mercury News, and was a National Arts Journalism Program fellow at Columbia University. In 2010-11 she was a Fulbright senior fellow in Mumbai, where she edited a groundbreaking anthology, Out! Stories from the New Queer India. She is board vice chair of the Hedgebrook residency for women+ writers. www.unicornauthors.club
Dr. LeConté Dill was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. She is a poet, playwright, educator, and scholar in and out of classroom and community spaces. She holds degrees from Spelman College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley, was a Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop Fellow and a Hurston/Wright Writers Workshop Fellow and has participated in VONA Voices and Cave Canem writing workshops. Currently, she is the Director of Graduate Studies and an Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. She is also a Certified Mindfulness Instructor. In Dr. Dill's art, research, and activism, she listens to and shows up for urban Black girls, in particular, and works to rigorously document their experiences and strategies of safety, resilience, resistance, and wellness. Her work is critically informed by years of working in partnership with youth and community organizers, policy advocates, and health educators at community-based organizations and public health departments across the U.S. and South Africa. Her work has been published in a diverse array of spaces, such as Poetry Magazine, Mom Egg Review, Journal of Poetry Therapy, the Du Bois Review, and The Feminist Wire.
Isabella Moreno (Nonfiction) is a Nuyorican proudly hailing from the Bronx; writing, gardening and blossoming in Cleveland, Ohio. Her personal writing explores, and gives testament to, memories, recollections and anecdotes influenced by her multi-generational (multi-hyphenated) familial experiences with an ever-changing historical background. She has 30 years of experience in education from K-12 classrooms to non-profit and college administration. For 15+ years she has created workshops for creatives of color. She is the founder of Illuminating Our Voices. She believes joy can always be found in collective spaces of shared creation. Her two adult children add the magical rhythm to her heart.
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Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 7:15 pm
AUSTIN, TEXAS
FEATURE POET with 2nd Thursday poetry
WITH HOST Cindy Huyser
BookWoman BOOKSTORE
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(End of currently scheduled events)
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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.
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, and she is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet. Sunu’s creative work can also be found in 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. 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 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 Washington Blade’s Queer Women of Washington and one of Go Magazine’s 100 Women We Love. Sunu is delighted to celebrate her collection of poetry, My Dear Comrades, alongside the book's fabulous cover artist, Ragni Agarwal.
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OTHER BACKGROUND
The longer story of how this book came about is linked here. In addition to the many mentors and organizations listed in the story, gratitude goes out to Leila Chatti, for leading a “Praise in Hard Times” virtual poetry class in June 2020 through the Provincetown Fine Arts Center. Remarkably, six of the poems in this collection began as responses to prompts from these early-days-of-the-pandemic assignments.
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PRAISE for my dear comrades
“Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades thrives in that charged space in which politics and personal story connect. Here, each experience pulls the weight of its complicated history; each observation is viewed through the lens of a social justice warrior, but also through a guide leading us toward enlightenment and empathy. Chandy’s poems burst with an empowering energy that’s unshakable, unstoppable.” - Rigoberto González, author of five poetry collections including The Book of Ruin
“In Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades, she turns her exquisite attention toward everyday rituals of violence, indoctrination, and subjugation. Over and over, she interrogates some of our most-metabolized rituals, denying them the safety of invisibility, as when she writes: ‘Years later, during the middle of law school, I learned this rule by observation: We must stand when the judge enters the courtroom.’ And then later: ‘In that moment I learned much of what I needed to know about the law.’ At the heart of her refusal is a poetics and an ethics of discipline, tenderness, and attention that reminds me of the work of Martín Espada and Audre Lorde. My Dear Comrades is a stunningly lucid and deeply personal work about law and power, race and queerness. Love.” - Aracelis Girmay, author of the black maria and Kingdom Animalia
"At the foundation of My Dear Comrades is a belief in the strength of community, whether that is intimate family, a wider chosen community or a geographically determined ‘general public.’ Each kind of community deserves--requires--the same kind of care. The attentions these poems give is indeed intimate but their intention and embrace is wide and public. Sunu Chandy is a generous poet, wise and willful and fierce and kind." - Kazim Ali, author of several books including most recently, The Voice of Sheila Chandra and Northern Light
“Sunu Chandy’s debut collection My Dear Comrades is a love letter to the creation of community, queer family building, and fighting against injustice. In language that both challenges and consoles, Chandy investigates, as in the poem ‘Calculate,’ ‘[w]ords that can build us / up or tear us to shreds…’ This book looks closely at language, questioning who owns it, who silences it, and what silence protects. Chandy asks: how do we repair our broken world? And the poems answer, in a brilliant call for social justice, workers’ rights, new constructions of family and most of all, deep compassion.” - Nicole Cooley, author of Breach, Girl After Girl After Girl, and Of Marriage
“Sunu Chandy's poems are miniature stories: sensual flashes, immersive scenes in which whole lives are glimpsed and revealed. Flatbush, Jerusalem, Kingston, Kerala, and more: In close quarters and intimate spaces, the speaker of the poem sits on the floor or breaks bread while keenly observing how power moves through and within the people she encounters. Rituals of justice and resistance wend their way through moments of grief and care. The book is wide-ranging in its subjects, but ultimately it is family, given and chosen, that forms the tender, beating heart of this beautiful collection.” - Minal Hajratwala, author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents and Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment; Founder of Camp Unicorn
“From the love underpinning LGBQT adoption to the struggles of immigration, this lyrically inclusive and politically unifying debut collection makes the best and most beautiful argument toward belonging.” - Roger Sedarat, author of Ghazal Games and Haji as Puppet: an Orientalist Burlesque
“My Dear Comrades lives at the intersection of the personal and the political. Fearlessly, with candor and grace, these poems bear witness, shatter oppressive silences, and call injustice by its many names. At the same time, they acknowledge the complicated matrices that make us human—our relationships, desires, the gnarled pathways of the heart. Bracing and compassionate, fortifying and vulnerable, Chandy debuts here as a necessary voice that reminds us: ‘Remember integrity. / Remember what is at stake.’” - Lauren K. Alleyne, author of Difficult Fruit and Honeyfish
”My Dear Comrades is a collection of fierce hymns to guide us through those daily atrocities, that seem benign, yet haunt us. Chandy profoundly feels every blow of social injustice, and rather than rage, Chandy hurls sharp wit, pristine imagery, and a cinematic brilliance that takes you through her journey as an immigrant daughter, wife, mother & activist. Chandy shows us how taking in the hard truths in our urbane dailiness crafted with profound self-reflection and metaphor can result in the gorgeous act of rebuilding the human soul. As we navigate our identity in an unprecedented 21st-century global crisis, Chandy shows us that poetry can hold us up.” - Regie Cabico, Split This Rock co-Founder, Poet, Capturing Fire Publisher
“Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades considers the multiple boundaries and borders that the poet crosses into justice: political, social, and the deeply interior. In sure language Chandy shows her own path towards her personal ethics as a mother, a queer daughter, an activated empath searching for a deep love that transforms as it creates community. I have been thirsty for a poetry that demonstrates fierce allyship and what it means for queers of color living in the United States. My Dear Comrades is a map into the heart’s country that abolished borders. Indeed, this collection proceeds from a damaged and flawed world and forges a complicated, abounding beauty.” - Rajiv Mohabir, author of Cutlish and Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir
”Sunu Chandy's poems are evocations of how we build bonds and resemblance, how we live in community, how we work towards justice. With courage and commitment, My Dear Comrades breaks open the details of life -- queer romance, city living, family gatherings, adoption processes, legal document review -- to investigate the possibilities and power of practices of repair, rebuilding, forgiveness, compassion, and justice. These poems are rituals of rearrangement: Chandy shows us how to build and rebuild relationships, cities, gender, labor, and our relationships to ourselves so that we can collectively offer a ‘footstep/towards something possible.’ My Dear Comrades is an invitation into community, into possibility, into the work of justice.” - Purvi Shah, author of Miracle Marks and Terrain Tracks
“To read Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades is to participate in a revelation. Through details of chai and military tanks, peppermint soap and broken doorknobs, the poems in Chandy’s collection remind us that the smallest moments in life can hold our whole humanity. And isn’t this a form of justice, Chandy’s poems seem to say, to claim a connected way of being--queer, woman, of color, survivor, parent, spouse, advocate--fully human and vulnerable, awake to both the heartbreaks and the wonders of the world.” -Jen Soriano, author of Making the Tongue Dry and forthcoming Nervous: Essays - on embodied history and the neuroscience of healing - Amistad/HarperCollins 2023
“These poems are staggeringly crafted….perfect, raw and twisting unexpectedly to make something new come through, unselfconscious, gorgeously unadorned so the power of the language and scene shines cleanly through the words. They make me want to cry. When I tell people to read your work, it will be effortless.” - Sofia Ali-Khan, JD, author of A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America (Random House 2022)
“The poems in Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades sing, shine, shimmer, and slide into our consciousness. They are alive with the everyday and leap to make connections between our personal choices and the direction the world is moving. They remind us that justice is a daily responsibility. And the poems are also deeply personal—funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. Sunu’s poems share and praise their origins, discuss their process, and open up conversations within us. They delight, surprise, and complicate at every turn. My Dear Comrades should be required reading for anyone who cares about this world.” -Jeffrey Perkins, author of Kingdom
“Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades makes me uncomfortable in the best of ways. She is generous with her personal stories – her path to becoming a parent and mothering, from fertility to adoption to pandemic parenting; her journey to becoming a lawyer, and her never-ending ability to navigate systems that were not built for her, for me, or for so many of us. I’m grateful for the reminder that there can be humor in some of life’s toughest moments and sadness in our greatest achievements. And I feel lucky to be one of the comrades on her journey.” - Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO, National Women’s Law Center
“My Dear Comrades, a book of poems by Sunu Chandy, is beautifully written, bursting with emotion, heart wrenching, and thought-provoking. I remember feeling hit in the heart in the first few minutes after reading ‘Just Act Normal.’ I was hooked after that. I recommend checking this out if you love poetry with a purpose.” - Stacey Stevenson, Chief Executive Officer, Family Equality
“Make space in your life to accompany Sunu Chandy as she travels across country, culture, personal experience, and injustices from the merely irritating to the enraging. Feel with your hands the thickly woven tapestries of being: the colors, the heartbreak, the commitment, the joy, the vulnerability, the humanity, the awful harms we humans do each other. It’s all threaded together with love: Love of self, of others, of humanity, of justice. Everything, big, small, or in-between is suffused with meaning and the complexity it calls for and deserves. Chandy has a way of capturing our many and varied experiences, and she’s laid them down in verse so we can join her and feel our own lives more deeply.” - Lauren R. Taylor, director of Defend Yourself and author of a forthcoming book on empowerment self-defense.
“Sunu Chandy’s debut poetry collection, My Dear Comrades, is relentless in its ability to speak truth to power. Readers travel along this poetic journey with Chandy as she documents injustices, reflects on her past, and gives us a glimpse into her own struggles, fears and joys. Chandy’s poems are intimate and vulnerable, poems of protest and praise, poems that break us and bring us delight. She embraces the complicated and exquisite parts of herself and we are left better for it. The silences in Chandy’s poems often speak volumes. When the relative of a friend sexually harasses the narrator, Chandy uses sparse descriptions to frame a disturbing, yet familiar scene: ‘It was not dark. It was not night. I was not outside. I was not alone. I was not with strangers. There were women in the vicinity.’ In ‘Too Pretty,’ Chandy’s effective use of repetition captures the narrator’s fears for herself, a queer woman of color, along with her genuine concern for queer pre-teens during a homophobic incident on a NYC subway. She closes the poem with a heartfelt silent wish/prayer, ‘You all sitting there, laughing laughing/ sitting there on your sixth grade girlfriend’s lap/ so free and easy, laughing laughing,/ be safe my handsome girls, be safe my pretty boys.’ Many of her poems evoke the powerful political poetry of Margaret Walker and Pat Parker, such as ‘Shelter-In-Place.’ Here, Chandy defiantly affirms ‘I pledge allegiance to facing conflict head-on/and choosing our battles./ I pledge allegiance to the organizers,/ to the ones moving through the tears, to people sitting around /a table and writing our poems anyway.’ This political praise poem ignites the page; words become a mantra invoking the power of both organizers and poets. Ultimately, My Dear Comrades, uplifts and centers the compelling voice of Sunu Chandy, a queer woman of color, whose dedication to community, social justice activism and family center this stunning collection.” - J.P. Howard, author of SAY/MIRROR, bury your love poems here, Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom’s Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution!
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PAST EVENTS
(january 2023 ONWARD)
Northeastern Law - Book Club
Wednesday, February 1, 2023, 6-7pm
Alongside Sofia Ali-Khan
- Author of A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for White America
Sunu Chandy - My Dear Comrades
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SUNU P. CHANDY’S AWARD-WINNING POETRY COLLECTION, BOOK TOUR KICKS OFF IN WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 2023
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DC Book Launch - politics & prose
in conversation with Kierra Johnson
ED of the Nat LGBTQ Task Force
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 at 7pm
5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
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MARYLAND Book Launch - The Writer’s Center
Readings and discussion with Marjorie Hudson
(Regal House publishing mate)
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at 7pm
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815
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BOSTON AREA EVENTS - April 1- 4, 2023
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Writing Workshop led by Sunu
with SubDrift Boston
Saturday, April 1, 2023 from 4-6pm
Email subdriftboston@gmail.com to RSVP. All are welcome.
($5-10 suggested donation - Venmo @Alykhan-Mohamed)
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Boston Book Launch at trident books
in conversation with Rajiv Mohabir
Monday, April 3, 2023 at 7pm
Trident Booksellers and Cafe
338 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02115
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Reading and Discussion
SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL
with Professor Ragini Shah
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at 1pm
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Meet the Author and Book Signing
All She Wrote Books
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 from 5-6pm
451 Artisan Ave, Somerville, MA 02145
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington’S
LGBTQIA+ Sangha
Poems for Dharma Sharing
ONLINE - SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2023 from 4-6PM
The LGBTQIA+ group meets virtually the 2nd Saturday of every month from 4-6pm.
“The first time I sat with the IMCW LGBTQIA+ sangha, I felt understood and listened to in a way that I had been longing for. Sunu is that kind of poet. Hearing or reading her poems, I feel as though I am sitting next to a good friend who understands everything. If you identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, please join us on Zoom on Saturday for this very special edition of our monthly sangha.” - Em Morrison
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WEDNESDAY NIGHT POETRY COMMUNITY
WITH KAI COGGIN
FEATURED READER - APRIL 14, 2023
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VIRGINIA BOOK EVENT
MEET THE AUTHOR AND BOOK SIGNING
WINCHESTER BOOK GALLERY
Saturday, April 15, 2023,from 2-4pm
7 North Loudoun Street, Winchester, VA 22601
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POETRY WORKSHOP led by sunu
AT THE arts club of washington
Tuesday, April 18, 2023, from 6:30-8pm
All are welcome to the Arts Club of Washington’s FREE Poetry Writing Workshop. Sunu P. Chandy will lead a workshop that explores work by Asian American and Pacific Islander poets and uses these pieces as inspiration for our own writing. Sunu P. Chandy is a civil rights attorney and author of the collection of poems, My Dear Comrades. This workshop is part of the series by the Arts Club Poets-in-Residence. In 2023, the Arts Club of Washington proudly inaugurated its first group of Poets-in-Residence. Five LGBTQ+ poets from the Washington, DC region were selected for the honor, in a program supported by the DC Commission on the Arts. Over six months, from January through June, the group met to create a supportive community for one another and work together on issues of craft. Each writer also offered a free, public poetry workshop. The inaugural group of writers include: Kim Roberts, Sunu Chandy, Malik Thompson, Tanya Olson, and Dan Vera. Masks are required at this event. RSVP at the link here.
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KEW & WILLOW BOOKS - QUEENS, NEW YORK
April 21, 2023 from 7-8pm
FEATURE PRESENTER AT VIRTUAL OPEN MIC
Join us to celebrate National Poetry Month with our monthly open mic with a featured reader, Sunu P. Chandy, poet and civil rights attorney. She will be reading from her recently released poetry collection, My Dear Comrades. If you would like to participate as a reader or listener, please send an email to info@thequeensbookshop.com.
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rainbow book fair - NYC
Saturday, April 22, 2023 from 12-6pm
Queer Poetry Marathon
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center
208 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011
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DC Reading & BOOK Celebration in discussion with Gowri Koneswaran
NOTE: ASL Interpretation will be provided at this event
Thursday, April 27, 2023 from 6-7:30pm
Arts Club of Washington
2017 I St. NW, Washington, DC 20006
Wine and cheese reception to follow the program.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
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Earlham College Virtual Event with Jeffrey Perkins and Prof. Barb Caruso
Book Celebration & Discussion
Thursday, May 4, 2023 from 7-8 p.m. ET
We're excited to bring back virtual book club to celebrate two poetry collections: My Dear Comrades by Sunu Chandy '94 and Kingdom by Jeffrey Perkins '94. You're invited to a virtual poetry reading from both writers, moderated by former Professor of English Barb Caruso. Find out more information about the authors and publications below, order your books, and sign up to join us on May 4. SIGN-UP LINK
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NYC Events - May 18-21, 2023
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Reading & Celebration
also featuring Bushra Rehman
Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 7pm
Atlas Social Club, 753 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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NYC Book Celebration-bluestockings
in conversation with Naomi Jackson, Purvi Shah, and Swati Khurana
CO-SPONSORED BY ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS WORKSHOP (AAWW)
Friday, May 19, 2023 from 5:30-7pm
Lower East Side, 116 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002
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Saturday, May 20, 2023, 1:30-5:30pm
At a private location in Brooklyn. RSVP to jp.howard@womenwritersbloom.com to RSVP in advance and/or to be added to a waitlist.
Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon is thrilled to host & celebrate our long time member, dear friend and fierce poet Sunu Chandy as we celebrate her debut collection MY DEAR COMRADES in downtown Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon, May 20th. There will be a writing workshop facilitated by Sunu, a featured reading, a Q & A with our feature poet and we will end with our multi-genre open mic. This is our first in-person potluck, writing workshop, feature reading, Q & A with our feature poet and open mic since February 2020. We are thrilled to celebrate Sunu P. Chandy and her new collection as she helps Bloom return to our workshop format.
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KRAMER BOOKS
SPRING POETRY EVENT
Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 7pm
Dupont Circle, Washington DC
Kramers Spring Poetry Reading, part of our seasonal poetry reading series, will feature three local writers: Sunu P. Chandy, Taylor Johnson, and Cindy Savett. Each will read for about 15 minutes from their own books. Dupont Circle is in NW Washington at the intersection of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire Avenues, and 19th and P Streets. Kramers is on Connecticut Ave, just north of Dupont Circle, between Dupont Circle & Q Street.
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Queering Sound
hosted by Natalie E. Illum
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 *7:00-8:30 pm
Takoma Beverage Company
6917 Laurel Ave., Takoma Park, MD
Pre-registration requested at this link
The 23rd annual event features poetry and spoken word by Sunu P. Chandy, Danielle Evennou, Craig Laurance Gidey, Mark Osele, Kim Roberts, and Bernard Welt. Poets and authors will have books for sale at the event. Arrive early and enjoy dinner, dessert, coffee and libations at Takoma Bev Co. (Food and drink service will be available throughout the evening.)
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PHILLY BOOK EVENT
TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2023 *6-8PM
ASIAN ARTS INITIATIVE PRESENTS
SUNU P. CHANDY'S MY DEAR COMRADES, ALONGSIDE POET SHAM-E-ALI NAYEEM
Asian Arts Initiative | 1219 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Pre-registration requested at this link.
Please join us for a reading and discussion with poets Sunu P. Chandy and Sham-e-Ali Nayeem in celebration of Sunu's new book of poems, My Dear Comrades. Asian Arts Initiative is a community-based arts center in Philadelphia that engages artists and everyday people to create art that explores the diverse experiences of Asian Americans, addresses our social context, and effects positive community change.
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Virtual event - Glowing in the Bright
Community Building Art Works
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2023 *7-8PM ET
Hosted by Hari Alluri
Pre-registration Requested at this link.
Glowing in the Bright, a summer reading to celebrate our community of authors Sarah Herrin, Amber Flame, Sunu Chandy, Arthur Kayzakian and Laura Joyce-Hubbard as they read from their new published works. Stay after the reading for Open Studio with Veteran and Artist, Shaun Smith. Bring anything you want to work on, in any medium, and create art with our community. Community Building Art Works (CBAW) is a charitable organization that builds healthy and connected communities where veterans and civilians share creative expression, mutual understanding, and support through workshops led by professional artists. Seema Reza is the chair of CBAW and facilitates a multi-hospital arts program that encourages use of the arts as a tool for narration, self-care, and socialization for those struggling with emotional and physical injuries.
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Politics and Prose NW
Pride Poetry Night with OutWrite
With Mariah Barber, Sunu P. Chandy, and Jona Colson / Moderated by Emily Holland
Friday, June 23, 2023 at 7:00pm
5015 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
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Fairfax COUNTY POETRY IN THE PARKS
PRIDE Reading HOSTED BY DANIELLE BADRA
Featuring Sunu Chandy, Kim Roberts, Holly Mason Badra, and Malik Thompson
Saturday, June 24, 2023 *3-4PM
Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, 5040 Walney Road, Chantilly, VA
June is Pride Month, celebrated each year to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, which launched the queer liberation movement in the United States. Featuring some of the region’s most prominent LGBTQ+ poets, this reading lifts up a variety of voices and experiences to honor the rich legacy and contributions of poets and poetry in the queer community.
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INTERVIEW - INSIDE OUT RADIO SHOW
HOSTED BY AISHAH SHAHIDAH SIMMONS
MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2023 AT 6PM ET
POEMS ABOUT QUEERNESS, RACE, LAW AND SURVIVORS
LISTEN ON 89.3 FM AND ONLINE AT WPFWF.ORG
Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Creator, | NO! The Rape Documentary | #LoveWITHAccountability® Project
Twitter, Instagram & Facebook, @Afrolez | YouTube, AfroLez® Channel
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VIRTUAL EVENT - ATLANTA’S CHARIS BOOKS presents Sunu P. Chandy IN DISCUSSION WITH REV. WINNIE VARGHESE
RECORDING FROM EVENT AVAILABLE HERE AT THIS LINK
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 *7:30-8:30PM
Pre-registration for sign-up LINK HERE
Charis welcomes Sunu P. Chandy in conversation with Rev. Winnie Varghese for a discussion of My Dear Comrades. The Rev. Winnie Varghese is the 23rd rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta. She co-hosts the (G)race podcast with The Rev. Azariah France-Williams.
This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback.
By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.
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DC PRIDE SEASON book CELEBRATION
in discussion with Sharita Gruberg
Vice President of Economic Justice, National Partnership of Women and Families
with Little District Books
and As You Are
wednesday, June 28, 2023 *7-8:30pm
500 8th St. SE, Washington, DC 20003
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUESTED AT THIS LINK
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DC Arts Club Pride READING
by poets in residence
HOSTED BY REGIE CABICO
With Tanya Olson, Kim Roberts, Malik Thompson, and Dan Vera
thursday, June 29, 2023 *6:30-8pm
(doors open at 6pm)
Arts Club, 2017 I St. NW I Washington, DC 20006
Pre-registration requested at this link.
In 2023, the Arts Club of Washington proudly inaugurated its first group of Poets-in-Residence. Five LGBTQ+ poets from the Washington, DC region were selected for the honor, in a program supported by the DC Commission on the Arts. From January through June, the group met to create a supportive community for one another and work together on their craft. Each writer also offered a free, public poetry workshop. The inaugural group of writers were Kim Roberts, Sunu Chandy, Malik Thompson, Tanya Olson, and Dan Vera. This is the culminating reading for these five inaugural 2023 LGBTQ+ Poets-in-Residence at the Arts Club of Washington
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BALTIMORE reading - Red Emma’s
book Celebration of my dear comrades with Amber Flame & in conversation with Regie Cabico
Saturday, July 15, 2023 *7pm
RSVP LInk here
3128 Greenmount Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201
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DC - BUSBOYS & POETS, 14TH AND V
Short reading and conversation w/AMBER FLAME re new book APOCRIFA
Monday, JULY 17, 2023 * 6PM
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
apocrifa imagines a love that sits comfortably at the crossroads of commitment and freedom. The developing intimacy between a lover and their beloved is propelled by a compendium of words for love, romance, sex, relationships, and affection that do not lend to direct translation in English. Serving as both titles and markers of the progression of time, these poetically defined words highlight the growing tension of one who claims "i cannot love you enough/to unlove the wide world" and yet is inextricably drawn to the offer of "a place of sustenance, rest, and my delight in your very bones." Heavily inspired by the metaphors and structures of Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon), from the Apocryphal books of the Bible, the characters speak to each other with contrapuntal call-and-response while letting us into their private thoughts through epistles, sestinas, odes, and other poetic forms.
Praise for Amber Flame’s apocrifa from Jacqueline Woodson: “AN ELEGANT, LOVING, AND LOVELY JOURNEY. AGAIN AND AGAIN, APOCRIFA LIFTS US UP, DROPS US, THEN LIFTS US AGAIN. FINALLY SETTING US DOWN EXACTLY WHERE WE NEED TO BE.” — JACQUELINE WOODSON, 2020 MACARTHUR FELLOW, NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE 2018-2019, ASTRID LINDGREN MEMORIAL AWARD LAUREATE 2018
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CHICAGOLAND READING & CELEBRATION WITH ATENA DANNER & STARR DE LOS SANTOS
THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2023 *7-8:30PM
WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST
5233 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60640
RSVP requested and masks required: By pre-registering, you are verifying that you are fully vaccinated and will wear a mask throughout the entirety of the event.
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky
Saturday, July 29, 2023
SOCIAL JUSTICE WRITING WORKSHOP
(10am-noon) with Deepa Iyer
Poetry Reading/discussion (5-7pm)
With Clare Rutz Wallace, Founder of The Rosewater and State Representative Nima Kulkarni
The Rosewater Bookstore
4634 S 3rd Street
***
Denver, colorado
August 7, 2023 at 5:30-7pm
Petals & Pages
Author Talk: Sunu Chandy, Mathangi Subramanian, & Sarah Herrin
a queer woman-owned and run bookstore/ flower shop located inside Birdsall & Co.
2880 S Broadway Englewood, CO 80113
Join us for a conversation with poet, activist, and civil rights attorney Sunu Chandy about her new poetry collection, My Dear Comrades. She will be in conversation with award-winning local author and educator Mathangi Subramanian and Sarah Herrin of Beyond The Veil Press. We will have a reading, moderated conversation and Q&A, and book signing. This event is free, but please RSVP here.
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KHUSH BOOK CLUB - AUTHOR Q AND A
THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2023 - 7-8:30PM
Thank you to KhushDC for the kind invitation to visit the group’s book club.
All are welcome and the RSVP link is here.
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Fundraiser for Community Building Art works - Creating Joyful Community: A Writing Workshop with Sunu P. Chandy
THursday, September 7, 2023, 7-8:30PM
Registration Link
Join us for a special writing workshop with poet, Sunu P. Chandy, to benefit Community Building Art Works programs for veterans, service members, military families, and health care workers. This workshop is free for Veterans, Service Members, and Healthcare Workers. All ticket sales benefit CBAW's programs.
Through our partnership with Bookshop, we're pleased to announce a special added value for those who register for this workshop: A coupon code for a 10% discount on your purchase of My Dear Comrades by Sunu P. Chandy. This coupon will be issued to registrants via email.
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Toronto, Canada Book Event
Glad day Bookshop
Reading and discussion
with LOCAL Poet phoebe wang
Sunday, September 10, 2023 - 6-8pm
Please RSVP at the Facebook Invite Page
PHOEBE WANG is a first-generation Chinese-Canadian writer and educator from Ottawa, the unceded traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin. Her first collection of poetry, Admission Requirements (McClelland and Stewart, 2017) was nominated for the Trillium Book Award. Her second collection of poetry, Waking Occupations, was published in 2022. She serves as a mentor in the MA in the University of Toronto MA in Creative Writing program and works as a Writing and Learning Consultant at OCAD University. She is currently at work on a collection of essays on sailing and identity, titled Relative to Wind.
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Featured author
Literary Hill Book Fest
washington DC - Capitol hill
North Hall of Eastern Market
Sunday, September 17, 2023, 11am-3pm
Followed by poetry open mic
Tunnicliff's Tavern - patio, 3 pm
***
virtual writing workshop
Saturday, September 23, 2023 -12-3pm ET
IN support of Poets House
Poetry that Keeps Us Going
RSVP LINK HERE / Video Poems - Hard Hat Reading
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WEST COAST book EVENTS
SEATTLE, washington
Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 7-8pm
With Jen Soriano, author of Nervous: Essays of Heritage and Healing and local poet, attorney, organizer, Troy OSAKI
Open Books: A Poem Emporium
108 Cherry Street, Seattle, WA 98104
RSVP REQUESTED at FACEBOOK EVENT Page / NOTE that seats are limited (25 seats). thank you!
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Broadway Books
1714 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97232
RSVP requested at the Facebook event page / note that seats are limited (30 seats). Thank you!
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LOS ANGELES, CA
Thursday, October 12, 2023, 7-8pm
WITH Amita Swadhin, D’Lo, Ragni Agarwal
North Figueroa Bookshop
6040 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042
RSVP requested at the Facebook Event Page / Note that seats are limited (40 seats). Thank you!
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Bay Area, CA
Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7pm
With Imani Rupert-Gordon, ED of NCLR, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and guest poet, Amber Flame
PEGASUS BOOKS - Downtown Berkeley
2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA
RSVP requested AT The FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE. note that seats are limited. (50 seats). Thank you!
***
Politics and Prose, NW, WASHINGTON DC
Noorjahan Bose — Daughter of the Agunmukha
with Sunu Chandy and Krittika Ghosh
Sunday, October 29, 2023 - 3:00pm
5015 Connecticut Ave NW
How does a girl from a tiny Bangladeshi island end up reading Tagore, Marx and de Beauvoir, and becoming a feminist activist? How does she navigate different cultures and religions, and patriarchal society? Daughter of the Agunmukha is the riveting personal history of Noorjahan Bose, born in 1938 in present-day Bangladesh to a Muslim farming family, near the mouth of the ferocious River Agunmukha--Fire Mouth River.
Noorjahan Bose is a feminist writer, social worker and activist, living between the US and Bangladesh, and the founder of two US-based organisations to empower South Asian women: Ashiyanaa (formerly ASHA) and Samhati. Daughter of the Agunmukha won the Bangla Academy Literary Award for Autobiography and the Ananya Literature Award. Bose will be in conversation with Sunu Chandy and Krittika Ghosh.
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Loyalty Bookstore, Petworth location
My Dear Comrades - reading and discussion with malik thompson
Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 7pm
843 Upshur Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
RSVPS required- LINK TO RSVP
Loyalty is so very excited to welcome Sunu Chandy and our very own Malik Thompson for an IN-PERSON event celebrating My Dear Comrades! Join us at Loyalty's Petworth store at 7 PM ET on Thursday, November 2nd for a discussion and audience Q&A, followed by a meet + greet & book signing! This event is free to attend but RSVPs are required—please use the link above. Please email events@loyaltybookstores.com with any questions. Face masks are required for all attendees in the event space. Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during virtual or in-person events.
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POTTERS HOUSE - WASHINGTON DC
NOVEMBER 14, 2023 AT 7PM
Lifting Up Marginalized Voices: Reading and Discussion
Sunu P. Chandy, Jody Hobbs Hesler, and JEFFREY DALE LOFTON
RSVP REQUESTED HERE
***
November 16, 2023
Featured Speaker - LGBTQ+ Asian / South Asian Attorney Reception
Washington DC
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NOVEMBER 17, 2023
VIRTUAL POETRY WORKSHOP WITH LGBTQ+ WORKPLACE PRIDE EMPLOYEE GROUP
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new orleans
Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop
Friday, january 19, 2024 at 6pm
POETRY READING, STORYTELLING, AND JOINT BOOK CELEBRATION
WITH SUNU P. CHANDY & VIRGINIA L. BARTLETT
Location: HI-BALLZ, a queer owned vegan cafe, at 4901 Canal St., New Orleans.
You are invited to our joint book celebration focused on poetry, stories, and community building. Featuring poetry from Sunu P. Chandy (My Dear Comrades) and stories by Virginia Bartlett (Elements of Moral Experience in Clinical Ethics Training and Practice: Sharing Stories with Strangers).
Virginia L. Bartlett, Ph.D. (She/her), is the Assistant Director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics and Assistant Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. She serves as a clinical ethics consultant, provides ethics education across the medical center and community, serves on institutional, local, and national boards and task forces, and researches the practices and contexts of clinical ethics consultation. Virginia lives in Baton Rouge with her partner and their blended family. Elements of Moral Experience in Clinical Ethics Training and Practice: Sharing Stories with Strangers, was recently published by Routledge as a genre-spanning memoir of encountering ethical and moral issues with patients, families, and care providers in hospital settings.
***
Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) CONFERENCE 2024
February 7-10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri
Excited to see folks at AWP 2024. Check out information below re my two off-site readings, my two AWP sessions, and my one book signing. Thank you.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024, around 8-8:30pm*, OFF-SITE POETRY
Wednesday Night Poetry, Hosted by Kai Coggin
Stern Theater, Charlotte Street Foundation, 3333 Wyoming St., Kansas City, MO 64111 (Note: *I should be on between 8-8:30pm. The event is from 6:30-10:30 with 75 poets, three minutes each. Stay as long as you like, and enjoy a range of poets.)
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024, 2-3pm, BOOK SIGNING
BOOK SIGNING WITH UNICORN AUTHORS, #T3139 near Bookfair stage
I'll be signing books on Thursday from 2-3pm at the Unicorn Authors Club table, #T3139 (next to the Bookfair stage). Please stop by and say hi!
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024 AT 5-6pm, OFF-SITE READING
SOCIAL JUSTICE STORYTELLING
WITH JEN SORIANO, SOFIA ALI-KHAN AND JENNIFER LUNDEN
BADSEED Farmers' Market, 1909 McGee St, Kansas City, MO 64108
With books available to purchase from Wise Blood Bookstore
CREATING COMMUNITY RESIDENCIES TO CELEBRATE QUEER WRITERS
(Kim Roberts, Sunu Chandy, Tanya Olson, Malik Thompson, Dan Vera)
Room 2502A, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 2
QUEER PARENTHOOD AND FAMILY MAKING: A READING
(Nomi Stone, JP Howard, Sunu Chandy, Keetje Kuipers, Blas Falconer)
Room 3501 EF, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 3
***
Sunday, MARCH 3, 2024 FROM 5-7PM
TAKOMA PARK, Maryland
PEOPLE’S BOOK
7014-A Westmoreland Ave. Takoma Park, MD 20912
FEATUREd POET alongside fargo nissim tbakhi and kenny carroll
The Green Way Reading Series is a monthly literary event based in Takoma Park, MD curated by Elizabeth Bryant and Takoma Park’s Poet Laureate Taylor Johnson. The series centers emerging and established poets and artists in interdisciplinary, intergenerational and cross-regional dialogues. We want these programs to encourage growing participation and local engagement in the evolving landscape of contemporary poetry.
please RSVP at thIS link
Fargo Nissim Tbakhi is a Palestinian performance artist. Find more at fargotbakhi.com
Kenny Carroll is a writer from DC. He was the 2017 DC Youth Poet Laureate, and in 2019 received the Thomas Lux Scholarship from Sarah Lawrence. His work has been featured in Split This Rock’s The Quarry, EcoTheo Review, Lamplack, and Poetry London among others. He is a Watering Hole, Brooklyn Poets, and Obsidian fellow, and was selected by Roger Reeves as a 2023 Cave Canem Starshine and Clay fellow. You can find him online @Kennyc113.
***
SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2024 AT 6PM
CULPEPER, VIRGINIA
HUNDRED ACRE BOOKS
172 E. Davis Street, Culpeper, VA 22701
Lifting Up Marginalized Voices: Reading and Discussion with Jody Hobbs Hesler, and JEFFREY DALE LOFTON
Please RSVP at this link
***
Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 3pm
Twin Cities (Minneapolis/Saint Paul)
MOON PALACE BOOKS
3032 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Queer Poetry, Stories and Place
ALONGSIDE LOCAL WRITER Gary Eldon Peter
Readings and discussion, with book signings to follow.
PLEASE RSVP AT THIS LINK
***
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at 6pm
bozeman, Montana
Country Bookshelf
28 W Main St, Bozeman, MT 59715
ALONGSIDE LOCAL ARTISTS/ACTIVISTS, KD Chavez, Jasmine James, and Hazel Gonzalez McCord
Please RSVP at this link
Join Country Bookshelf in welcoming visiting poet Sunu P. Chandy alongside KD Chavez, Jasmine James, and Hazel Gonzalez McCord on March 27th at 6pm. 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.
Note: *** Recording of the event available here*** (Sunu’s poems at minutes 17-31)
***
MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2024 from 7-9 PM
QUEENS COLLEGE, CUNY
new books with MFA ALUMNI
alongside Roger Smith
Moderated by Jason Tougaw
QC Art Center, Rosenthal Library 612
Can also join via Zoom: http://tinyurl.com/5d4v4738
***
Saturday, April 13,2024 FROM 3-4:30
BETHESDA, MARYLAND
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR POETRY THERAPY
Healing Community: Poetry as a Force for Collective Transformation & Wellness – Purvi Shah, MA, Sunu P. Chandy, MFA, Poet and Civil Rights Attorney, Vidhu Aggarwal, Ph.D.
Poetry can make bearable the daily traumas of living, as well as give grounding to navigate profound crises. Because of social oppressions and marginalization, poetry is particularly crucial for furthering voice, belonging, justice, and healing for communities of color and LGBTQ+ communities. As poets from these identities, the presenters engage art to heal themselves and their communities while fostering collective wellness and transformation. The presenters will share strategies for how to engage poetry to build community, document struggles, and enable futurist world-building to move toward collective well-being. Through sharing poetry, providing concrete examples of how to further community wellness and transformation, and leading a generative poetry session, this session will enable participants to name and trust their experiences, challenge microaggressions and structural inequity, gain wellness strategies, and stay hopeful to continue to be forces for healing and justice. Together we further an art that moves us toward liberation.
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Thursday, April 18, 2024 from 6-7:30PM
SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI
Subterranean Books
Poetry Month Extravaganza
Join us for a Poetry Month event with visiting poet and civil rights attorney, Sunu P. Chandy, author of My Dear Comrades for a reading and discussion with Dr. Jacob Chacko, the Executive Director of the Center for Diversity & Inclusion and Director of Dialogue Across Difference at Washington University. We are delighted to start the event with readings by two excellent local poets, Elizabeth Hoover and Niki Herd.
RSVP LINK HERE
***
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024 AT 6:15PM
SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI
POETRY READING AND RECEPTION
CENTER FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION - STUDENT AFFAIRS, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
***
Thursday, APRIL 25, 2024 AT 7:30PM
brooklyn, ny
The WOC Writers Workshop® presents Boundaries & Borders - A Literary Exploration of Global Voices
GREENLIGHT BOOKSTORE, FORT GREENE
686 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY 11217
PLEASE RSVP AT THIS LINK
The Women of Color Writers' Workshop, created 25 years ago, addresses the underrepresentation of WOCs in the literary world. Their motto is “Telling Our Stories—Preserving Our Legacy.” WOC Writers provides safe and supportive spaces where women participants engage in creative writing, readings, performances, specialized poetry classes, writing retreats, and publishing opportunities. WOC Writers’ highly anticipated anthology Boundaries & Borders demonstrates the creativity, strength, versatility, and resilience of women across the globe. The Anthology presents works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, essays and prose written by members of the Women of Color Writers’ Community. The writers will discuss their work, along with a reading and book signing. Wine reception to follow.
***
Friday, APRIL 26, 2024 AT 7PM
BETHESDA, MARYLAND
the WRITER’S CENTER
4508 Walsh St, Bethesda MD 20815
Poet Amanda Shaw’s book launch celebration of her debut collection, It Will Have Been So Beautiful (Lily Poetry Review Books), with Sebastian Merrill, followed by a tribute to Sandra Beasley, featuring poets Rekha Mehra, Sunu P. Chandy, and Susan Okie.
Please RSVP at this link
***
Monday, April 29, 2024 - 6-8pm
Takoma Park, Maryland
Busboys and Poets
reading & DiscussionS alongside CASEY CATHERINE MOORE AND SAIDA AGOSTINI
235 CARROLL ST NW, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20012
Please RSVP at this link
***
Friday, May 3, 2024
Boston, MA
Women in the Law - Featured Speaker
Northeastern University School of Law
***
Saturday, May 4, 2024
washington, DC
featured poet - Unitarian universalists Gathering:Embodied Faith for a World on Fire
***
May 15, 2024, 7-9pm
Lost City Books
Spring salon group reading
at the line hotel in adams morgan, DC
with zito Madu (memoir), Catherine Barnett (Poetry), and Lily Meyer (Fiction)
Carina Room / 2468 Champlain Street NW, Washington DC
PLEASE RSVP AT THIS LINK
***
saturday, May 18, 2024
featured author
Gaithersburg Book Festival
poetry panel: Parenting in the Modern World - with Clint Smith and Cynthia Marie Hoffman
Bohrer Park, 506 S. Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD 20877
(NOTE: SUGGESTIONS RE PARKING AND SHUTTLE OPTIONS)
***
FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2024 at 6pm
OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND
THE BUZZED WORD
FOURTH FRIDAYS - POETRY READING
11805 Coastal Highway unit C, Ocean City, Maryland 21842
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Sunday, June 9, 2024, 5-7pm
Richmond, Virginia
Shelf Life Books
PRIDE BOOK FAIR AND READING
2913 W Cary St.,Richmond, VA 23222
***
SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2024, 4:15PM
WASHINGTON, DC
UPTOWN PRIDE:Queers Read This!
Reading & Discussion along w/Jeffrey Dale Lofton and Aaron Hamburger
Second Wind CrossFit, 5509 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20011
***
Saturday, June 22, 2024, 2-3pm
chestertown, Maryland
WITH The Bookplate
pride reading w/Jeffery dale lofton
(5 min walk from the bookstore)
Building at Lawrence Wetlands Preserve
301 S Mill St, Chestertown, MD 21620
RSVP requested at this link
***
Friday, JUNE 28, 2024 - 7PM
Washington, DC - Capitol hill
LITTLE DISTRICT BOOKS
DC PRIDE POEM-A-DAY READING
ALONGSIDE Kim Roberts, Natasha Sajé, and Dan Vera
***
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, JUNE 29-30, 2024
WASHINGTON, DC - NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
LAVENDER CON - QUEER BOOK FESTIVAL
MODERATING PANEL - SUNDAY AT 2:30PM
How Queerness Helps us Thrive
WITH Bree Fram, Lauren R. Taylor & Elyssa Maxx Goodman
***
FRIDAY, July 26, 2024, 5:30-7:30PM
San Francisco, CA
YONI KI BAAT - A SOUTH ASIAN SISTERS ANTHOLOGY
BOOK LAUNCH & READING EVENT
Related August 15, 2024 RADIO Interview on KPFA APEX Express
826 VALENCIA
RSVp at this link
In 2003, South Asian Sisters created Yoni ki Baat, a stage performance in Berkeley, California, written and performed by South Asian and South Asian American women. Inspired by Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking work The Vagina Monologues, YKB gave Desi women the space to share stories and speak candidly about our bodies, our sexualities, our relationships, and our experiences. This book includes a sampling of pieces from the Bay Area productions, and commemorates the 21st anniversary of Yoni ki Baat.
***
Thursday, August 1, 2024 from 7-8pm
In conversation with
Dara Baldwin re her new book
To Be a Problem
The Line Hotel in Adams Morgan
2468 Champlain Street Northwest Washington, DC 20009
RSVP at thiS link
***
Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 10:30am
Lavender Law Panel:Lawyering Creativity from Fashion to Fiction
Speakers:
Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal (Moderator) (Lawyers for Civil Rights)
Alvin Carter (Brown Rudnick)
Sunu Chandy (Democracy Forward)
Busayo Olupona (Busayo NYC)
Melissa Rivero (Lawyers for Civil Rights)
This panel will explore how to leverage legal expertise to help shape culture. Attorneys will explore how their legal background has helped to shape creative endeavors. The panel will feature attorneys who are publishing novels, designing fashion, and advising entrepreneurs in the creative and cultural economy. This panel will explore best legal practices, common pitfalls for those launching their own business, and share paths to success for attorneys looking to explore creative endeavors within their own legal practice and beyond.
***
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2024, 4-5:30PM
Chicago, Illinois
POETRY SALON WITH Chris Aldana
Call & Response Books
1390 E Hyde Park Blvd (entrance on Dorchester)
RSVP requested at this link
***
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2024, 6-8PM
NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS
poetry reading and diScussion Changemaker Series with Saily Joshi
Indian Harvest Restaurant
RSVP at this link, and Tickets here
(Please note: The $50 ticket covers the buffet dinner and space rental)
***
Wednesday, August 28, 2024, 8-9pm
Columbus, Ohio
Two Dollar Radio
POETRY, art & activism
ALONGSIDE Local Poet Mandy Shunnarah, artist, sa’dia rehman, and advocate, Suparna Bhaskaran,Co-Founder of OPAWL
1124 Parsons Ave, Columbus, OH 43206
RSVP Requested at this link
***
AAPI Poetry Workshop and Salon
Mt. Pleasant Library, washington DC
September 5, 2024 from 6-8pm
Poets Regie Cabico, Reg Ledesma, Pacyinz Lyfoung, Sunu Chandy, and Ishanee Chanda will share commissioned poems and attendees will then have opportunity to explore and express themes of Asian and Pacific Islander identity in breakout sessions facilitated by the poets.
Sponsored by Day Eight
***
brooklyn book Festival
Literary MarketPlace - Regal House Table (Booth 225)
sunday, September 29, 2024
from 10:30am-6pm
Come by the Regal House table at the Brooklyn Book Festival during the Literary Marketplace on Sunday, September 29th. Signed copies of My Dear Comrades and other fine books from my publishing mates will be available for purchase.
***
BOOK PUBLICITY AND COMMUNITY BUILDING WEBINAR
IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNICORN AUTHORS CLUB
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2024, 8-9:15PM ET
Unicorn alum, poet, and civil rights attorney Sunu P. Chandy will share insights gained the hard way after a year of organizing successful events around the country following the publication of her first collection, My Dear Comrades (Regal House, 2023). Sunu will be in conversation with Unicorn Authors Club Co-director Raychelle Heath, and all participants will receive a handout with practical takeaways and resources. No recording, to preserve the candid nature of the chat. Some of the proceeds will help to fund Unicorn program scholarships.
RSVP at this link by Oct. 1st (Tickets are $25)
***
Opening night - O.B.Hardison Poetry Series
Folger Shakespeare Library
We the People of the United States…
Establish Justice
poetry reading
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 7:30pm
Moderating a discussion with Claudia Rankine and Yesenia Montilla
The 56th season of the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series opens with Claudia Rankine (Citizen, An American Lyric) and Yesenia Montilla (Muse Found in a Colonized Body) reading from work that explores whether “we, the people” have truly established justice for all. Acclaimed poets Claudia Rankine and Yesenia Montilla will kick off our Whose Democracy? season with a reading that explores themes of justice. Following the reading will be a conversation moderated by poet and civil rights attorney Sunu Chandy and a book signing, with the opportunity to meet the poets.
Tickets to this special evening are $20.
Tickets to virtual access are pay what you will, starting at $10.
Book now at this link to secure your spot.
201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
***
poetry workshop - earlham college reunion
Richmond, Indiana
Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 1:30pm
On the EC Campus and open to reunion attendees. Led with Jeffrey Perkins.
***
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024
LGBTQ+ History Month Guest speaker
for MAYER BROWN
lgbtq+ affinity group event
***
Monday, November 18, 2024
The Color of Surveillance:
SurVeillance/Resistance Conference
Georgetown Law
opening plenary - Poetry as Resistance
In every era, tyranny depends on the triumph of dogmas which cause us to disparage or forget truths we deeply know. In the digital era, one of these dogmas is the idea that knowledge is nothing more than information, and that thinking is therefore nothing more than the fast and accurate processing of information. This is an idea that asks us to forget our embodiment, to forget our connectedness to one another, and to forget our own experiences of confusion and creation. There is no better way to resist this coerced forgetting than through art. We will open our conference with a session about the practice of poetry—reading it, writing it, and sharing it—as a practice of resistance. Sunu Chandy, a poet and lifelong social justice activist, and Michael Colonnese, a poet, teacher and winner of the Privacy Center’s first poetry contest, will share reflections from their life and work, and will lead session participants in a short creative writing exercise.
***
Mid-Atlantic Review
2024 Launch Reading
Sunday, November 24, 2024, 2-3:30pm
MLK Library in downtown D.C.
Publication of The Mid-Atlantic Review 2024 was made possible by individual donors to Day Eight and support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and Mayor Muriel Bowser's Office of AAPI Affairs. This event will include reading by 25 contributor poets, and copies of the magazine are available for purchase in advance. Learn more about the publication and contributors, and get your tickets here.
***
All Souls Unitarian Church Washington, DC
Sharing Reflections and Poetry from the Pulpit
Sunday, December 8, 2024 - 10:30 a.m.
***
O.B.Hardison Poetry Series
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
EMILY DICKINSON BIRTHDAY READING TRIBUTE WITH KIMIKO HANH
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:30-8:30 pm
Moderating the post reading discussion with KIMIKO HAHN
The O.B. Hardison Poetry series, in partnership with co-sponsor, The Emily Dickinson Museum, hosts its annual celebration of Emily Dickinson with a reading by the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award winner Kimiko Hahn. Hahn is the author of ten collections of poetry, including The Ghost Forest: New & Selected Poems. From the political to the personal, and from science to the journals of Matsuo Bashō, the celebrated Haiku poet of Japan, Hahn brings a lyrical gaze to all these subjects and more. Poet and civil rights lawyer Sunu Chandy moderates the post-reading conversation with a book selling and signing to follow the reading.
***
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
bethesda, maryland - Washington Episcopal School
GUEST SPEAKER & poetry workshop leader
Invited guest speaker for Chapel service honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., highlighting the ways that his work continues in the present and how justice moves forward today, and leading a poetry workshop with their middle school students.
***
Monday, February 10, 2025 from 11am-1pm
nashville, Tennessee - music city center
The Metro Human Relations Commission 60th anniversary celebration
Guest speaker - in conversation with Commission Chair and writer, Ben Tran, on civil rights and social justice poetry
The Metro Human Relations Commission invites you to join us in celebrating the 60th anniversary of our creation in 1965. The event will bring together allies and friends to remember how far we’ve come and look ahead to where we’re going.
RSVP LINK
***
Monday, February 10, 2025 from 6:15-7:45PM
nashville, Tennessee - Novelette booksellers
reading and conversation alongside novelist Mary Annaïse Heglar
1101 Chapel Avenue, Suite 108, Nashville, TN 37206
Excited to join novelist, Mary Annaïse Heglar, author of Troubled Waters (Harper Muse, 2024) and The World is Ours to Cherish (Random House Kids, 2024) for a reading in Nashville on February 10, 2025 at Novelette Booksellers, Nashville’s only Queer-owned bookstore. In addition to her novels, Mary is also known for her essays that dissect and interrogate the climate crisis, drawing heavily on her personal experience as a Black woman with deep roots in the South. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, The Nation, The Boston Globe, Vox, Rolling Stone, and other outlets. Her work has also been featured in collections like All We Can Save, The World As We Knew It, The Black Agenda, Letters to the Earth, and Not Too Late. She is originally from Birmingham by way of Mississippi and has found her way back to Birmingham again.
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2025
GUEST SPEAKER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE POETRY CLASS
WITH PROFESSOR Niki Herd, Ph.D.
Franklin & Marshall College
Lancaster, PA
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March 26-29, 2025 - AWP
Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference
Los Angeles, California
MARCH 26, 2025 - 8:30-10:30pm - POETRY
WEDNESDAY NIGHT POETRY WITH KAI COGGIN
670 S. Anderson Street, Los Angeles, CA
Friday, March 28, 2025 - BOOK SIGNING - 2-4pm
AWP BOOK FAIR
POETS HOUSE TABLE, BOOTH 519
Saturday, March 29, 2025 from 12:10pm - 1:25pm
AWP PANEL SPEAKER: BOOKS OF PURPOSE, FROM EMPATHY TO ACTIVISM
Los Angeles Convention Center, Room 515A, Level Two
Many books foster empathy. Some cross into advocacy and activism. What’s different about writing and promoting books of purpose? How can we steward our messages with accountability and integrity? Panelists, representing a range of disciplines and lived experiences, will detail the role advocacy plays in their written work and related events and describe how they strive to ensure that their books are helpful and sensitive to the communities and causes they’re writing about. With Co-Presenters: Jody Hobbs Hesler, Christine Maul Rice, and Halle Hill, and moderator, Viet Dinh. Session Code S188
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Friday, May 9, 2025 from 6-9pm
ILLUMINASIA: ASIA AFTER DARK
COMEDY MUSIC POETRY
Freer Gallery of Art, Courtyard
National Museum of Asian Art
1050 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20004
RSVP REQUESTED AT THIS LINK - FREE TO ATTEND
6-8 pm - Spoken Word featuring Nico Penaranda, Sunu Chandy, Ishanee Chanda, Joe Yuke, Swetha Ramesh & Thu Anh Nguyen with emcee by Regie Cabico.
8-9pm - Musical guest, the Wrizzards
Join us after-hours for a night of spoken word, poetry, comedy, activations, and performance in the West Building, Freer Gallery of Art. Gather, unwind from the long work week, and jam. This event is part of our annual IlluminAsia Festival in celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. All are welcome. Seating and entry is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5pm.
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WEDNESDAY, May 28, 2025 from 7-8pm
FEATURE POET - monthly poetry series
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
3550 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201
RSVP REQUESTED AT THIS LINK - FREE TO ATTEND
Hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington in the Tiffany Gallery, the Poetry Reading Series features established poets, who will share their work through reading and performance. Refreshments and time for Q&A to follow.
On May 28, the feature poet is Sunu P. Chandy (she/her). Chandy 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.
Poetry readings enrich the museum experience by connecting visual and literary arts, and offering a space for poets, like visual artists, to reach an audience and share their work.
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Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 10:00 am
“A Gathering of Our Pride” POETRY MARATHON at THE Find Your Story Festival
Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library
901 G Street NW, Washington, DC
RSVP REQUESTED AT THIS LINK - FREE TO ATTEND
This event is part of the DC Public Library’s day-long festival of LGBTQ+ authors, presented during World Pride 2025. The festival will include readings, panels, workshops, a Walt Whitman walking tour, a small press book fair, and an exhibition on queer print culture in the nation’s capital. The Poetry Marathon takes place on the Library’s 5th floor, overlooking the roof garden, along with the book fair. Sunu will be one of 14 scheduled readers in the morning, from 10am to Noon. Other readers include: AGG, Regie Cabico, Ishanee Chanda, Kim Roberts, Jona Colson, Natalie E. Illum, Hiram Larew, Dwayne Lawson-Brown, Saundra Rose Maley, Tanya Olson, Michelle Parkerson, Malik Thompson, and Dan Vera. Free admission.
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Sunday, JUNE 8, 2025 at 10:30AM
guest preacher - POETRY READING / SERMON
CEDAR LANE UNITARIAN Congregation
Bethesda, Maryland
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Tuesday June 10, 2025 from 7-8PM
Capital Queer Reading
KRAMERS
Kramers is teaming up with Washington Writers' Publishing House to celebrate Pride Month in a big, queer way! Join us on June 10th for a reading by several authors featured in the WWPH anthology, Capital Queer. Jona Colson and Caroline Bock will be hosting the event for these poetry and prose writers who are all local to the DC area. Our line-up will include Jona Colson, Kim Roberts, Luke Sutherland, Dwayne Lawson-Brown, Sunu P. Chandy, and Piérre Ramon Thomas. We will have copies of the anthology available for purchase. Slap on your rainbows and come on down!
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POETRY MUTUAL: THE BEST POETRY BOOKS OF 2023
AUTO STRADDLE: ONE OF FIVE POETRY BOOKS SELECTED FOR THE 65 BEST QUEER BOOKS OF 2023
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER
THE PEN TEN: AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNU CHANDY
CAVALIERI: THE POET AND THE POEM, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS