In Conversation

Olivia Gatwood reads from her new collection, Life of the Party, at the KiMo Theater. Gatwood will be in conversation with a poet to be announced. Event is at 7 pm, doors at 6:30 pm

Tickets are $17, admit one with a signed paperback copy of Life of the Party and the option to add a free date ticket.

TICKETS

About Life of the Party:

A dazzling debut collection of raw and explosive poems about growing up in a sexist, sensationalized world, from a thrilling new feminist voice.

i'm a good girl, bad girl, dream girl, sad girl 
girl next door sunbathing in the driveway 
i wanna be them all at once, i wanna be 
all the girls I've ever loved 
--from "Girl" 

Lauded for the power of her writing and having attracted an online fan base of millions for her extraordinary spoken-word performances, Olivia Gatwood now weaves together her own coming-of-age with an investigation into our culture's romanticization of violence against women. At times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant, Life of the Party explores the boundary between what is real and what is imagined in a life saturated with fear. Gatwood asks, How does a girl grow into a woman in a world racked by violence? Where is the line between perpetrator and victim? In precise, searing language, she illustrates how what happens to our bodies can make us who we are.

Olivia Gatwood has received national recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as an educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. She is the author of the poetry chapbook New American Best Friend, and her poems have appeared in such publications as Muzzle magazine, Winter Tangerine, Poetry City, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and The Missouri Review. As a finalist at Brave New Voices, Women of the World Poetry Slam, and the National Poetry Slam, Gatwood has been featured on HBO, HuffPost, MTV, VH1, and the BBC, among other media outlets. She is a full-time touring artist, and has performed at more than two hundred schools and universities worldwide.

"Olivia Gatwood is a revolution of woman, a flurry of insight harnessing the language of self-assessment and acceptance. Her poems invite a contemporary understanding of sexuality and the feminine form, feminism and inclusion, intersection and advocacy. Her metaphors and images are both breath and being. This book is an offering to the silenced, for firepower and reflection. A haystack of hallelujahs resides in these pages." --Mahogany Browne, author of Black Girl Magic