Transcendence is a week long poetry festival in Maine, celebrating, amplifying, and archiving trans and nonbinary poets and artists through workshops, open mics, showcases, panels, poet receptions, and multimedia collaborations.
September 24-29
Belfast • Brunswick • Lewiston • Portland • South Portland • Virtual
Festival Schedule
September 24
Online Workshop with
NOVA CYPRESS BLACK
4-6 PM | Zoom
Register
Festival Pre-Game Party with
QUEER POETS CIRCLE
6:30 PM | The Commons, Belfast
Register
September 25
Online Workshop with
AQUARIUS FUNKK
4-6 PM | TBA
Register
SHOWCASE & SLAM
Festival Kickoff
6:30 PM | Moderation Brewing, Brunswick
Register
September 26
ARISA WHITE
Workshop with
12-2:30 PM | LA Arts, Lewiston
Register
Workshop with
3-4:30 PM | LA Arts, Lewiston
Register
IAN-KHARA ELLASANTE
Poets & Scholars Panel
ARISA WHITE, IAN-KHARA ELLASANTE, BOBBY SANCHEZ
5:30-7 PM | LA Arts, Lewiston
Register
September 27
Gathering
POETS’ BRUNCH
10- 11:30 AM - Second Rodeo, South Portland
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WABANAKI ACTION
Engagement
South Portland - TBA
Online Workshop with
NOVA CYPRESS BLACK
4-6 PM | Zoom
Register
September 28
TPA Showcase & Feature
BOBBY SANCHEZ
7-9 PM | SPACE Gallery, Portland
Tickets
September 29
Gathering
POETS’ CYPHER
4-6 PM | Portland - TBA
Register
Gathering
CLOSING PARTY
Portland - TBA
Meet The Poets
Meet The Poets
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Bobby Sanchez is a rapper, poet, and multidisciplinary artist rooted in Indigenous and queer identity. Raised on Lenape and Siwanoy land, with family from Ayacucho, Peru, her work channels this heritage into music that grapples with Indigenous survival, gender politics, environmental violence, and liberation. Bobby identifies as trans and Two-Spirit, and her art – whether rap, poetry, or performance – reflects lived experience.
Over the past several years, she has released multiple EPs blending hip-hop, spoken word, and political commentary, performed at major Pride stages and poetry slams, and has built a body of work that prioritizes community, decolonial thought, and honest storytelling. Bobby brings an intentional presence to movement spaces, using music not as entertainment, but as a way to tell the truth, hold grief and rage, and strengthen community.
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Ian-Khara Ellasante is a Black, queer, gender-infinite poet, parent, and cultural studies scholar whose work moves across the intersections of identity, history, and imagination. Their poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, earning recognition as a Cave Canem fellow, recipient of the New Millennium Award for Poetry, and finalist for the 2024 National Poetry Series. Today, Ian-Khara teaches at Bates College, located on the occupied and unceded lands of the Wabanaki peoples, the People of the Dawnland, where they continue to explore how literature can both honor lineage and create new futures.
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Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. In collaboration with composer Jessica Jones, Post Pardon: The Opera marked Arisa’s debut as a librettist. Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for both the NAACP Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award. She has also won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Airlie Press Prize. The poem installation, look after your heart is permanently displayed at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. arisawhite.com
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NOVA CYPRESS BLACK (dey/dem/NOVA) writes deir name in all caps as a reminder to take up space as a disabled Black trans gender-expansive storyteller. Deir unruly pen has been supported by Brooklyn Poets, Trans Poetics Archive, Velvetpark Media, Unicorn Authors Club; Tin House; Cave Canem; The Poetry Project; Poets House; the Black Trans Ethical World(un)making Lab; & deir Grammy’s Mississippi spirit. NOVA’s poetry has graced the pages of The Black Ordinary; Strange Horizons, Fifth Wheel Press; among others. Dey were also a Staff Writer on season 3 of Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q & a 2022 GLAAD List Honoree. This genre-defying writer & memory worker pledges allegiance to liberation & pleasure. Dey are currently the Founding Steward of THE BLACK TRANS GAZE GUIDE, a forthcoming digital archive of global cinema by Black trans filmmakers. www.novacypressblack.com
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Lilah Akin is a Penobscot Nation Tribal Member, interdisciplinary artist and 2023 Kindling Grant recipient for Spinning Wampum. She has helped develop site activations around the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, as well as Casco Bay. Lilah performed as an actor in several Indigenous-led performance projects, including a production of My Story is Gluskabe (Penobscot Theatre Company, Bangor). She holds BA degrees in Communication, Digital Media and Geography-Anthropology. Lilah is currently in her second semester as a graduate student in the Stonecoast Creative Writing MFA at USM with a focus in Poetry.
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Dania Bowie (she/they) is a community and resource organizer on Wabanaki land. She is a 2023 Ashley Bryan Fellow, writing poetry, zines, and short stories. When she is not creating art or connecting people, you can find her playing on the water, trekking up a mountain or at home being terrorized by her cat.
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Rheros Iliad Kagoni (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Black individual living in Portland, Maine. A Mainer at heart, Rheros Iliad graduated with bachelors in psychology and currently works in social work, working as a children’s case manager. More known for writing poetry in their social spaces, Rheros Iliad additionally writes fiction and continues to write fiction when they have time. Poems of theirs have been published in The Portland Press Herald’s DeepWater collection, Maine Trans Net’s Art Auction 2023, and From Root to Seed, Black, Brown and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast; their fiction has been published in the University of Southern Maine’s journal of Literature and Art, Island Ink. You can find them online @thatmainepoet on Instagram and Facebook.
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FreeQuency is a Kenyan, Immigrant, Shoga|Queer storyteller, speaker & feeler. The 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 TEDWomen speaker and ranked 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, FreeQuency is a highly sought after performer, host, social justice teaching artist and workshop leader. Rooted in various global communities & having spent their life at the intersection of arts, education and activism, they and|or their work in Reproductive Justice, #BlackLivesMatter organizing & activism, LGBTQ+ advocacy and writing have been featured on The Independent, the New York Times, OkayAfrica, Upworthy, TEDx, For Harriet, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, & other outlets.
FreeQuency is the the founder of A Gate is Leaning: A Black Poetry Series, EMERGENT: A Storytellers Retreat at Foxfire Ranch (2018) and a cofounder of the Afro-Fashion & Culture blog Noirlinians. They are a recipient of the Louisiana’s Worldmakers Grant (2021), The Poets & Writers Project Grants for BIPOC Writers (2020), The Platforms Fund (2018). FreeQuency has also received the Newcomb Alumni Association Young Alumni Award (2020), the Black Out LOUD Excellence in Arts Activism Conference Award (2018), was named one of Gambit's 40 under 40 (2018), an Aspen Ideas Festival Spotlight Health Scholar (2018), one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA 100 Honoree (2018) and has had a dissertation “Slam Poetry vs. Racism: Awakening Awareness and Social Change in FreeQuency’s “Dear White People” and “The Gospel of Colonization (2016) written about their social justice spoken word poetry.
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Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, Maine’s seventh poet laureate for a July 2021-July 2024 term. Follow Maya @emmdubb16 on Instagram and mayawilliamspoet.com
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Mary Sawyer (they/them) is a poet | artist based in Portland, ME. They want to stay in school forever and teach for at least half that time. Enjoyer of beauty and terror. Can be found in Monster Beauties - A Trans Poetics Archive Anthology.
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Dija (any pronouns) is a queer poet, new to sharing their writing publicly. When she’s not working on her poetry, you can find Dija exploring their new found curiosity for hiking/nature walks. Dija is also a 2026 Anthology Editor for Trans Poetics Archive.
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Aquarius Funkk is an Afrofuturist artist currently based on Wabanaki territory (Portland, ME). Performer, producer, designer, facilitator, and world builder – they are an architect of experiences that bend time and shape reality. Their artistry is shaped by the traditions of vogue ballroom, neo-burlesque & drag, surrealism, esoteric practice, and radical performance art. After returning to Maine in late 2024, they began developing a body of work bridging their experiences as a Mainer with their journey living in Mexico for 9 years. This includes writings, photography, experimental films, audio recordings, workshops, and live performance.
Notably, Aquarius debuted a live solo performance entitled The Lone Flamingo at OUTsider Festival in Austin, TX in February 2024. In November 2024, their film Reflections From the Void was shown in the Phull Phantasy virtual showcase during Theyfriend Non-Binary Performance Art Festival. Most recently, they were featured in GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, Issue 32, in the research article (Anti-)Apocalypse and (Kill-)Joy: An OUTsider Conference on the Couch Discussion.
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Samantha McIntire is a poet, writer, and former touring musician and activist who lives on the beautuful Midcoast of Maine. She draws her inspiration from her life as a touring punk rock musician who grew as a trans woman and lesbian. She doesn't shy away from social and political issues, while also not being afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve, writing with a deep, raw, and sincere honesty. Her work has recently been published by Trans Poetics Archive and she can be found regularly performing poetry and music around Maine.
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Beetle Samuel Rooke-Dutton is a poet, author, and community organizer from California who currently lives in Maine. His debut collection of poetry, Deer, Silent and Open-Eyed, which explores natural decomposition in relation to human growth and experience, was published by the Telling Room in August of 2025. He works closely with Maine's queer youth community, creating safe and welcoming spaces that foster connection, inclusion, and growth. He is also passionate about linguistics, culture, hockey, and reading.
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Benjamin Perry is the author of Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter. An award-winning writer and editor, they have been published in outlets like The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, and Teen Vogue, and their work has been featured on NPR, the BBC, TIME, MSNBC and more. A resident of Camden, they serve on the board of OUTMaine and often teach queer theology workshops throughout the state and country. Learn more or connect with them at benjaminjperry.com.
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Veronica Perez is an artist whose work is deeply rooted in the community, exploring themes of erasure, identity, and interdependency through her braiding circles workshops.
In 2020, they were awarded the Ellis-Beaureguard Visual Arts Fellowship, followed by the inaugural fellowship at the David C. Driskell Black Seed Studio at Indigo Arts Alliance in 2021. In 2022, they were a fellow at the Lunder Institute at Colby College, and subsequently had their first solo exhibition titled voices, whispering at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.
In 2023, Perez was awarded the St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist award and the Amelia Peabody award for sculpture excellence. They also had their second solo show at the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery in Gorham titled shadow / echo / memory in the summer of 2023. Recently she was named one of the Maine Artist Fellows for 2024 in fine arts from the Maine Arts Commission.
Currently, Perez works as the Administrative Assistant at a Black-led arts and residency organization, Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, Maine. They are also a co-organizer at Tender Table, an organization dedicated to uplifting Maine’s Black and Brown community through storytelling and food.
Veronica Perez resides in Westbrook, Maine, with their partner and child.
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Mimiges is a member of the Metepenagiag Band of Mi’kmaq. Her name was given to her by her Auntie Anna when she made her transition. It means “butterfly” in Mi’kmaq.
She describes herself as a postcolonial, transracial, urban, Two-Spirit Indigenous woman, or, in other words, she is a lot to encounter. She cares deeply about recovery and discovery, whatever those words may mean to each of us. Her writing and storytelling have explored the experience of transracial adoption. This will be her first time sharing her words about transition.
Mimiges is from Portland, Maine, and recently returned to her hometown after spending a couple of decades away, living in Boston and New York City. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Social Work program at the University of Southern Maine.
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Audrey Gidman is the author of two chapbooks, body psalms (Slate Roof Press), winner of the Elyse Wolf Prize, and griefnotes (Porkbelly Press). She moonlights as a preschool teacher and is the poet laureate of Belfast, Maine (unceded Wabanakik).Audrey Gidman is the author of two chapbooks, body psalms (Slate Roof Press), winner of the Elyse Wolf Prize, and griefnotes (Porkbelly Press). She moonlights as a preschool teacher and is the poet laureate of Belfast, Maine (unceded Wabanakik).
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t love smith (they/themself/we/us) is a queer poet living on unceded Wabanaki land. they are a recent graduate of Stonecoast MFA, founder and development curator of the Trans Poetics Archive which published Maine's first transgender poetry anthology, Monster Beauties, a Finalist for a 2026 Maine Lit Award. t's poem, “from the barrens,” received the 2026 Maine Lit Award for Short Poetry Works.
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