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This is the third in my series of conversations with artist friends where we get to dig a little bit deeper into our own work, reflect on our journeys, and hopefully share something useful. Find the first two here and here.

Official Bio: Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of story. As an ordained priest, a playwright, a theologian, and a writer all of his work revolves around making meaning through story.

I recently got to join Shannon for the release of his new book, “No One Taught Me How to Be a Man: What a Trans Man’s Experience Reveals about Masculinity,” and it was such a fantastic and fascinating read that I thought it might be interesting to have this conversation.

Continue reading “In Conversation: Kyle Tran Myhre & Shannon TL Kearns”

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A table full of resources, with a sign that says "free." Resources include zines and handouts on getting involved with activism, and a copy of "enough is enough: a 150-year performance review of the mpls police dept.

Hey- the news is bad. Things are bad. As an artist (whether that’s a musician, poet, or any other kind of performer or person who shares art publicly), it can be overwhelming when we start to think about our role(s) in all this. When I am overwhelmed, I try to find a small step I can take. This post is about sharing one of those small steps: using arts space as activist space.

There are a million ways to do that, but I’ll keep this post down-to-earth. Here are FIVE examples of activist-oriented handouts, zines, or printed materials you can share, for free, at your merch table. I think part of our work, as artists, is to help get more cool stuff in front of more people. And that includes our art, of course, but it can also include more than that. This is a “small” idea, but its smallness makes it actionable.

A quick note that some of these examples are Minneapolis-focused, but the idea of them can be adapted to other communities, and similar resources already exist in some places.

Continue reading “Five Activist Resources Artists Can Share at Our Merch Tables”

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a collage of images featuring KTM performing, plus a bystander intervention banner, plus the Matthew Shepard Memorial bench.
a little collage of the past month; top right photo by Tish Jones

I mention the three new videos in the post, but here are some direct links:

All three of these poems are in my book, Not a Lot of Reasons to Sing, But Enough.

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a photo of a zine (small paper booklet) featuring a hand releasing butterflies into the air, plus text: "I didn't believe in the fight- the fight made me a believer: for people who want to take action: guante.info/actionzine"

Here is the third in my series of 2025 mini-zines. If the term “zine” is new to you, think of it as a “little magazine,” a self-published booklet designed to be easily printed and shared, wherever it might be useful. The title of the zine is from the song of the same name, from this album.

Lots of people coming into political consciousness in this moment, looking for action to take, and navigating that process can be challenging—hopefully this zine can be something concrete to share with people like that in our lives (or ourselves, if that’s the case!) Possibly useful for giving out at neighborhood cookouts, hobby-based events, family gatherings, classes, and other community spaces.

One brief thought: I know that sometimes lists like “here are 47 books you should read to understand XYZ,” or “here is an unorganized googledoc of 300 gofundmes to donate to,” can be overwhelming. So I think it’s worth making explicit that no one person, or even organization, has to do everything here. The idea is to browse all this, take that 10,000-foot view, and continue moving toward where you fit in. In my experience, hearing about concrete examples of action is inspirational, even if that doesn’t end up being the same action I’m going to take. I hope there can be some seed-planting, and seed-watering, in all these examples.

HERE is a PDF of the printable/foldable version (on basic 8.5×11 paper). I cut/fold my zines like this. Though the more I do this, the more I realize that are alternate ways of doing that z-fold! So just be careful that the cover ends up on the front; take a few tries if you need to.

And the full text is below.

Continue reading “Something to Share with Friends and Neighbors Asking “What Do We DO?””

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a photo of a zine (small paper booklet) with the words "Let Every Word Be A Wrench In Their Machine: Writing Prompts: a collection of writing prompts for poets, emcees, songwriters, and other creative communicators"

Find even more activist-oriented writing prompts here.

Another new zine, another ongoing work-in-progress. I’m sharing some of my favorite writing prompts: for poets of course, but also for songwriters, emcees, and writers of all kinds.

It’s probably clear that my list favors political, movement-oriented, and activist-leaning prompts. There’s a reason for that: things are bad right now. They were bad last year, and every year before that too, but we should also be clear-eyed about the immense amount of work and struggle in front of right now. As always, art isn’t the only thing we need. As always, we do need art. Writing can help frame issues, shift narratives, and just bring people together. It won’t just happen inevitably, though; let these prompts be invitations for us all to be proactive and intentional.

Only other thing I’ll share here is that I also tend to favor “non-traditional” writing prompts. I like prompts that don’t point the way to a single poem or song, but rather to an impulse, a way of approaching our writing. These are prompts someone could use more than once, and write completely different pieces every time.

Here’s a link to a PDF for anyone who wants to print, cut, and fold the zine version (some directions here).

AND HERE’S THE FULL TEXT OF THE ZINE, PLUS SOME ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Continue reading “Let Every Word Be A Wrench In Their Machine: Writing Prompts”

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A guiding question for artists, activists, and community-builders: If social media did not exist, how would you share your art, promote your work, and/or communicate your values?

***UPDATE: Here is a link to the zine version, printable on standard 8.5×11 paper (folding directions here)***

This resource is a work-in-progress that I’ve been brainstorming around with some friends (some of whom are cited below). I just wanted to share it now, so people can start to use it, debate it, add to it, and grapple with it, because (1) I think a *lot* of people are considering leaving social media right now, more so than previous waves of departures; and (2) The question of how we spread the word about stuff we care about, while AI runs amok and social media platforms devour themselves… is not just a question for indie bands and slam poets. It speaks directly to this historical moment—for organizers, movement-builders, and beyond.

Even in a world in which we do use social media, I think it can be useful to frame those platforms as “extras.” I tend to believe that social media success reflects outreach more than it actually drives it, and we can do more to get people excited about our events and projects than just posting about them (even if we’re also posting about them).

Take a look at the landscape: Twitter is dead, Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) are dying, TikTok was literally banned (and its future seems uncertain), and other platforms like YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn, etc. are not reliable unless you’re dedicating 100% of your energy to them. I like Bluesky so far, I guess, but it’s still relatively small. So where does that leave us?

Continue reading “Promoting Our Projects, Events, and Values BEYOND Social Media”

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Just a quick note that I’ve UPDATED my post sharing links, readings, and resources for people looking to get involved (maybe for the first time) with activism and organizing beyond just voting. It was originally set up in 2022, but has some new content that I’d recommend checking out.

I know not everyone is ready for “okay, so what do we do next?” content, and it’s good to take time to process and feel what we feel. But I made a commitment to myself to share that link no matter the outcome of the election, and for those who are looking for next steps, hopefully it can be useful:

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Framing: Beyond the what-I-hope-is-obvious point that Trump is a fascist scumbag and we shouldn’t vote for him, there are people in my life genuinely struggling with what we *should* do this year, between the threat of Trump/Project 2025 on one side, and both parties’ ongoing support for the genocide in Gaza on the other. Here, I’m not giving anyone any answers, just offering a few thoughts, plus a bunch of links to people smarter than me grappling with that question.

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In 2020, I shared this poem about how I think about voting. The big takeaway is really just repeating what I’ve heard from organizers and activists my whole life: Change comes from mass movements, and voting is a small but meaningful piece of what must be a larger movement-building strategy. No candidate will give us the world we want, and both major parties are invested in capitalism and empire—but there are also meaningful differences between them, and those differences both impact people’s lives now and create organizing opportunities for the future. 

I stand by all of that… in the context of 2020. I’d be lying if I said that 2024 feels exactly the same. 

I think a central tension this year is that the following two points both make sense: 

Continue reading “The “right now” work of elections, and the “all-the-time” work of movement-building”