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As people with platforms, especially here in the U.S., we have a chance to share more than thoughts and prayers.

11/18/23 Update: Editing this post to be a hub for a few things I’ve been sharing:

A photo of attendees of a march, facing away from the camera. Multiple Palestinian flags are visible; in the foreground, a Palestinian flag and a “land back” flag fly from the same pole. Over the photo, text: “FIVE NOTES FOR ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS WHO WANT TO SPEAK OUT ABOUT PALESTINE BUT AREN’T SURE HOW: by Kyle Tran Myhre; read the full piece at bit.ly/SpeakOutRacket

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Just wanted to share a few good links and a specific thought about how they’re all connected. For more background (especially if you’re looking for more foundational info/context about Gaza), you can also check out the bundle of links I’ve shared on my “recommended reading” page.

NDN Collective’s solidarity statement featuring the text “cease fire: settler colonialism is at the root of the violence in Gaza” + “read our full statement at ndncollective.org” + an image of a silhouette holding up a Palestinian flag.
Jewish Voice for Peace’s solidarity statement featuring the text “JVP Statement: the root of violence is oppression” + “10/7/2023”
The Audre Lorde Project’s solidarity statement featuring the text “free Palestine: ALP stands with the people of Palestine and with all colonized & oppressed peoples fighting for liberation around the world” + an image of a Palestinian flag with brown fists raised.

The focus of this post is solidarity statements. Check out this guide from Building Movement Project that talks about what they are, why they matter, and questions/variables to consider when writing one.

That being said, it’s always important to first acknowledge and center statements (and specific calls to action) from groups representing, and/or connected to, the people most directly affected by an issue. In this case, that might mean looking to orgs like US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestinian Feminist Collective, etc.—not necessarily as absolute authorities, since no one group speaks for all of the Palestinian people, but as crucial starting points. What news are they sharing? What are their calls to action?

As of this writing, those calls to action might include contacting elected reps to support a ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian aid corridors, attending a local march or protest to show solidarity and gain media attention, and doing more in-depth political education and narrative-shifting work in your community. Another call to action, especially for those of us connected to organizations, might be to write a solidarity statement. A few examples:

Continue reading “Gaza, Media Literacy, and What We Can Learn from Solidarity Statements”

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New music! 10 emcees, singers, poets, DJs & producers from 3 states RUNNING AMOK.

I’m excited to share this new project, helmed by production duo Scum & Villainy (two longtime friends and collaborators, SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE and Rube); I’m featured on six of the seventeen tracks, and it was so much fun to just share some verses (and a poem) and see how they ended up contributing to the actual songs.

The whole album is beautiful, in that it’s intentionally chaotic. The soundscapes, the multiple voices, the concepts—it all adds up to something that reminds me of my own entry point into Hip Hop: deeply collaborative, off-kilter, against-the-grain music from acts like Goodie Mob, Wu-Tang, De La Soul, and beyond. Not that this actually sounds anything like those groups, haha; it’s more about the spirit of it.

Get it on Bandcamp, and/or stream it wherever you listen to music.

A few personal highlights:

  • From track 3: We pledge allegiance to no nation, only the land underneath it / The reason, the culture that we breathe in / No banners, borders, or binaries to believe in…
  • From track 6: Now I’m full hearts, new mission before me / Future’s so bright we’re forced to share a photosensitivity warning…
  • From track 12: They put the pedal to the metal and were gone, runnin’ free / But me, I’d rather meddle in some petals like a honey bee / And stay rooted and in tune with the hive / That scum and villainy vibe, that criminal life / of rhythm and rhyme when powers that be want want us to shut up / We use the power of bees, like buzz buzz buzz / Best line I ever wrote / won’t be taking questions, the comment section’s closed…
  • Also, tracks 4 and 9 feature reworked versions of poems from my book.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends of ALL genders: Welcome to the year of no surrender - guante
press any button to begin as long as it’s not skip Let’s clip through every wall, every border Our allegiance is to the bugs not the bosses Player one take no losses, and give no quarter - guante
this is a love song, a death rattle, a battle cry this is the ugly truth instead of a beautiful lie this is the point of the performance: they want us to forget it but fire is the language we were born with - guante

Thanks to everyone checking it out. More new music on the way…

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Survival is not a fortress; it is a garden.

This past July, I got to open up for Rudy Francisco here in Minneapolis at Icehouse, and used it as an opportunity to formally “debut” a poem I’ve been working on for months, probably my favorite new thing that I’ve written since my book came out. As always, I like the share a few notes on the process, as well as the full text below.

Continue reading “When It Really Is Just the Wind, and Not a Furious Vexation”

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NOTE: This new zine is part of a limited-edition zine bundle I’m making available via Button Poetry. I normally just give all my zines away for free; the bundle is meant for people who aren’t able to see me in-person; the price covers just a portion of the printing costs. Preorders are available now.

As with all my zines, the FULL text is free and accessible online. Especially with this one, which is less of my own writing and more a curated list of cool quotes and resources, it’s important to me that people who need it can get it.

Framing

The rectangular cover of a zine featuring the text "of what future are these the wild, early days? resources for emerging movement-builders

Over the last decade that I’ve been traveling and performing, a big pet project of mine has been finding ways to invite people into activist work. Even when I’m brought in to facilitate conversations specifically about masculinity, or consent, or whiteness or whatever, I try to help those conversations “land” in a space of agency and possibility—yes, the problems we face are big and intimidating, but they’re not inevitable or insurmountable.

That’s a simple idea, but in this historical moment, it’s easy to lose sight of. I think more people than ever are fired up and want to do something, but there are also more “off-ramps” for that energy than ever before. Our outrage can get channeled into performative social media posting, into passively ingesting hyper-online leftist podcaster/youtuber content, into voting and nothing beyond voting, into cool-kid doomer cynicism, into anxiety around being the most politically-tuned-in individual we can be, and on and on.

So many of the young people I work with today have incredible politics, light-years ahead of where I was at their age, but not a lot of experience with, or exposure to, perspectives on organizing. And to be clear, I’m not any kind of expert, or even a full-time organizer. I’ve just had the privilege of having some great mentors and being plugged into powerful movement spaces, so I’m trying to use what platform I have to pass along some of what I’ve learned.

This zine (what’s a zine?) is the synthesis of a bunch of conversations related to all that. It mixes some foundational perspectives with some really recent ones. Something that should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway because we’re on the internet: it’s not comprehensive. It’s not “everything you’ll ever need to know about activism.” It’s just a 12-page zine. The idea is that it’s a sampling, a small collection of potential starting points, doorways into movement work.

Because crisis often happens (or feels like it happens) all at once; preventing crisis is longer-term, all-the-time work. This is about how we might step into that work.

The full text of the zine is below; as is the case with all my zines, I also have physical copies, and you get them for free at events where I’m performing. If you’re an educator, activist, or just someone who can put them to use, feel free to reach out (you can contact me via my booking form) and we can discuss bulk orders. Instagram carousel version here.

Continue reading “Of What Future Are These The Wild, Early Days? (Resources for Emerging Movement-Builders)”

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Why does this apocalypse feel so familiar?

New song, our first in five years! Get it wherever you listen to music (spotify, apple music, etc.), or right here:

Official Blurb: In 2018, Minneapolis-based duo Guante & Big Cats released War Balloons, an album of anthemic, explicitly political, sci-fi-tinged indie Hip Hop. To mark the five-year anniversary of that project (and its reintroduction to streaming services after being missing for a time), they’re releasing an “extended version” featuring a brand new track, Roguelike.

My Own Notes: The new song is part of a re-released version of our 2018 album, War Balloons. It’s available NOW. Nothing else on that project has changed; the reason for the re-release is just some technical stuff on the back end, and the new song is free, so if you already bought the album, you don’t have to buy it again. And if you missed it five years ago (aka a million years ago), here’s an opportunity to catch it. Like a lot of artists, I tend to dislike everything I did that’s older than a month or so, but I’m still pretty proud of this one. It features some of my best songwriting, and Big Cats is always brilliant. Some extended thoughts on the new song below.

Quick, somewhat related note: If you’re reading this post today (Saturday, June 17, 2023), come see me perform at the Stone Arch Bridge Festival tonight in Minneapolis. It won’t be a G&BC set, but I’ll be sharing poems and songs over See More Perspective’s live production. 6-7pm on the Cities 97 stage.

an album cover: purple jellyfish float in a dark sky over a nondescript horizon. The text reads "guante & big cats: war balloons (extended)"
a square featuring the text "roguelike: guante & big cats" plus an image of a person at the end of a dark tunnel.
Continue reading “Guante & Big Cats: ROGUELIKE (plus revisiting the War Balloons album)”

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Honored to contribute a poem; check it out, along with all the other contributions too.

The cover of the RJ Zine, featuring the text “reproductive justice: a university of minnesota women’s center zine collaboration along with various images of human beings with children, trees, mountains, and sunsets.
Cream background, three art panels in the bottom 3rd of the image with a tree, a mountain, and sun reflecting on water. Text from top to bottom reads: Pick up your zine copy! / Come to the Women's Center lounge in Appleby Hall Room 65 during one of the following times to pick up your copy!* / [In bold] Tuesday May 2nd, 11:30AM-12:30PM and 2:30PM-4:30PM / Wednesday May 3rd, 11AM-12PM and 1PM-4PM / Thursday May 4th, 11AM-12PM and 2�PM-3:30PM / [in italics] *Limit 1 copy/person. While supplies last. We will offer second round print delivery and pickup in a couple weeks based off demand!*

What is Reproductive Justice? I’ve always appreciated SisterSong’s framing:

SisterSong defines Reproductive Justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. We believe that Reproductive Justice is…

  • A human right. RJ is based on the United Nations’ internationally-accepted Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a comprehensive body of law that details the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of government to protect those rights.
  • About access, not choice. Mainstream movements have focused on keeping abortion legal as an individual choice. That is necessary, but not enough. Even when abortion is legal, many women of color cannot afford it, or cannot travel hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic. There is no choice where there is no access.
  • Not just about abortion. Abortion access is critical, and women of color and other marginalized women also often have difficulty accessing: contraception, comprehensive sex education, STI prevention and care, alternative birth options, adequate prenatal and pregnancy care, domestic violence assistance, adequate wages to support our families, safe homes, and so much more.
Continue reading “New Reproductive Justice Zine from the UMN Women’s Center”

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I used to more frequently do “here’s what I’m up to” posts, but that feels like a relic of an earlier internet time. Still, there’s a lot happening, so I figured I’d share some info here so it can be in a central place rather than a bunch of random social media posts.

NPR Tiny Desk Concert as part of Fred Again’s set

Check it out! Fred sampled my poem “Love in the Time of Undeath” for the song “Kyle (I Found You)” and the result if gorgeous. It’s the first song in his set, and I even appear as a video ghost performing the poem.

While Kyle (i found you) uses a sample of my work, we did a proper collaboration for his song Berwyn (all that i got is you); my poem/voice comes in during the second half of that song.

Uhhh and hey check out this video of me up on the big screen at Lollapalooza!

Continue reading “Tiny Desk appearance, National Poetry Month performances, new video sampler, etc.”

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a photo of the book "not a lot of reasons to sing, but enough" next to lego representations of the book's main characters, Gyre and Nary.

This piece is from my book. Not a Lot of Reasons to Sing, But Enough is more-or-less a poetry book (find all the poems/videos we’ve released from it so far here), but it’s written from the perspective of various characters; sometimes, those characters do other things beyond writing and performing poems—they have conversations, get into arguments, tell stories, and participate in panel discussions. In this excerpt, the robot poet Gyre has been invited to be part of a panel discussion; Gyre doesn’t want to, though, so makes their apprentice Nary do it instead.

All Advice is Bad Advice, Including the Advice that All Advice is Bad Advice

The Library of the Road has brought together three professional wordsmiths for a panel discussion on advice for aspiring writers. The three writers, along with a moderator representing the Library, sit on stools inside a communal hall where a few dozen attendees sit on benches. The Library’s traveling collection of texts lines the sides of the hall; a few wanderers browse through the books and scrolls.

Continue reading “All Advice is Bad Advice, Including the Advice that All Advice is Bad Advice (Book Excerpt)”