Chrysanthemum Tran

cantfindit

Chrysanthemum Trann is a Vietnamese American poet, writer & performer. She is the recipient of a 2018 MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation, a 2019 Artist in Residence at Williams College. Chrysanthemum burst onto the poetry slam scene in 2016 when she became the first trans woman finalist of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Featured in The New York Times, Chrysanthemum has work in/on Button Poetry, The Nation, Them, Muzzle, The Bettering American Poetry Vol. 2 anthology, among others. With poet Justice Ameer, she debuted the two-woman show, ANTHEM, at the American Repertory Theater’s OBERON. She is a 2016 Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 FEMS Poetry Slam Champion and a Pink Door Fellow. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Chrysanthemum currently resides in Rhode Island. Source

Behold! A Spectacle

all those historical revisionists got it wrong / stonewall was a parade / procession of contagious breath / illicit ceremony of rubber clubs & handcuffs / grinding on dance floors / built on smashed glass / own this history / girl / tuck this inheritance / into your heels / wear each queen’s split skull / like a crown / remember this / when you walk home alone / afraid of men who name you / pretty thing / praying they don’t come closer / you can already imagine them / draping your majestic body across the pavement / bleeding disco lights & spilling all over / each fist raised in celebration / full of so much party / laughing / cheering you on / to your own funeral march

Published:

2016

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2023

Themes:

LGBTQ+ Experience

Memory & The Past

Literary Devices:

Allusion

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference

Enjambment

a line break interrupting the middle of a phrase which continues on to the next line

Varied Punctuation

diverse use of punctuation.