KINSALE DRAKE: Hummingbird Heart

KINSALE DRAKE

poet, playwright, curator

Blending everything from memory,

land/body relationships, and

contemporary identity to rock music,

Kinsale drake’s poetry is part of a

new era of young writers pushing the

boundaries of genre.

The incredibly talented and boundlessly creative Kinsale Drake is a poet, playwright, and editor of Changing Wxman Collective (a digital space where BIPOC of marginalized genders can share their art, writing, and stories on their own terms https://changingwxmancollective.org/about- ). She is a college student at Yale spending the summer on tour after her recent publication with Alice Mao, Hummingbird Heart (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022), from June 10th - August 24th, doing pop-up readings and events. Past events have featured artists Nanibaah, Mato Wayuhi, Amber McCrary, Taté Walker, Sareya Taylor, and more.

Can you tell us a little more about your project?

Hummingbird Heart is a zine published in collaboration with artist Alice Mao. It was published through Abalone Mountain Press ( https://www.abalonemountainpress.com/ ), a Diné woman-owned press existing on occupied Akimel O'odham and Pee-Posh land. They focus on zines, chapbooks, and other work by Native writers. I highly suggest checking them out for more information.

So for the poetry and zine readings, the tour centers on themes within Hummingbird Heart– queerness, what the “female gaze” looks like, shit you’re typically not “supposed” to bring up casually but want to make space for. I have a lot of other poems and works that have been published that align with these concepts, so I bring those into the world of these readings, too.

The zine was born from a conversation with Alice. We both grew up super into graphic novel styles and were both queer POCs. I used to illustrate my own little comics for fun and wanted to incorporate something like that into my work again. Leslie Hung and Natasha Allegri– something about the way they drew girls really captivated me as a preteen. Alice’s style is fantastic, kind of that same mystery and allure we got to play off of. So we decided to collaborate and thus this zine was born. I believe Alice was a sophomore at Yale, and I was at that time a senior. So she’d draw something and I would write back to the drawing, or I would write a poem, and then Alice would draw something in response. 

We formatted and created the book ourselves, but to first kick off the launch, we made Riso prints of some early page designs and sold those to raise funds for land defenders protesting the Line 3 Pipeline. 

What do you hope people take from this experience?

I hope people read, share, and take away a love for creating. I want people excited about writing and the chance to share art with others without fear of being tokenized and constrained by expectations. I was someone who for a long time didn’t know themselves as an artist; I got thrown into the spotlight and felt forced to write things I felt obligated to, as I know is the case for a lot of young artists. But I want people coming to these events to know that they can write about anything they want. Hello Kitty, cute girls, spam cans, write about shit you love. Really get a chance to enjoy your work, even if it’s something that you don’t normally hear people talk about onstage. Know that you can do it, too; you can write those stories you want to see and hear.