Poems & More for LGBTQ Pride Month

From the Archive: Ephemera Slideshow

June Jordan's 1978 postcard to Kathy Engel

Audre Lorde's 1971 reading flyer, front and back 

A letter from Adrienne Rich to Betty Kray, the first Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets

A poster advertising a New York City reading in 1970 by June Jordan sponsored by the Academy of American Poets

Featured Poets

Kazim Ali
Born to parents of Indian descent, Ali is the author of The Far Mosque and The Fortieth Day, among other collections.

Natalie Diaz
Born in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, Diaz is the author of When My Brother Was an Aztec. In 2018, she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Jan-Henry Gray
Author of Documents, chosen by D. A. Powell as the winner of 2018 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Gray co-hosts Meanwhile, a zine-making and storytelling show in Chicago

Saeed Jones
Co-host of Buzzfeed's AM to DM, Jones is the author of Prelude to Bruise, which Flavorwire called "perhaps the readiest, most painfully assured debut of the decade."

Federico García Lorca
Considered one of the most important Spanish poets and dramatists of the twentieth century, Lorca worked with composers, painters, and actors throughout his career. He is widely known for his work on "Theory and Play of the Duende"

Dawn Lundy Martin
In addition to receiving the 2019 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Martin is also the co-founder of the Third Wave Fund.

Rajiv Mohabir
Winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize for his book The Cowherd's Son, Mohabir also received the 2014 Intro Prize in Poetry by Four Way Books for The Taxidermist's Cut. 

Frank O'Hara
A figure in both the literary and visual art worlds of the 1950s and 60s, O'Hara is associated with the New York School of poetry. His poems contain impromptu lyrics, witty banter, journalistic parodies, and pop culture references.

Pat Parker
Pat Parker was the author of Movement in Black, and actively involved in the civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights movements on the West Coast.

Raquel Salas Rivera
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry, Rivera is the poet laureate of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

May Swenson
Born into a large Mormon family, May Swenson moved to New York's Greenwich Village as a young woman. Her poems often employ sensual images and erotic language.

Ocean Vuong
Author of the T. S. Eliot Prizewinning collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Vuong was born in Saigon, VIetnam, and immigrated to the United States at the age of two. 

Online Resources

GLBTQ Archives
An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer literature and culture

Lambda Literary
A resource for LGBTQ book awards, reviews, author interviews, opinion, and literary news

ONE Archives
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries is the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world