Maura Modeya

Maura M.M. is a dyke ritual poet and performer from the headwaters of the Mississippi in Bemidji, MN. Their poetry interrogates the pressures between sleep obsession and dyke desire, all within the context of US gun violence and arms of colonialism. Wheatpasting informs her practice by bringing words to public space as acts of queer reclamation and public visual disruption. They’ve grown as a poet and performer in Chicago, rural Montana, and Denver, CO where they host the longstanding rowdy queer poetry reading series, B HOT READ A POEM. Alongside teaching research writing at Naropa University, Maura also teaches workshops about the poetics of disruption, relating the act of wheatpasting and insomnia to values held throughout queer history. Through events, workshops, and performances, they cultivate spaces for necessary disruption, being hot, expression, and connection.