Oh midwest moms. Always with the pithy sayings. Always with the casseroles. Always thinking their children have too much self esteem.

COME SUPPORT! JUNE 18TH AT 6 PM in Brooklyn 349 Van Brunt Street

In this fun and funny outdoor event, the hilarious and gentle-nurturer nonbinary storytelling comedian Kelli Dunham hosts some of New York’s most interesting imports: midwestern performers!

Kelli, who is an ex-nun, ex-evangelical and ex-Wisconsinite (“sorry, I was never a cheesehead” Kelli explains) works in a New York City public school where Kelli cooks breakfast for the kids two days a week (because middle aged midwestern queer, what else would Kelli do?)…this event is free, but we’ll pass the hat to raise money for the Breakfast Project!*

AND WE’RE HAVING.A MIDWESTERN COMPETITIVE COMMUNITY POTLUCK. PRIZES (AND TROPHIES…YES REAL LIVE TROPHIES) IN THE CATEGORIES:

BEST USE OF JELLO// BEST USE OF BACON//GLITERRIEST DISH

ALSO, BEST RENDITION (either classic or best modification for a NYC audience) of a recipe from Kelli’s mom’s personal recipe collection:

PERFORMERS INCLUDE:
Kristen Meinzer
Stephanie Shroeder
Lisa Haas
Srilatha Rajamani

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Kristen Meinzer
Kristen Meinzer is the co-host, By The Book / Movie Therapy with Rafer & Kristen / The Royal Report from Newsweek and the author of _So You Want to Start a Podcast_ and co-author of How to Be Fine. kristenmeinzer.com

Lisa Haas
Lisa Haas is a comedy writer and actor working in film, television, theatre, voiceover, and education! She LOVES it when people pay a visit to her website: lisa dash haas dot com where you can find queerness and comedy galore!

Stephanie Schroeder
Stephanie Schroeder is a freelance writer based in New York City. She is also New York Certified Peer Specialist and works in the field of housing and homelessness. Stephanie is a widely published journalist, and her nonfiction writing is included in the classic queer anthology That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, as well as in Here Come the Brides: Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage, and Easy to Love, But Hard to Live With: Real People, Invisible Disabilities, True Stories, among other collections. www.stephanieschroederauthor.com

Srilatha Rajamani
Srilatha Rajamani (she, her), stand up comedian, story teller and comedy’s biggest K-pop fan originally from Boston and now in New York. She performs wherever she is asked, in real and virtual words. She tries to makes sense of her world and experiences as a middle aged queer Indian immigrant woman with her comedy. She was most recently featured Asian Comedy Festival in New York.

Big thanks to Deb Malkin of Deb Malkin Body Positive Wellness Coaching for donating our performance venue!
https://debmalkin.com/

About Kelli

Kelli Dunham is the ex-nun nonbinary storytelling author nurse nerdcomic ubiquitous in modern Brooklyn. Kelli has appeared on Showtime and the Discovery Channel, the Moth Mainstage, the Cinderblock Comedy Festival, the Risk podcast, the Gotham Storytelling Festival, and nationwide at colleges, prides, fundraisers and even the occasional livestock auction.

Kelli’s latest comic storytelling album, Not the Gym Teacher, was directed by Gastor Almonte and has been called “hilarious” (Comedy Cake) “honest and generous” (The Serious Comedy Site) and “hilariously honest” (The Advocate). Apparently, it’s pretty honest. Kelli was nominated as a 2105 White House Champion of Change for her work as the co-founder and producer of Queer Memoir, NYC’s longest-running most super earnest LGBT storytelling event.

Queer Eye’s Jonathan VanNess once called Kelli’s hair “everything” and Bill DeBlasio once called Kelli “a show off.” To Kelli’s face.

*We really don’t want to call it the Breakfast Club because like all 80s movies, it’s such a frickin mess. I mean yeah of course we liked it but it’s still too messed up for 2022.

DO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE BREAKFAST PROJECT AND MAKE SURE KIDS IN BROOKLYN GET A HOT HOMECOOKED BREAKFAST EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY? YOU CAN VENMO KELLI (SEE BELOW) OR PAYPAL KELLIDUNHAM@GMAIL.COM. If you’d like to donate a larger amount and need a tax receipt, email kelli@counselinginschools.org and she’ll set you up.

Hey, we’ve got another crowd-sourced experiential zine, this time chock full o tips about creative self-soothing. We’re on a mission to improve all of Kelli’s formerly released zines for access reasons (comics are impossible for screen readers, but you probably already knew that) but in the meantime, we made a video version as well as a workaround.

Hey y’all. This was developed for Queer Memoir I Hate The Holidays but we’re opening it up to everyone because seriously everyone needs this right now. Including non queers because well, Trump and covid deniers and closet racist cousins and NOT closet racist cousins. Enjoy. If you’d like to contribute to the Queer Memoir effort, including contributing to workshops so that folks who have a story to tell but have never been on the stage can develop their work, you can buy a ticket for Queer Memoir Assumptions (1/23 at Caveat NYC but also livestreaming from anywhere 4 pm ET) . Or you can paypal us a contribution here.

A PDF from the workshop Fight Flight Freeze Laugh is here is below. I don’t think it will be totally self evident but if you’re registered for BV you can rewatch the workshop or if you have any questions you can reach out to me kellidunham@gmail.com or 215.964.1963.

Here’s the stop motion animation about peeing myself on the B Train

Here’s the stop motion animation about why you shouldn’t go white water rafting at the same time as a cub scout jamboree.

Coloring sheet: It’s Okay To Laugh At The Funny Parts

Here are the health-related zines:

You Don’t Have To Love Your Body To Take Care Of It

How To Find A Supportive Gyn Even If You’re Queer, Traumatized or Live Way Out In the Sticks

Strategy Words For Self Advocacy

Hey Let’s Go Get A Pap Exam

Def check it out!

Wow. I have to say, y’all made my little nonbinary heart sing today. Thanks for being such active participants through chat, thanks to the great facilitators M and Y (I didn’t write down the spellings of your names, so sorry) and for just being PRESENT. So I’m linking a few things below:

The notes from the session, divided by what topic folks were responding to. I took out all info that could possibly identify anyone (eg if you named your job I took that out) while trying to keep all the valuable thoughts, tips and contributions intact.

This is the powerpoint from today.

If you want me to email you when we put together the trans grief ritual, add your email address here. The email list will be ONLY for this specific project, and it’ll just be a few emails when we make it happen, maybe at PTWC next year, maybe before that online.

If you want to keep up on what I’m up to in general, you can follow me on social media:

 youtube & twitter & Instagram. If you need a laugh, youtube is the place to go, I’ve been working on stop motion animations of my um. misadventures, like White Water Rafting While Genderqueer 

If you’re looking for other resources, I have a bunch of healthcare-related zines, coloring sheets on my free resources page. And if you don’t see what you need, email me at kellidunham@gmail.com or text me at 215.964.1963. Oh and also, if you need help learning to ask for help (that’s kind of meta, isn’t it?) I put up some resources on this topic here.

OH ALSO, I’M A TRAUMA INFORMED COMEDIAN. Want me to come to your college? A full PDF to convince the rest of the folks at the LGBT center that I’m awesome can be found…

Did you come here after Kelli’s workshop on The Fine Art of Asking For And Accepting Help?

Here are the resources Kelli referenced-

Kelli’s zine You Don’t Have To Love Your Body To Take Care Of It includes a lot of info about asking for help/assistance in health care situations.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s account of Creating Collective Access at the AMC in Detroit. A really beautiful example of mutual aid in action, and a reminder that nondisabled folks are building their mutual aid on the work that’s been done by other groups (folks with disabilities, poor communities and communities of color) for generations.

Dean Spade writing about mutual aid (really academic but has some great history) and a practical guide from AOC’s office.

If you’re struggling with asking for help, sometimes 12 step programs such as Codependent’s Anonymous, Al-Anon and ACOA can be helpful. Sometimes. They often include a whole lotta God talk which doesn’t suit everyone and some folks find the framework too rigid for their taste. But if you need support to start prioritizing your own needs, a meeting might not hurt. Most local groups host their own online meetings but there’s also a bunch hosted here.

Come here after the NYC Gender Conference? It was great to share with y’all!

Here are some of the resources we talked about:

Easily printable version of You Don’t Have To Love Your Body To Take Care Of It

Strategy Words For Medical Self Advocacy

Mick Measuring Spoons Moran has a great template for a one page health cheat sheet here

If you’d like me to present (virtually or otherwise) at your organization, check out all the different workshops and fun stuff I do here.

My Queer Body Matters coloring sheet

Kelli’s Angry Queer Tees!

Free zine download- You Don’t Have To Love Your Body To Take Care Of It

Free zine download- Hey Let’s Go Get A Pap Exam

Need to help creating your own storytelling series? Some notes from what Kelli learned with Queer Memoir.

Follow Kelli on facebook,youtube & twitter & instagram

You can find Not the Gym Teacher everywhere comedy is given away: Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube