LGBTQ

Colorful neon sign spelling 'TRANSART' with a subtitle about celebrating transgender talent, vision, and possibilities, and dates June 11 to July 12, 2015, in Miami Beach.

The Betsy Writer’s Room created an annual festival, in 2015, called TransArt to advocate for and celebrate trans artists and to increase applications to The Writer’s Room from trans creatives. TransMiami founder Aryah Lester was our founding community curator. Unity Coalition led by Herb Sosa has taken the project forward and established an international dimension in Bogota, Columbia.

See the 2015 TransArt Festival Catalogue

Logo for Reading Queer, featuring large, overlapping black letters 'RQ' with the words 'Reading Queer' underneath.

The Betsy Writers Room was the founding organizational partner for Reading Queer (RQ), directed by Poet Neil de La Flor and funded by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. RQ empowers South Florida's queer literary culture by providing creative writing workshops, performance platforms, and community events. RQ’s kick off event was held in partnership with LitChat at The Betsy Hotel, with the mission of defining what it means to read and write “Queer’ literature.  

Symbol combining male, female, and transgender signs over a rainbow pride flag background.

In 2023, acknowledging the socio-political challenges impacting the lives of LGBTQ citizens and families, we invited a critical cohort of LGBTQ writers for our 2023  Escribe Aqui/Write Here - august residencies.  The initiative is led by Caridad Moro-Gronlier, author of Torillera (2021, The TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series: Florida), poetry that addresses the experience of coming out while Cuban.

Collage of multiple photos of various people with different expressions and backgrounds.

Pride Poets Light the Night was created for Miami Beach Pride with Inaugural Obama Poet and Miami Dade Poet Laureate Richard Blanco who appeared at The Betsy Poetry Rail to recite his work - One Pulse, One Poem. In addition, and working in tandem with a composer and filmmaker, we projected fragments of Blanco’s poem onto The Betsy ORB. (This project was a “Betsy’ extension of Pride Lights the Night, which annually kicks off Miami Beach Pride. )
Watch the video: