live bio:
The daughter of a Sri Lankan father and a Irish-Ukrianian mother, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha was raised in Worcester, Mass, an eastern rust belt city known for dirty water and busted buildings. A scholarship baby from the age of 8, she moved to New York at 18 to get a BA from Eugene Lang College / New School for Social Research, but ended up learning a lot more from the student, squatter, spoken word, women of color and queer/trans of color movements. She left New York for Toronto in 1997 hoping to no longer be the only Sri Lankan in the room, and succeeded! She has performed her spoken word all over North America , in front of audiences at Yale and Oberlin and at immigrant rights rallies and benefits for queer youth resource centers. She is the author of Consensual Genocide (TSAR, 2006), is a frequent contributor to Bitch and Colorlines magazines and has had work anthologized in Colonize This!, With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn, Without a Net, Dangerous Famillies, Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws , and A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World . She works to create a Sri Lanka free from war, multinational corporations and queer, women's and cultural oppression with Blood Memory: A Sri Lankan Storytelling Project. Leah has taught writing to queer, trans and Two Spirit youth at Supporting Our Youth Toronto's Pink Ink program for the past four years, work that won her a City Of Toronto Community Service Award in 2004. She produces queer of color spoken word shows through her company, brownstargirl productions, and is the co-creator of the Asian Arts Freedom School , an arts/activism school for API youth in Toronto . She loves her kids, the color fuschia, and being a revolutionary high femme Sri Lankan role model and survivor. For more info, hit her up at brownstargirl.com.

small bio:
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer Sri Lankan writer, spoken word artist and arts educator. Her first book, Consensual Genocide , was published by TSAR Books in April 2006. She believes in the power of the written and spoken word to heal, decolonize and change the world.

big bio:
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha was raised in Worcester , Massachusetts , the daughter of a Sri Lankan father and an Irish/ Ukrainian mother. After moving to New York for four whirlwind years of coming of age in the middle of riot grrl, queer, anarchist and student of color organizing, she moved to Toronto in 1997 in the hopes of no longer being the only Sri Lankan in the room. Her work has been published in the anthologies Colonize This!, Dangerous Families , With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn , the Lambda Award-nominated Brazen Femme, Without a Net, Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws and A Girl's Guide To Taking Over the World . A frequent contributor to Colorline s and Bitch magazines, she has performed her work throughout North America, from gigs at Yale University and Oberlin College to benefits for queer youth resource centers and at antiwar protests. She teaches writing to LGBT youth at Supporting Our Youth Toronto, for which she won the City of Toronto Community Service to Youth Award in 2004, and is one of the organizers of the Asian Arts Freedom School , a writing and activist