Influx:
an arrival or entry of large numbers of people or things.
an inflow of water into a river, lake, or the sea.
Influx Collectiv is a queer poetry reading series that connects LA based poets, promotes queer events, and provides a space and platform for queer creators and queer content. Influx is for audience members to hear stories that reflect their own, and for performers to find an audience that understands.
Please support us by direct donation through Venmo (@influxcollectiv)
Catherine Chen and Cori Bratby-Rudd founded Influx in 2018 after they met at Lambda Literary's Writing Retreat for Emerging Queer Poets. Catherine and Cori were both LA based poets and found the Lambda Literary space inspiring, immensely helpful to their careers and most importantly the retreat put them in a communal space that felt safe and helped many of the writers present make vital connections in the writing industry.
Influx is an attempt to continue this space outside of Lambda because it ended and we truly missed it. Both of us have lived in LA for a while and we felt that there were not enough queer poetry spaces. Out of this desire we formed Influx Collectiv to center the queer and marginalized voices in our community.
Due to Catherine's change in location, Influx is now organized by Cori Bratby-Rudd and collaborator Diana Gutierrez.
Cori Bratby-Rudd
Co-Founder, Social Media Director, Curator
Cori Bratby-Rudd is a queer LA-based writer and co-founder of Influx Collectiv(e)’s Queer Poetry Reading Series. She graduated Cum Laude from UCLA’s Gender Studies department, and is a current MFA Candidate in Creative Writing at California Institute of the Arts. She has been published in Ms. Magazine, The Gordian Review, Califragile, PANK Magazine, Crab Fat Magazine, among others. She recently won the Editorial Choice Award for her research paper in Audeamus Academic Journal and was nominated as one of Lambda Literary's 2018 Emerging Writers. You can find her at coribratbyrudd.com.
Catherine Chen
Co-founder
Catherine Chen is the author of the chapbook Manifesto, or: Hysteria (Big Lucks) and Other Monsters of Love (Container), both forthcoming in 2019. Their work has appeared in Slate, The Rumpus, Apogee, Hobart, Sundog Lit, among others. They’ve been awarded fellowships and residencies from Millay Colony, Lambda Literary, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and Art Farm.
Diana Gutierrez
Art Director, Host
Diana Gutierrez is a formerly undocumented Peruvian-American writer, dancer and artist. She was accepted into the 2019 Q Youth Foundation East Side Queer Stories Playwriting Workshop and is the host of Influx Collectiv’s Queer Poetry Reading Series. In her spare time Diana likes watching Friends re-runs and she is currently training to become a Reiki Master.
Féi Hernanez
Design Consultant
Féi Hernandez is a Mexican trans non-binary writer, visual artist, actor, and spiritual healer. They grew up undocumented in Inglewood, California, where they taught 8th grade creative writing and art for three years full-time after graduating from Dickinson College on the Posse Scholarship. A VONA (Voices of Our Nations Art Foundation) fellow, féi’s writing has been featured in NPR, Immigrant Review, Non Binary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity, Good Mood, Live Wire, and forthcoming Hayden's Ferry Review. They currently the Art Director of Palms Up Academy and teach Crafting Eternity, a writing class for developing writers in the Los Angeles area.
SISTER PROGRAM
InfluxCollectiv partners with Dissonance Press to bring radical queer books into the world.
Voyage LA
Meet Cori Bratby-Rudd of Influx Collectiv’s Queer Poetry Reading Series in East LA
Montez Press Radio
April 12th 2019
The Occidental
Forthcoming Wednesday November 6th 2019