The Selection Committee Radio Show with Candystore, 11/13/22

Poet, performer, and Beauty Queen, the marvelous Candystore RETURNS! We talk about gender and sexuality politics and learn about Candystore’s journey from being a lesbian-bait “sexy boy” with his little blond mustache to the golden-tressed “hot woman” with big top energy that she-he inhabits today, and how this reflects changing ideas about gender, health, and desirability in gay male and queer culture more broadly.

Shimher color-themed playlist creates a frame for his collection of poems based on the colors of the big Crayola crayon box. This whimsical, nostalgic device belies the formal rigor, humor, physicality and sometimes outright raunch of her fascinating poems, which vary in subject from Titian to tit-clamps. Candystore’s work—playful, explicit, braggadocious and vulnerable—is a remarkably generous point of entry for virgin and experienced readers alike.