Renown Queer Poet Laurier Tiernan and FIFTY-FIVE WAYS to SURVIVE

My guest is interdisciplinary poet and multidisciplinary artist Laurier Tiernan!  We talk about their work and life experiences. Laurier shares their journey as a genderqueer and non-binary person growing up in conservative Edmonton, Alberta, where they were bullied in school and faced discrimination, including being chased and called slurs as recently as 2024. We cover Laurier's recent poetry book "Fifty-Five Ways to Survive," which follows a theme of darkness-to-light, and their 15th-anniversary album "Peace on Earth," which contains songs like "End of the World" that prophesied Donald Trump's rise to power. We discuss how the poetry of FIFTY-FIVE WAYS resonates with the experiences of young LGBTQ+ people and how the music supports profound lyrical content.