A Room Full of Light: a Celebration of Shout Mouse Press’s Queer Youth Anthology

On June 3rd, we celebrated the launch of The Light Looks Like Me: Words on Love from Queer Youth at the Apple Carnegie Library in DC with readings from 14 of the anthology’s youth authors, a live DJ set from DJ Franky J, and a powerful performance by poet and writer Denice Frohman. An audience of over 100 people – including proud family members of the authors, Shout Mouse board members, friends, and supporters – cheered on the authors for their beautiful words and brave voices at this youth Pride event. It was an evening filled with inspiration and, yes – light!

The anthology is a compilation of works that explore queer love in all its forms. It was dreamed up as a response to book bans nationwide targeting literature featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes. Over the summer of 2024, 27 young writers came together in free workshops in D.C. and online to create poetry, prose, comics, and art, with the help of local queer teaching artists. On the night of the launch, they shared their work aloud for the first time.

Programs Director Alexa Patrick commanded the room as MC, encouraging the audience to clap, cheer, and revel in the authors sharing their work. The authors moved the crowd with their lyricism, vulnerability, and honesty on the page.

Denice Frohman opened her set with remarks about what it meant for her to stand in the space, listening to the young authors step up to the mic one after the next:

“I’m bursting inside, thinking about my 16-year old, 17-year-old self, and what it would have meant to me to stand in a room full of supportive loving faces, as I’m sharing my truth...I’m thinking about my 19-year-old self who came out for the very first time in a poem…I’m thinking about all the people in this room because they love someone who is reading a poem, because their eyes light up when they think about one of the authors stepping into themselves.”

At the close of the program, Founder and Executive Director Kathy Crutcher brought all of the authors up to the stage, and the audience rose to their feet. She spoke of the genesis of the book – which was dreamed as a response to book bans nationwide targeting literature featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes, and the related silencing of these voices and conversations – and turned to them and said, “The light looks like all of you.”

After the event, Hakim, one of the authors shared what it was like to stand on stage and read from the book: “Some of the best advice I got from a poet is just to ‘do it scared.’ But I felt very confident at the same time. Even though I was scared, I was happy, vulnerable – and it felt needed. I loved performing, and seeing the other artists perform, too.”

When asked what he would say to another young person who might be nervous to share their creative work and their truth with the world, Oliver said, “That was me all the time – and still is all the time. But it feels incredible to know that even if it's scary for people to read this thing that's so closely a part of me, it is incredible to have people relate to it and know that I could make a difference in somebody else's story.”

These reflections are a powerful reminder of the impact on young people when they are given the space and support to tell their own stories.

We’re immensely grateful to our partners for both this event, and the book itself: Apple Carnegie Library for hosting us in their beautiful space; Loyalty Books for being on site to sell books; SMYAL for setting up a table and speaking to the crowd about their important work empowering LGBTQ+ youth; and the incredible story coaches who worked with these authors and our partner organizations for helping us spread the word about the project: The DC Center for the LGBT Community, Sasha Bruce Youthwork, SMYAL, and Split This Rock.

Read more about the story behind the story of The Light Looks Like Me here, and purchase your very own copy of the book in our bookstore. We can’t wait to see how these stories travel, and the lives they touch. And if you know an organization, group, or program that might benefit from this book, please fill out this quick form to tell us more. We’re grateful to all who are helping us spread these stories far and wide during a time when queer youth voices need to be heard more than ever.