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KB Brookins on Muck Rack

KB Brookins

(They/Them)
Austin
As seen in: Healthline, Teen Vogue, Autostraddle, Oxford American, The Offing
Covers:  poetry, book/TV/music reviews, Blackness, gender, sexuality, LGBTQIA2+ issues, Hip Hop, masculinity, Black pop culture, US politics, class, gentrification, climate change, medical justice

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KB Brookins’s Biography

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KB Brookins (also known as KB) is a Black/queer/transmasculine poet, essayist, and cultural worker from Fort Worth, Texas. Their writing is published in Academy of American Poets, Huffington Post, American Poetry Review, Teen Vogue, Electric Literature, Okayplayer, Oxford American, and elsewhere. KB is the author of How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022), a chapbook selected by ire’ne laura silva as winner of the Saguaro Poetry Prize. They have earned fellowships from…

KB Brookins’s Journalist Portfolio

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We Are Not Untouchable

We Are Not Untouchable

This essay is part of the series On Failure. The idea of seeing my words somewhere outside of a YouTube l…

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Let’s talk about ethics, baby

Let’s talk about ethics, baby

Fall 2017, I was a first-semester MFA student. Like most MFAs, I was plumped together with other students for…

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Tips For Professionals To Better Support Trans Patients

Tips For Professionals To Better Support Trans Patients

About two years ago, I had my first medical interaction as an out trans person. Because LGBTQIA+ circles are …

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Rap Rights: Megan Thee Stallion and Masculinity in the Cypher

Rap Rights: Megan Thee Stallion and Masculinity in the Cypher

For all intents and purposes, I'm good in every Hip Hop room. Black men say "yes, bro" when I riff about the …

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"Channel Orange" Taught Me

"Channel Orange" Taught Me

In summer 2012, I was a Black masculine lesbian going into my senior year of high school. My two other out ma…

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How Kendrick Lamar Stumbles Toward Queer And Trans Allyship On "Auntie Diaries"

How Kendrick Lamar Stumbles Toward Queer And Trans Allyship On "Auntie Diaries"

On Friday, Kendrick Lamar released his highly-anticipated album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. That same mor…

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Articles

I Can’t Bottom Anymore

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By KB Brookins
| Autostraddle Verified
“Oh yeah, that’s definitely vaginal atrophy,” my gynecologist said. She was staring at my vag under a spotlight as I sat there in a paper hospital gown that had already torn multiple times. For months, I’d been experiencing pain when I peed or tried to bottom. I thought it was just frequent UTI’s, so I’d chug water or use amounts of lube that are probably illegal in some states. That would help for a little bit, but the discomfort would return.
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Ode to the North Door

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By KB Brookins
| Oxford American Verified
Photograph courtesy RECSPEC Austin, Texas, February 2020 Fringelights,heavybasscausingme to yell-talkatthecutie who’dbecome mywifethreeyearslater,almondbittersblaringfrommybreath, threeweeksbeforeapandemic,ignorantwithhappiness; theuniverse,withhelpfromoontz-oontzmusic oozing from the switchboard of a Black boyin heels, giftingmeanotheropportunitytolove monthsbeforeitwouldclosedown unceremoniously,likemanythingsinthiscity, before a haze of pictures flood Instagram...
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Ode to the North Door

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By KB Brookins
| shorturl.at
Photograph courtesy RECSPEC Austin, Texas, February 2020 Fringelights,heavybasscausingme to yell-talkatthecutie who’dbecome mywifethreeyearslater,almondbittersblaringfrommybreath, threeweeksbeforeapandemic,ignorantwithhappiness; theuniverse,withhelpfromoontz-oontzmusic oozing from the switchboard of a Black boyin heels, giftingmeanotheropportunitytolove monthsbeforeitwouldclosedown unceremoniously,likemanythingsinthiscity, before a haze of pictures flood Instagram...
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Interview

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What tools and software do you use to do your job?

Google suite (docs/sheets/forms/slides/jamboard/drive/calendar). Canva. Dropbox. Zencastr. Quickbooks.

Who do you wish followed you?

Angela Davis

What story are you most proud of writing or working on?

I'm proud of writing my truth at all.