Tanamá Kao next to a sun and moon piece of art with a log background and a table.

Currently reading:

Second Evolution by Bert D. Andersen
My partner Loki told me that I needed to read this, because it appeals to my interest in coexistence between human and synthetic consciousness.

Meet Me At:

St Cloud Pride Summer Fun Fest
* Riverside Park - St Cloud, MN*
I will be at the Velvet Rasputin LLC table on July 20, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Who is Tanamá Kao?

I’m Tanamá Kao, an Afro-Celt-Iberian-Taíno Boricua queer who writes stuff that's guaranteed to offend your conservative meemaw. I'm autistic, schizophrenic, and still suffering from the effects of head trauma, yet somehow still managed to become an award-winning poet. Actually, that's probably why I'm an award-winning poet. I'm also the founder of Velvet Rasputin LLC arts collective.I’m heavily-influenced by B-movies, the weird side of Christianity, kink, punk, goth, glam rock, and zine/mini-comics subcultures because I went to college in the 90’s. Four of my (currently out of print) filthy graphic novels ended up in the Harvard bookstore catalog for some inexplicable reason. In the past, I worked as a cheap burlesque tart and a drag performer. I ate sushi from the top of a garbage can lid, because working in the modeling industry can be that way sometimes. Folks tell me that my work reminds them of exploitation cinema and terrible b-movies brought to life by the best thesaurus money can buy. Herman Melville would have been proud.Tanamá Kao is not a pen name, it's the result of multi-name privilege.

Tanamá Kao in a suit with a rubber ducky flogger.

Reading Reel

Works

Works written as Vas (Va--s-) Littlecrow Colón-Ortiz y Wojtanowicz, or the shorter version of that name:

Journals/Zines That Published My Short Fiction/Poems

  • Queer Home Of Craft

  • fruitslice

  • Community Anti-Racism Education: Artifacts

  • Mississipi Society Journal

  • Lake Country Journal

  • It Takes All Kinds

  • Sueños y Pensamientos

  • Red Weather

Self-Published Trade Paperback Graphic Novels

  • The Collected Rasputin Catamite

  • The Second Collected Rasputin Catamite

  • Rasputin Catamite: Red

  • Rasputin Catamite: May Day

  • Rasputin Catamite: Finale Fatale

  • Barxotka: The Accused

  • I Turned Into A Gay Cherub Because Of Alien Sex

  • Barxotka: The Wanted

  • Barxotka: The Accused

  • Barxotka: I Have Problems In This Life

  • Barxotka: I Have Problems With Youth

  • Barxotka: Children Of Death And Fine Vessels For The Antichrist

  • Barxotka: Everyone And Their Dreams Die In The End

Frequently Asked Questions

Your life is wild! When are you writing your memoirs?

Age fifty-five or when hell freezes over, which ever comes first. I'm more likely to tell my life story as a film documentary, a la Pink Floyd's The Wall with an extra queer Boricua twist and more interviews. That film did a surprisingly great job showing the disorganized chaos and turmoil of the schizophrenic mind. I intend to borrow some of that tone and aesthetic, except it's going to be more colorful and autistic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Isn't your real name, ------?

This complex question requires that I answer it in the form of a narrative poem.Original version of this poem, first published in The I Can Create CanCulturally-specific alternate name: Tanamá Kao: It’s a good name. Kao, which is also spelled as "Cao", means "Crow" in several Taíno dialects. One of my writing mentors, 신선영, suggested that I use it as my literary name. I'll get to Tanamá shortly.
It's a good name.
Dead name: Misspelled by dad; misunderstood by mom. Both were misled into thinking it meant “butterfly” like Tanamá and not code for Jonathan Swift's dead pedophilic crush.
Fuck that name!
Legal name: It's short for the diminutive Spanish name for "Euskadi," which also means "crow". Folks compared me to PFC Jenette Vasquez from the movie Aliens. I was THAT level of butch-coded. So, I became Vasquez. College students are lazy, so that got shortened to Vas. I found it more culturally-appropriate than my ~~disturbing stripper, actually no, ~~ birth certificate name, so I made it legal. Jeanette Vasquez provided my favorite representation of a Latin American woman at the time. I was so pissed when I learned that the actress was actually a Jewish woman in brownface. Jeanette Goldstein did an exexceptional job with her attitude, cultural nuance, and on-point Brooklyn Nuyorican accent, but...
Fuck 20th Century Fox!
Middle name: None until I turned twenty-three. Dave, an unhoused Ojibwe man, who I met on Hennepin Avenue, named me Littlecrow, after Thaóyate Dúta. He did so because he felt that I was a cultural sellout. I kept his gift anyway. I always wanted a middle name, but I never understood his eternal beef with the Dakota people. As far as I know, he did not know that Vas meant the same thing.
Dave was fucking weird, but alright.
Patronym: Colón, a Hispanicization of Colombo; surname of an overrated child-trafficking sailor responsible for genocide and allegedly discovering the United States without ever setting foot on any American continent. I’m his descendant by way of one of the Taíno wives he ditched, on my father’s side. I learned about Cristoforo Colombo’s polygamy from family and the private school that I attended as a child. Not a peep about that shit in the USA!
Fuck that guy!
Hyphen: -
Matronym: Ortiz; not my maternal family’s actual surname. The Magahagans (originally known as Geoghegans) became Ortiz to evade an expulsion order against all Irish (and in my case, Irish of Celt-Portuguese descent,) Boricuas (insultingly miscategorized as Anglos) by Ramón Castro in 1797.
Fuck that guy too!
Conjunction: Y. Yes, and?
Marital: Wojtanowicz: I'm borrowing it until death do us part. That's his story to tell.
I enjoy fucking that guy.
Chinese Name: Yes, I have a Chinese name. It's expected that people adopt Chinese names when they study Mandarin. Dr. Peggy Chen at MSUM gave me my original Chinese name and surname, but the former was too tied to my deadname. My friend ChinYin suggested I change my name to 八 (the number eight). I retained the original surname of 柯. So I'm 柯八.
It sounds fucking similar to, “¡que va!"

Frequently Asked Questions

How did you become a professional writer?

I wrote shit. I made photocopies of it. I sold it. I sometimes send it to places that offer money and they pay me. I'll get an agent someday so I can get a book publisher other than myself and Amazon. That way, I won't have to work as hard. Maybe.All you have to do to become a professional writer is write shit and then sell it. How you get there really isn't all that important. If you want to make a sustainable income, ancillary merchandise and services are where the money is at. Investments help it grows. Marrying someone who makes more money than you, can provide a buffer, provided your spouse treats you well and you have a solid prenup.The whole literary industry is more haphazard and socially-based than anyone assumes it is. Do your best to fight social anxiety and meet people. It's hard as hell, but worth it.Most importantly, professionalism and exceptional talent have nothing to do with going pro. Seriously! Let me reiterate that writing and selling stuff is all you need to do to go pro. Thank you!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are your favorite fiction and poetry writers?

People are often surprised to learn that in spite of my being prolifically articulate, I suffer from disruptive and diagnosed cognitive disabilities. Because of brain damage caused by illicit drugs, schizophrenia meds, Benadryl and a traumatic head injury, I have a difficult time reading print and audiobook novels. Schizophrenia itself doesn't help, either.Although I do not have a diagnosis for it, dyslexia makes my life incredibly difficult. I once had an opportunity to get diagnosed, but I am 100% certain that the person responsible for giving me a diagnosis turned out to be a complete quack. I say this, because I ended up with more eye problems than I started out with when I visited that clinic after the car accident. The anti-vaxxer books on autism didn't assuage my skepticism about their quality of care.It takes me an average of three months to read a book. Unfortunately, this means that most of my recent reading has either been work-related non-fiction, or my partner reading aloud to me. Poetry is a lot easier, but it's still challenging. That's why I mostly write via automated dictation. Nevertheless, I have a list of authors that have made a huge impression on me.Here are my favorite fiction and poetry authors:Herman Melville, Zora Neale Hurston, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Laurence Sterne, Kurt Vonnegut, Rumiko Takahashi, Hayao Miyazaki, Lynn Johnston, Steven A. Gallacci, Isaac Asimov, Alison Bechdel, Ed Bok Lee, Melaredblu, Lirvilas, Emily Dickinson, G. Pike, Mitchell Bravo, Nicole Borg, Bill Drummond, and Tracy Rittmueller. Terry Pratchett has grown on me like fungus. I have a love/FUCK-YOU-RACIST-ASSHOLE-I-HATE-YOU attitude towards Sax Rohmer. Because she was born at a time full of spectacular women writers, Adelaide Crapsey is criminally underrated, and I feel she needs more love.

Contact

Do you have questions? Send me an email. Alternatively, send a letter to:Velvet Rasputin LLC
Attn: Tanamá Kao
PO Box 222
Rice, MN 56367

Thank you

I will get back to you whenever I can, but probably within 3 to 5 business days.