Call Me Poetry as Protest: Naked, Fired, and Unapologetic (with Tavish)

This week, Dai and David are joined by Tavish —a queer spirit, human, artist, and educator with Celtic roots. Tavish practices theatre for social change, runs Bird City Improv, and brings decades of experience directing new work, crafting poetry, and co-creating ensemble-driven performance.
In March 2025, Tavish went viral after staging a peaceful protest at the Kennedy Center that involved a naked poetry performance denouncing authoritarianism and political violence. The fallout was swift: they were fired from both the Kennedy Center and Johns Hopkins University. But Tavish remains unapologetic—continuing their liberation-focused work through grassroots art and radical truth-telling.
This conversation is raw, inspiring, and deeply human—exploring art as activism, queerness as resistance, and what it means to speak your truth, even when it costs you everything.

Trump Declares War on Artists | Banned Kennedy Center Protest by Tavish (YouTube)

Kennedy Center Contract Employee Strips Nude in Protest Video and Is Promptly Fired (Los Angeles Times)

Trump's War on Artists: A Peace Protest (Bird City Improv)

The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Co-Creation (Duke University Press)

Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

Follow Tavish on Instagram

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Theme Music by Aidan Ivory Edwards.
Logo by Mark Mittelstaedt.