Our 3rd Tuesday Workshop and Open Mic features GuloGulo mainstay venus indigo.
About venus
venus indigo (they/them) is a chosen name. Lower-case v because the planet deserves upper-case, or because i’m really anti-capitalist. The astrological associations are: love, beauty, justice, social cohesion, pleasure, creativity. i wanted to prioritize and practice these attributes. indigo, third eye chakra color, one ring of every temporary rainbow. Ya girl is queer as f*ck, and in the year of our lord: officially diagnosed gender dysphoric; and unofficially diagnosed by friends as autistic. i wanted a name that reminded me of my relationship beyond the Human family, who i need connection and community with, and who i often avoid. i sing and dance when i’m over-stimulated. i have a breathing practice to stay grounded; or sometimes i get stoned and down a pint of Space Junkie ice cream. i dance passionately, sometimes to worship the Moon, sometimes on psychedelics. Or i sit in silence, naked in the rain.
i have lived in cornfield and orchard towns, skyscraper cities, off-grid in high desert, and now fenced-in suburbs – where i have cultivated and been welcomed into the most magical and medicinal community circles i have ever experienced. All stories, and emotions, and experiences, and support People share seed the garden of my consciousness; and i am thankful for the power of Fire, Water, Stone, and Breath for showing me how to cultivate my perennial Heart. My twenties have been constant transition, de-condition, identity crisis, and vital composting. My motto for this revolution around the Sun is fierce and fabulous. i want the People i love, and the People i do not dig at all, to be well. and if my presence can empower that, far out! i want my writing to f*ck with the Mind, and dance with the Heart. Realistically, i write because i love it; and if it resonates with you, far out!
Q&A with venus
GuloGulo: What led you to start writing poetry?
venus: Since thirteen, writing has been my most practiced form of creativity, and language my most vital form of expression. i joined Gulo Gulo at the end of 2024, and i had no writing to share with anyone then; or no writing i was willing to share. i decided to devote 2025 to writing short format pieces. i prioritized poetry and short stories. Poetry challenged how playful, beautiful, visceral, empathetic, and honest i can inhabit the atmosphere and cultivate the landscape of, and redefine, my Life experience on paper. Its shorter length gifted me more awareness of my writing process and specific themes, symbolism, and experiences i feel called to process or change my relationship to. Poetry shows me that language can be alchemized and my relationship to concepts rooted in words can be potentially liberated.
GuloGulo: Powerful themes in your work include identity, spirituality, nature, and more. Can you describe your focus as a poet and what is important to your work?
venus: My focus with poetry is to change the way i relate to my Spiritual-emotional-mental-physical Being, and creatively express and process being Human. i am still decrypting language for phenomena that impacts and influences the way i perceive and participate in reality. Still learning the power of language to shape and saturate how i relate to living Beings. i am thankful and grateful to Indigenous People, Black People, queer and trans People, anarchists, activists, and especially writers, who have critically challenged the ways i was systemically conditioned to feel and think, to relate; who have provided practices to help me begin to decolonize. i want to honor the phenomena and People in my Life that have supported my intuition, intelligence, and imagination and share these changes that have occurred within me because of their presence. Poetry has been a vital tool for me to learn how to communicate. And If my poetry can meet a Person wherever they find themselves, or offer a portal to embody Human experience in a new light or an ancient tongue, then i have accomplished a way of communicating that i don’t really understand, but feel called to co-create.
GuloGulo: You recently won Booger’s Poetry Slam…congrats! Can you share a little about your path to performance poetry?
venus: When i devoted 2025 to writing poetry, i had the intention of a Person reading my poetry on their own. After taking a break from poetry during Winter 2026 and returning to it in Spring, i was bored and no longer impacted by how i was approaching poetry – as a solitary experience. i felt called to write about aspects of my identity that demanded a different communication style; called to confront and express my Being through my body and presence, beyond the written word. More direct and less discreet, less private and more public. When starting to try this new format, i literally had a post-it note on my desk that said “BE REAL, B*TCH!” and that was my North Star. Performance poetry offers me more creative choices off the page, and forces me to share who i am without the safety, with more visceral vulnerability, of how i wanted my 2025 poetry to be experienced.
GuloGulo: What future goals to you have for your writing or other art?
venus: i am cultivating a collection of poetry, a short story collection, and a novel. i want these to be published. i want to fill a bookshelf with stories, journals with memories and ideas, community with art, and my Life with creativity. i will honor these trippy visions and weird spells whether any of my wants are fulfilled. i want to continuously surprise myself with my ability to orchestrate language and language’s ability to alter my Being.
GuloGulo: What are you hoping to achieve during your workshop and featured set?
venus: With my workshop, i want to inspire People who like to write; to empower People to create language for experience that we can relate to; to challenge the way People engage creative choices.
With my set, i want to share with People my journey with poetry. The process my poetry took between writing it to be read by someone else to now spoken word, and where poetry guided me to go and explore. i want to invite People in to my energy, my wounds, my medicine, and my weirdness.
Join Us: Aug. 18 at Wolverine Farm
Please join us for the workshop, open mic, and a featured set by venus! The evening is part of GuloGulo’s signature program, the Journey of the Poem, our weekly rotation designed to move a writer’s work from initial spark to public performance. The third Tuesday is our Open Mic night, and it’s one of the most alive evenings in Fort Collins poetry.
Here’s how the night will unfold:
4 pm – venus will lead a workshop inspired by their work.
6 pm – Open Mic with Featured Middle Set by venus – Hosted by Lotus!
The open mic is free and open to all. Bring poems. Take the stage. Performances are limited to 5 minutes, and we ask that poets with sensitive content offer a brief content note before beginning.
Both events take place at Wolverine Farm Publick House (516 N. College Ave.) in downtown Fort Collins. Free and open to the public. Come for the poems. Stay for the community.
