The Original Lyrical Trash Artist

I'm about to make you uncomfortable. As a queer Afro-Taíno Boricua multidisciplinary trash artist living in Minnesota, I create bridges between diverse folks by exploring my cultural and gender identity through the lens of lyrical expression and the treasure of trash. My life's calling as a multidisciplinary artist led me to become the founder of Velvet Rasputin LLC and a member of the Lyricality Visionary Think Tank.

To trash is to denigrate an object, person, culture or form of art because of its social unacceptability or perceived lack of value. Things and folks deemed as "trash" tend to be demonized as "gross" or "dirty" before being discarded, maligned or ignored, even when it's untrue. Sadly, most people don't give it a single thought before tossing trash aside. I know this, because I've been trashed. Defiantly, I embrace this label of "trash" with subversive, in-your-face glee. Trash exists as a misunderstood, messy and sometimes broken treasure. I'm trash that collaborates with other trash to showcase its wonder using the power of visual, literary and performing art.

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Adventures With Vas

Connecting with folks and sharing my experiences brings me a lot of joy. For this reason, I am part of the Velvet Rasputin LLC and Lyricality creative collectives. These organizations provide arts programming for all ages. Additionally, I also perform independently as Tanamá Kao (parental guidance strongly recommended). Follow the links below to meet me in person, or see some of the cool things that I do.

• Velvet Rasputin LLC
• Lyricality
• Tanamá Kao (16+)

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Praise For Vas

Feedback from Creative Workshops
(Anonymous Feedback From Actual Participants)
"Great job, Vas! I really enjoyed the space and the diverse community. I felt relaxed and glad to be there. I liked the stickers etc. and playful activities. I LOVED the food, snacks, and the connection with your family's recipes and traditions."
⭐️ "Helpful: Getting the 2 halves of the equation 'right': the intimacy of exposure, and the art of telling."
⭐️ "I have never been involved in a writing retreat and I was unaware of the different ideas that could give me inspiration."
⭐️"I think it was an amazing presentation. I think you should expand the presentation to other cities."
⭐️ "Vas is a joy to work with."
⭐️ "I learned that poetry doesn't need to be hard in order to try it."
⭐️ "(I) learned how to write poetry."

Performances
⭐️"(Vas is) the hardest workin' (person) in show business, at least that's my opinion. Anyways, (they are) damned talented, that's for sure... Those of us lucky enough to run across these stories are invited to come into (Vas's) looking-glass world if we dare. I hope you do... I dare ya." - Trish Lewis
⭐️It’s raw, unruly, gloriously messy like divine drag at a dive bar sermon!" - Kelly Travis

Grants
Otto Bremer Grant (1992); Several programs have been sponsored by client organizations through The Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Legacy Grants program; Central Arts Minnesota Arts Board FY25 and FY27 Artist Learning Grant

Awards and Public Recognition
WAPA TV: Featured for design work on a poster design for a festival in the town of Barrio Obrero, Santurce, PR (Circa 1980); San Juan Star: Christmas Art Contest, 3rd Place Winner (1984); Wrath of Con (Moorhead): Audience Choice Award, Best Acting Award, Best Clothing Design; Craftsmanship Award (1997); Dracon Science Fiction Convention: Runway model, clothing design won Best of Show; Toad Auto Outfitters/Jim English Automotive: Girl of the Month, voiceover and promotional work, official spokesmodel (1999–2001); David Allio: Likeness used in Monthly Fine Art Portfolio Image and exhibitions; Hamperville: Cover model for Aspiring Models Hangout (1999); Premio Al Gran Boricua: Awarded for outstanding creative output (July 1999); Critical Mass Award: Web design award (July 1999); Women Of Desire: Website designated as “Highly Recommended” (July 1999); Lemmecheck: Featured Model (1999, 2001); Eco-Model: Featured Model (August 1999); MSU Alumnews: Back Page Featured Article (1999); Sage Advice Bright Site: Spotlighted for creative output and website content (September 1999); Alien Babes: Scan of the Week (August 4, 1999); featured model and Probe interview (September 1999); 2000 calendar; Fourth place finalist for Millennium Award (2001); Modamag: Featured spotlight by iSyndicate.com; published interview in San Francisco Chronicle (December 1999); Latina Moves: Model of the Year 2000; Modeling Quest: Model of the Month (2000); Glamour In Focus: Likeness used in corporate business logo (2001); Ms. Internet World: Ethnic Beauty Special Award Winner (2001) and Tribute Award Winner (2002); Rice Women of Today: Local Programming Director of the Year and You Are Growing Awards (2004), Local Program Manager for Chaplain and Family Involvement Award (2004) Star Tribune: Nose featured in 2006 article about body parts; Cybrotica Spring Mating Rites Contest 2007: Best Animation Winner; 2008 Prism Comics: Your LGBT Guide to Comics – Interview; St Cloud Times Up Next Annual Poetry Contest: Runner-Up (2010); Webcomic Underdogs: Rasputin Catamite webcomic selected as WU Spotlight Comic (August 4, 2013); Benton County Fair Open Class Competition: First Place and Two Second Place Ribbons (2018); Central Minnesota Watercolorists: Selected as Featured Watercolorist (March 2018); American Art Review: Modeling work for Keith Wilcock painting, “Little Crow” was featured in a full-page ad for Wilcock Gallery (Summer 2021); Making The Website: Featured in "28 Unexpected Carrd Website Examples" (March 13, 2022); Interview with Kim Cordes on WJON (March 20, 2023); Lake Country Journal: 2nd Place 2024 Poetry Contest Winner; Mississippi Poetry Society 2025: 3rd Place Finnanegans Award; 3rd Place Video Award; Unheard Voices Award Honorable Mention

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Vas Littlecrow Wojtanowicz

Recent Relevant Experience

(References, complete CV available upon request. Page updated monthly.)

Treasured Trash and Terrific Trees
St Cloud Library - 5/15/2026
Spoken word performer, public speaker, exhibiting multidiscipinary artist

Rainbow Festival
Maggie’s Farm Theater - 5/28/2026
Spoken word poetry performer

Art Club – In This Moment || Exhibition
Paramount Center For The Arts - 5/26/2026⋅6:00
Visual art exhibitor

CARE Workshops
Community Anti-Racism Education
Numerous workshops at various locations - Greater St. Cloud Area | 10/29/2024 - 3/25/2026
Served as a documenting artist and facilitating artist for Lyricality to help participants create sensory tools, community art and visualization activities.

Fruity Poetry Workshop
Great River Regional Library - Elk River, MN - 9/25/2025
Great River Regional Library - Royalton, MN - 4/20/2026
I educated students about fruits growing in Minnesota with beautiful images and poetry exercises.

Royalton Museum
Royalton City Hall, 4/11/2026 - Ongoing - Royalton, MN
Museum Director
Responsible for the museum's operations, collection maintenance, volunteer coordination, visitor relations, publicity.

Queer Voices Mid-career Writers Showcase
Moon Palace Books, 3/28/2026 - St. Cloud, MN
Performed a poetry reading as Tanamá Kao.

Junk Journaling With Vas
in conjunction with St Cloud Pride | Co-Sponsored by Whitney Senior Center - Whitney Senior Center, St Cloud, MN - 6/12/2025*
A QueerConnect event - Good Earth Food - St Cloud, MN - 1/10/2026 and 1/30/26
Facilitated a junk journal creation workshop.

Renee Good Vigil
Good Earth Food Co-op, 1/10/2026 - St. Cloud, MN
Performed a poetry reading as Tanamá Kao.

Arts Educators Of Minnesota Conference
College of St Benedict, 4/27/2026 - St Joseph, MN
Presented at The Treasure of Trash workshop and provided education on trash art.

St Cloud Pride In The Park
Lake George Park - St Cloud, MN - 9/20/2025 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Vas assisted at the clothing closet distribution.

Hispanic Heritage Festival
Lake George, MN - St Cloud, MN - 9/13/2025.
Sold merchandise and made maracas out of recycled materials.

St Cloud Art Crawl
At Mind Body and Spirit Gifts, St Cloud, MN - 08/15/2025-10/17/2025
Vendor

Eco-Camp For All Ages
First United Methodist Church of the St Cloud Region
1107 Pine Cone Road South
Sartell, MN - August 11-13
Conducted a bracelet making workshop.

Celebrating Disability Pride & 35th Anniversary of the ADA
Great River Regional Library - St Cloud, MN - July 26.
Literary reading

St Cloud Pride Summer Fun Fest
Lake George Park - St Cloud, MN - 7/20/2025
Made caricatures, sold merchandise.

Music and Supper In The Park
*Royalton Great River Regional Library - Royalton, MN 7/17/2025 *
Made caricatures

No Cookies For You! @ Coffee At The Folly
The Folly - Moorhead, MN - 6/22/2025.
Vas facilitated a workshop on fostering diversity, creating an environment of inclusivity within progressive spaces, and learning how to accept discomfort in the process of developing allyship as an alternative to destructive praise-seeking behaviors with a trash art component.

Queer Youth Day of Faith and Stonewall Memorial
Love First United Methodist Church - Sartell, MN - 6/30/2025
Vas coordinated bookings of music and artisan work for the event, and facilitated the creation of a collaborative arts project to honor the Stonewall Rebellion.

Queer Voices Mid-Career Retreat
ARC Retreat Community, Stanchfield, MN - 6/14/2025
Facilitated a junk journal creation workshop, engaged in a small group workshopping exercise with facilitation by Sun Yung Shin. Worked on developing literary work.

Recent Grants and Awards

Mississippi Poetry Society
2025 Contest - 3rd Place Finnanegans Award Winner; 3rd Place Video Award Winner; Unheard Voices Award Honorable Mention

Central Minnesota Arts Board
Fiscal Year 2025 Learning Grant Recipient

Lake Country Journal
2nd Place 2024 Poetry Contest Winner

DEGREE and Certifications

Queering Identities: LGBTQ+ Sexuality and Gender Identity
University of Colorado System
In progress

Central Minnesota Arts Board Teaching Artist Roster Program
Completed in 2025 and currently listed.

Brave Space/Safe Space Certification
Community Health Improvement - CentraCare
Certificate current until 4/2027

CliftonStrenghts® Asessment
Certificate of Talent
Arranger. Strategic, Learner, Individualization, Self-Assurance
Completed on 2/13/2025

Department of Defense Approved Stop The Bleed Course Completion Certificate
Rice Fire Department
Completed on 10/26/2024

Spanish, Baccalaureate of Arts - Magna Cum Laude
Minnesota State University - Moorhead
Completed in 1996

Need A Creative Helper?

I love doing paid presentations, collaborative events, educational events, public speaking engagements, facilitation, demos and readings! I try my best to integrate ED&I principles and accessibility into all I do. Here are some of my favorite topics that I feel pretty confident about:

Want to see what I've done lately? Check out the resume page.
Interested in what I have to offer? Contact Velvet Rasputin LLC for more information.

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Lyrical Trash Art

Intentions And Influences

What Is Lyrical Trash Art?

Lyrical trash art creative movement is heavily influenced by Boricua folk art, the Boricua caserío subculture of my youth, American late 1990's New Age jewelry making, Russian neo-primitive art, underground comix, 1990's 'zine aesthetics, the lyrical abstraction movement, the fluxus movement, punk DIY-ethos and queer/fetish/goth fashion.Lyrical trash art was born out of desperation when I searched for food inside my apartment building's dumpster, after reaching the lowest point in my life around late 1997, and early 1998. There, I found art supplies and hope. The first pieces were made of leftover beads, wire and, sometimes, rocks. When I sold my first piece at a consignment shop, I finally saw a ray of hope. At that time, poetry provided me one of the few creative outlets I could afford. As time went on, I began using this technique to make more practical things, like puppets, which I incorporated into my performance art.The original version of lyrical trash art further evolved, with influence from my comic art and photography. Ultimately, lyrical trash art has evolved towards a more multidisciplinary mindset than a single approach towards creativity.From inception, lyrical trash art has most-often involved the wrapping of objects with textiles or wire as a stimming activity that I could easily hide from judgemental neurotypical eyes. Lyrical trash art's gaudy color schemes and chaotic patterns reflect the experience of my tactile, visual and auditory hallucinations. Lyrical trash art can also include literary expression, with an affinity towards "childish" and "uncultured" forms of expression.The most practical use for lyrical trash art and its variants is trauma processing. It is, above all, a tool for healing.

Gutterotica: Lyrical Trash Art's Wicked Offsprinng

At the time of what was known as the "smuttery and puppetry period", around 2005, the Catnose Comics collective collaborated with UK-based shock art collective, SBE. In this context, lyrical trash art gave shape to a more extreme and socially unacceptable adjacent movement known as "gutterotica". A precursor of gutterotica which shares all of its characteristics, can be traced back as far as 1988 to the Phantasy Star fanzine, "Mini Misfits of the Motavian Moon," which in turn was inspired by two separate 20th century Japanese art movements.Although I no longer create new gutterotica works, the movement is still influential in queer underground webcomic and literary circles, and I will not disown it. If you are interested in learning about gutterotica's guiding principles, you may read The Gutterotica Manifesto. Content Warning: contains vulgar language, upsetting topics and a confrontational tone. Recommended for 17+ readers.

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Lyrical Trash Lyricism

• Published Works Online
• Published Works Offline

For more of Vas's literary work, visit TanamaKao.com.
(Contains material for mature audiences.)

Published Works Online

This is not a comprehensive list of my published works, as it does not include lost media, zines or self-published works. If you know of other works that should be listed here, please contact me.

fruitslice - Summer 2025 - Issue 7
Summer 2025 - 6/20/2025
I Can't Go Back To My Fatherland

Sherbourne County History Center
Poetry Showcase Voting - 4/1/2025
A Postcard For Tena

Sherbourne County History Center
Poetry Showcase Voting - 4/1/2025
A Postcard For Tena

FUMC Newsletter
January 2025 newsletter
Testimony Poem - Final Version

New Member Introduction at Love First United Methodist Church
12/12/2024
Testimony Poem - First Draft - timestamp: 45:47- 47:25

CARE Artifacts
Anti-Racism Wellness Check - 4/25/2024
Shark Teeth - A CARE collective anti-racist poetic parable in conjunction with Vas Littlecrow Wojtanowicz, a facilitating artist for Lyricality.

CARE Artifacts
Anti-Racism Wellness Check - 3/26/2024
The Center is in the Margins - An accidental collective chatbook - Antiracism Wellness Check for CARE - 3/26/2024.

Penkiln Burn
THE LIFE MODEL
"The Life Model, purports to be a memoir by Bill Drummond at 70, imagined through the minds of 168 separate individuals... Read by Bill Drummond."
Hungry For Ice Cream - timestamp: 8:33

Lake Country Home Journal Poetry Contest 2024 (2nd Place Winner)
October/November 2024 Issue
Blue Skies of Possibility

Multiracial Activist
11/01/1999
Smart Cookie
Puerto Rican Woman

For more of Vas's literary work, visit TanamaKao.com.
(Contains material for mature audiences.)

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KNOWN PUBLISHED WORKS OFFLINE

This is not a comprehensive list of my published works, as it does not include lost media, older zines or self-published works. If you know of other works that should be listed here, please contact me.

Queer Home Of Craft
9/30/2025
Beginning From The End

Encounter the Unity project + poetry installation at Sinclair Lewis Park
9/27/2025
We Survived The Eclipse

Encounter the Unity project + poetry installation at Sinclair Lewis Park
9/27/2025
Winds of Change

Encounter the Unity project + poetry installation at Sinclair Lewis Park
9/27/2025
Unitrees

Agates
9/14/2025
Fourth Reich

Queer Home Of Craft
7/20/2025
Beginning From The End

fruitslice - Summer 2025 - Issue 7
Summer 2025 - 6/20/2025
I Can't Go Back To My Fatherland

Mississippi Poetry Journal
2025 Contest Edition
5/2025 - page 160
Lost in Space (3rd place Video Award)

Mississippi Poetry Journal
2025 Contest Edition
5/2025 - page 105
Not All Boys Play Baseball (3rd place Finnenagans Award)

Mississippi Poetry Journal
2025 Contest Edition
5/2025 - page 90
i'm in the closet (unpublished honorable mention Unheard Voices Award)

Monticello Times
Volume 157 Number 37
4/24/2025 - Page 17
A postcard for Tena

THE LIFE MODEL (Hardback Edition)
January 2024 - Page Unknown
I'm Hungry For Ice Cream

Lake Country Home Journal
October/November 2024 Issue
10/2024 - Page 58
Blue Skies of Possibility (2nd Place Winner Lake Country Home Journal Poetry Award)

St Cloud Star Tribune
4/15/2010 - Page 37
Hula Hooping In The ParkRed Weather
Spring 1997 - Page 11
Thus Spoke The Fallen TelevangelistRed Weather
Spring 1995 - Page 56
My Gerbil Died On Easter 1994Sueños y Pensamientos
Spring 1995 - Page 55
The Quilt
SIDARed Weather
Spring 1994 - Page 7
Crow Eats RoadkillSueños y Pensamientos
Spring 1993 - Page 17
Piano Gren * Dahl

For more of Vas's literary work, visit TanamaKao.com.
(Contains material for mature audiences.)

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