Cheryl Burke (September 19, 1972 – June 18, 2011), known professionally as Cheryl B, was an American journalist,

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

poet,

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

and playwright, associated with the East Village arts scene in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

."Remembering Cheryl B"

Lambda Literary Foundation The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve their legaci ...

, June 19, 2011. She is best known for her autobiographical book ''My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B'', which was published posthumously and was co-winner, with

John Irving John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of his fourth novel '' Th ...

's novel '' In One Person'', of the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Literature."A Silver Evening for the Lammies"
'' Gay City News'', June 5, 2013.

Biography

Burke was born on September 19, 1972, in

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, and raised in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

."'My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B' by Cheryl Burke"

, November 5, 2012. She later moved to

, where she was a graduate of both

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

. During her lifetime, Burke was known for spoken word poetry performances at venues such as the

Nuyorican Poets Café The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a nonprofit organization in the Alphabet City, Manhattan, Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican Movement, Nuyorican (Puerto Rican New Yorker) art movement, and has b ...

Bowery Poetry Club The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman in 2002.Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.'' Chapter 26: What the ...

, the

National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay, an art and literary critic of the ''New York Times'', to "stimulate, foster, and promote publi ...

, P.S. 122, and the St. Mark's Poetry Project. Her work appeared in periodicals such as ''Ping Pong'', '' BUST'', ''KGB Bar Lit'', '' GO'' and ''Velvet Park'', and in anthologies such as ''Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution'' (Seal Press, 2007), ''Reactions 5'' (Pen & Inc, 2005), ''The Milk of Almonds: Italian-American Women Writers on Food & Culture'' (Feminist Press, 2002), ''The World in Us'' (St. Martins Press, 2000), ''Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache'' (Alyson Books, 2004) and ''His Hands, His Tools, His Sex, His Dress'' (Haworth Press, 2001). She was diagnosed with

Hodgkin's lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

in 2010. She maintained a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, ''WTF Cancer Diaries'', to document her experiences with cancer treatment, but died on June 18, 2011, from bleomycin poisoning, a complication from her treatment. ''My Awesome Place'', her sole published book, was finalized for publication by a group of her friends and colleagues, including writer

Sarah Schulman Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She holds an endowed chair in nonfiction at Northwestern University and is a fellow of the New York ...

, and was published by Topside Press in 2012. An out

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, she was survived by her partner Kelli Dunham, who accepted the Lambda Literary Award for ''My Awesome Place'' on her behalf. In addition to the Lambda Literary Award, ''My Awesome Place'' also won the Bi Writer Award at the Bi Writers Association's inaugural Bisexual Book Awards in 2013."Bi Writers Association announces recipients of Bisexual Book Awards"
.

GLAAD GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

, June 6, 2013.

Works

*''My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B'' (2012, )

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheryl B American women performance artists American performance artists American women poets American spoken word artists American autobiographers Writers from Staten Island Journalists from Staten Island Writers from New Jersey Deaths from lymphoma in New York (state) American women bloggers American bloggers New York University alumni The New School alumni Deaths from Hodgkin lymphoma Bisexual women writers LGBTQ people from New Jersey LGBTQ people from New York (state) American LGBTQ poets Lambda Literary Award winners 1972 births 2011 deaths American women autobiographers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American writers of Italian descent American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American LGBTQ people American bisexual writers