Poet Candy Royalle on the road to belonging.Candy was an award winning writer, performance artist, poet, storyteller, activist, educator and vulnerability advocate. Candy's album “Birthing the Sky Birthing theSea,” a collaboration with the band The Freed Radicals, explored a fusion of rock and roll, funk, experimental soundscapes, hip hop, poetry with song. She published two solocollections, “Love Spectacular” and “Heartbeats,” and toured extensively in Australia, the UK, Canada and the USA, with performances at The Sydney Writers Festival, The Stella Awards, The Austin International Poetry Festival, The Latitudes Festival in Toronto and Woodford Folk Festival, to name a few. Her poetry and opinion pieces were published by Fairfax, SBS, Overland Literary Magazine, Mascara Literary Review, Peril Magazine, Australian Love Poems, RN's Poetica, AIPF's Diversity anthology, “Butch is Not a Dirty Word” magazine and many more. A new collection of Candy's poems, 'A Tiny Trillion Awakenings' will be published by UWAP in November 2018.Sadly, Candy passed away in June 2018 from ovarian cancer. She was remembered by her family and the LGBTQIA+ community for her strength, conviction and passion, and she will be deeply missed.An extended version of this story is featured in the Queerstories book which can be ordered on Booktopia.Queerstories is an LGBTQI+ storytelling night programmed by Maeve Marsden, with regular events around Australia. For Queerstories event dates, visit www.maevemarsden.com, and follow Queerstories on Facebook.The Queerstories book is published by Hachette Australia, and can be purchased from your favourite independent bookseller or on Booktopia.To support Queerstories, become a patron at www.patreon.com/ladysingsitbetterAnd for gay stuff and insomnia rants follow me - Maeve Marsden - on Twitter and Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.