Kimberly Dark

Kimberly Dark (August 12, 1968) is an American author, professor of sociology, and storyteller.

Kimberly Dark
Born	(1968-08-12)August 12, 1968 San Diego, California
Occupation	Writer, sociologist, performance artist
Subject	LGBT, Gender, Feminism, Sexuality
Children	1
Website
www.kimberlydark.com

Life

Dark was born in San Diego, California in 1968. She received a B.A. from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 1989, an M.A. in sociology from Cal State San Marcos in 1998, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom in 2025. She began her work as a storyteller and performance artist in 1998. She had previously set up Current Change Consulting, a firm specializing in coalition-building facilitation, conflict resolution, and qualitative research.^[1]

Her current work uses sociological perspectives and first person storytelling to discuss ways humans organize social life – through gender, race, class, and sexuality (among others). Her trainings, lectures and writings use humor to reveal the makeup of privilege and oppression, as the purpose is to prompt change. Her work has been produced at colleges and universities in North America and Europe, and at theaters, festivals, conferences and other events worldwide.^[2]

Dark teaches in a graduate program in sociological practice at Cal State San Marcos.^[3]

Work

According to Dr. Lynda Dickson, University of Colorado, "There is clear evidence that [Dark] has constructed a social context for her narratives. The characters not only have a personal story – a lived experience – but the stories are routinely connected to a larger, social reality... Attending one of her performances could accomplish more than a semester course of introduction to sociology".^{[4][better source needed]} In 2010, Campus Pride, an American non-profit organization that promotes LGBTQ leaders on University campuses, named Dark in the "Top 25 'Best of the Best' LGBT speakers, performers [who] raise awareness of inclusion, visibility on college campuses nationally."^[5] The first Tuesday of every month, she offers The Hope Desk, a free social justice online help desk, on different audience-suggested topics.^[6]

Her first book of poetry, Love and Errors, was published in 2018, and is a book of narrative poetry that uses both personal and fictional accounts to explore themes of love, gender roles, violence, and survival.^[7]

Her novel The Daddies will be released on October 21, 2018.

Her collection of essays Fat, Pretty, and Soon to Be Old explores appearance hierarchy.

Her next collection of essays, Damaged, Like Me will be released on June 29, 2021, and aims to build roads to a more equitable and loving collective culture of body sovereignty, racial justice, and gender liberation.

Publications

• "Examining Praise from the Audience: What does it mean to be a 'successful' poet-researcher." (Poetic Inquiry 2009)
• "Parting, Renewal" and "Famous Poet" (San Diego Poetry Annual 2009)
• "My Son is a Straight A Student" (Poetic Inquiry: Vibrant Voices in the Social Sciences 2009)
• "Roadside, Perris CA" (Visible: A Femmethology^[8] 2008)
• "Ways of Being in Teaching" (Sense Publishers 2017)
• Love and Errors (May 22, 2018)
• The Daddies (October 21, 2018)
• "Planes Weren’t Built for Big People Like Me. Here’s What I Want My Seatmates to Know." (Time Magazine: September 2019)
• "Fat, Pretty, and Soon to Be Old" (September 24, 2019)
• "Damaged, Like Me" (June 29, 2021)

Discography

• You Are My Singing Lesson, Eko Records, 2002
• Location Is Everything, Durga Sound Studio, 2008

Performances

• The Butch Femme Chronicles: Discussions With Women Who Are Not Like Me (and Some Who Are) (1998)
• Public Contact (1999)
• True Confessions of a Lesbian Diva (2000)
• Stripped and Teased: Scandalous Stories With Subversive Subplots (2005)
• Dykeotomy (2009)
• Things I Learned from Fat People on the Plane (2017)

See also

• LGBT
• Fat acceptance movement
• Women's studies
• Feminism
• Performance art
• Fresh Fruit Festival