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Mark Burr

Mark Burr is a queer Korean American poet from Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He is the editor of Secret Coast Review and a 2025 Mississippi Arts Commission Fellow in Poetry. His work explores inheritance, language, and belonging in the American South. Through his writing and community work, he seeks to amplify the voices of Southern queer and Asian Americans. You can find him on Instagram at @mark_burr or on Facebook at facebook.com/mark.burr.9461.

Early morning view of shrimp boats in Biloxi harbor

Voices

Queer survival in Mississippi and the bars that saved us

On Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, gay bars weren’t just nightlife but sanctuaries where queer Southeners risked everything to exist, to dance, and to be seen, writes Mark Burr.

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Mark Burr

Queer survival in Mississippi and the bars that saved us