Wednesday, September 30, 2015

poets in chicago

It is very likely this post deserves a lot more depth than I am about to give it, so how about if you are interested in all the juicy details, drop me a line or ask me next time we bump into each other....

I was invited by my dear friend Ben Clark, who also happens to be one of my favorite poets, to join him in Chicago for his new book's release show and celebratory shindig. The event itself gets to stake claim on One Of My Favorite Nights Ever, where I got to meet my longtime small-publisher crush, Rebecca from Meekling Press, AND share the stage with Emily Rose and Marty McConnell, not to mention witness an incredible performance of Ben's book by him and his longtime friend, whose story the new book is based on.

reading off tiny scraps of paper in a basement in chicago

the humble reading cave
The book (Ben's) is called If You Will Turn Around I Will Turn Around, put out by Thoughtcrime Press. Go buy it and read it and feel it.

new & old chicago friends
While I was staying with the most wonderful and hospitable hosts in the world- who took me to even more poetry readings and all the bookstores- chances had it that my buddy Colin was also traveling through the city on tour with Amelia Gray and Aaron Burch, and our whole troop of traveling writers all crashed at the same little house in Logan Square. We had a delightful time stomping around the city- attended writing events, absorbed the view of the lake and the city and the sky from a tall building downtown, spent too many tokens at a barcade until late at night... Beyond the fun I notice there was an underlying seriousness, a thoughtfulness, like everyone was still working, still plotting and planning... the state of mind I think I am maybe all too often in... anyway, it was fantastic to see everyone so active in their art, specifically WRITING, you know, touring and making shit happen. I'd love to wrangle a tour with a book of poems and some friends someday. Let's make shit happen! Okay.


Monday, September 28, 2015

pegasus

What luck! I am now proud to be co-hosting an excellent reading series in Dallas (the best poetry night in big D, according to the Dallas Observer) called Pegasus Reading Series (made possible by WordSpace). The founder of Pegasus, Sebastian H. Paramo, asked me to help emcee and participate in the curation of the series a month or two ago, and we just hosted our first Wednesday night (every last Wednesday of the month) at Kettle Art (really cool gallery. go there.) together this last week to kick off the series' new season. The show featured poetry by R. Flowers Rivera, Richard Bailey, and Bess Whitby, followed by beautiful music stylings from Horace Bray. I'm looking forward to working with Sebastian and all of the excellent literary things we'll get to do with this time & space.


Sunday, September 20, 2015

we did it: lazers of sexcellence

It finally happened. After planning two shows and surviving the better part of a year of communication issues, Lazers of Sexcellence came to denton this weekend and Spiderweb Salon put on a hell of an event. It was overall pretty exciting / exhausting to host Amber Tamblyn and Derrick Brown here in Denton.

that time i danced with amber tamblyn. photo by leah jones
I was supposed to read this particular evening but since we discovered at the last minute that the featured artists had longer sets planned than we had anticipated, I just stuck to emcee-ing. Instead of reading a set, I lined my pockets with lines of poems that I threw at audience members throughout the night, so that was fun. Throughout the show we all laughed a lot and cried a little. I remember trying to hug everyone as much as I could. It was a weird night that I wouldn't trade for anything.

pocket poetry from 9/18/15


The evening was pretty well documented, which is really great because I was so busy running around I can barely remember the finer points. There's a slew of amazing photos by Leah Jones on Spiderweb's facebook page, and the wonderful Scott McDaniel came all the way from Dallas to take some really awesome photos too.  A very nice woman named Alexandra also took video of the night, you can find her blog here. As always, stellar talent took over the stage, local and nationally recognized performers alike, and I think overall a good time was had by all.

I need a nap.