lecturing etc.

Last week i got to speak to a wonderful classroom of fiction students and aspiring writers at UT Dallas. Looking forward to following these students on their journey from the page to the stage.

haints star

Two excellent writers, Colin Winnette (author of Haints Stay and Coyote) and Sarah Gerard (author of Binary Star) came to visit recently and we were very happy to host them at a Spiderweb show just for the occasion. A great crew of local writers and artists gathered 'round to regale our visiting friends with poems, stories, and songs, and the two travelers, tired of reading the same old things night after night, actually did an excerpt-swap. It was a special treat for everyone who joined us. Also notable, this was our first-ever show at Paschall Bar in Denton, and I think it was quite a success.

colin and sarah slinging books post-show

i did a fragments set and a short excerpt at this show

colin winnette reads from sarah gerard's binary star

she's a bastard

Had a wonderful time performing at She's A Bastard last weekend. For my set I re-wrote poems using The Picture of Dorian Gray viewed through a gender-swapped lens. (For those of you familiar with the book, my retelling was written through the perspective of a queer female artist named Bailey, of course, after the atrocious murder.) The poems were fun to write, even if some were finished at the very last minute, and the rest of the badass writers (Bonnie Stufflebeam, Bess Whitby, Lauren Belmore, and Makayla Price) all had really exciting performances too. 

I might put together a little book of poems using the works made for this show, since I kind of want to share them with the world but can't think of a journal that might be that into the specifics of the project. (Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough yet.)

Oh & everyone dressed up and we all had drinks and a few laughs afterwards. My outfit was not quite subtle; anyone not attending the readings must have thought I was really jumping the gun on Halloween. Or, you know, dead.

in verse: looped

If you missed In Verse: Looped this weekend, you sure missed out. Easily one of the most interesting shows I have ever been a part of, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to try something a little bit out of the ordinary for me. The event was quite a commitment- the poems were the easy part. My art installation was time-consuming and sometimes tedious, but being a part of this amazing event made everything worth it. I absolutely loved how everything turned out, both in my room and the other fantastic artists' spaces (including Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi, Lauren Belmore, Zach VandeZande, Kyle Vaughn, and Tamitha Curiel). Scott McDaniel had a great eye for the night if you're curious about all the wonderful works that were displayed.

photo by Scott McDaniel

photo by Scott McDaniel

photo by Chris Taylor

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.

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.

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.