no fest
a poetry marathon fundraiser
hi hello hey hola what’s up,
I’m excited to share that I’ll be reading with some incredible poets this Saturday (11/15) to support Beyond Baroque’s no fest, a poetry marathon fundraiser! It looks like there are at least 80 poets (!) performing, which is really kind of tremendous if you think about it. If you’re in LA and you’d like to stop by, I’ll be reading between 7-8PM. The event will also be live on YouTube from 12-9PM. There will also be an open mic from 12-1PM and a book fair set up inside the building featuring more than just a few of LA’s small presses, publications, & literary organizations.
The name of this event obviously rules, but it’s inspired by the troubling attacks of late on arts & lit organizations carried out by the current administration. As they put it:
“This year’s fundraiser is especially vital. Following the loss of our NEA grant earlier this year—which has limited our programming and canceled the Southern California Poetry Festival—we are calling on our community to help us continue providing a home for writers and artists. For 57 years, Beyond Baroque has stood as a hub for creativity, dialogue, and connection between writers, artists and their readers and audiences. With your support, we can keep that spirit alive.!
Beyond Baroque is, for me, like it is for so many other writers & artists, a very special place. I was first introduced to it in 2016 where I attended another marathon-style reading in which writers gathered to perform their work as a form of decrying the election of Trump. I had just finished a full year of studying with the poet Douglas Kearney at CalArts, and he was to perform that day, and, at that time in my life, if he was performing somewhere in Los Angeles I was likely finding my way there. There were many great writers who read that day as well; it was so packed that you were lucky if you could find a spot standing in the lobby outside BB’s Wanda Coleman theater. For one reason or another, I’ll never forget this encounter. A cool old building (the former City Hall of Venice, in fact) teeming with life, sound, experiment, and argument billowing out of the mouths of poets and novelists and others from all over LA. By the Spring of 2017, I would be performing there for the first time with the writers Amanda Choo Quan and David Connor to celebrate the completion of our MFAs.
To be invited to read at no fest now is to be invited to remember why I write; why writing and poetry is essential in a world barreling through authoritarian wish-fulfillment, fictional scarcities & the zombifying of everything.
Come say hey; meet someone new in the rain; hear a poem or two!
Keep Beyond Baroque alive!