A NIGHT OF RED LIGHTS & OTHER WEEKEND NOTES: There was a good turnout for Lady Hardin's feature set at the Georgia Poetry Open Mic & Reading Series I host at Barnes & Noble at Georgia Tech on the first Friday of each month. Lady read work from a new chapbook and we had some great poets at the open mic, too.
Saturday was another craptacular day of unpacking, and the tv armoire from Pier One was delivered. It's gorgeous, but a little too big for the room. I've nicknamed it the monolith, as in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I keep expecting the star child or angry monkeys to drift out of it at any moment. While trying to get my heavy tv and other equipment inside the monolith, I pulled something in my back. I'm going to need another rescue from Tina and Mandie this week to help me with some other stuff, like shelves and moving some other heavy boxes. I swear, the next time I move it will be to the place I will die in. This moving shit is for the birds.
On Saturday night, I made it over to the Ferst Center for the Georgia Author of the Year Awards. I was running late (natch) and slipped in and sat in the back. Cherryl Floyd-Miller lost to Eric Nelson in the poetry category. Now, I haven't read Eric's book, but Cherryl should have won, and yes, I am biased. I love Cherryl and her work and Chops is a damn fine book of poetry. Alice Lovelace recieved the much-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award, and she spoke about her activism and poetry and got a standing ovation. After the blissfully short ceremony, I met up with Lisa Allender and her friend Danny (and later by Cherryl and her friends) at El Azteca for some Mexican food. Nothing like good, spicy comfort food and margaritas to cap off a shitty day.
On Sunday night, it was back to Java Monkey Speaks in Decatur, GA. I felt like I hadn't been there in ages. The place was packed...people were standing out on the street. I had the honor and delight of sharing a big table with poets Amy Pence, Beth Gylys, Dustin Brookshire and Lady. Bryan Patillo was the featured poet and he was in fine form, despite the announcement that he had lost his bag full of poems and a novel in progress. Everyone in the audience winced. I've got my work backed up on disks all over southern America because I'm paranoid. Kodac Harrison was talking up the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology, which went to the printer over the weekend. Hooray!
Tonight, I was the featured poet for the House of Poets at Red Light Cafe in Midtown Atlanta. There was big crowd, with lots of friends in the audience, including the Lovelace/Davis front, who all did blindingly good sets of poetry. Alice Lovelace always inspires me, and there was some great poets I'd never heard rocking the mic tonight. I did mostly new work that had never been read anywhere (some of it very graphic and sexual). It took me a minute to warm up and the audience to figure out what was going on with my work, but I heard Alice laughing and Rupert Fike giving his audible "yeah" when he's particularly enjoyed a piece, and I knew I was on the right track. Thanks to hosts Amanda Kail and Phoenixyz for having me, and extra special thanks for Wendy and Ward for coming out and supporting me.
On another Red Light note, I got an email today from Anna Camilleri the editor of the Red Light: Superheroes, Saints & Sluts anthology being published this fall by Canada's Arsenal Pulp Press. This is the book that is publishing Why I Want To Be Pam Grier and I'm very excited about the cover art and the line-up of poets included. Check out this link for more information about the book, which will be out in October. There will be readings in New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Toronto in late 05 and early 06, and I plan to hit at least two of them. More on that soon.
Also in the post today came a package from England from my pal Colette. It's a bootleg DVD of all of Kate Bush's tv appearances from around 1978 to 1993. Absolute heaven. I needed a little Kate to boost my spirits.
Saturday was another craptacular day of unpacking, and the tv armoire from Pier One was delivered. It's gorgeous, but a little too big for the room. I've nicknamed it the monolith, as in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I keep expecting the star child or angry monkeys to drift out of it at any moment. While trying to get my heavy tv and other equipment inside the monolith, I pulled something in my back. I'm going to need another rescue from Tina and Mandie this week to help me with some other stuff, like shelves and moving some other heavy boxes. I swear, the next time I move it will be to the place I will die in. This moving shit is for the birds.
On Saturday night, I made it over to the Ferst Center for the Georgia Author of the Year Awards. I was running late (natch) and slipped in and sat in the back. Cherryl Floyd-Miller lost to Eric Nelson in the poetry category. Now, I haven't read Eric's book, but Cherryl should have won, and yes, I am biased. I love Cherryl and her work and Chops is a damn fine book of poetry. Alice Lovelace recieved the much-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award, and she spoke about her activism and poetry and got a standing ovation. After the blissfully short ceremony, I met up with Lisa Allender and her friend Danny (and later by Cherryl and her friends) at El Azteca for some Mexican food. Nothing like good, spicy comfort food and margaritas to cap off a shitty day.
On Sunday night, it was back to Java Monkey Speaks in Decatur, GA. I felt like I hadn't been there in ages. The place was packed...people were standing out on the street. I had the honor and delight of sharing a big table with poets Amy Pence, Beth Gylys, Dustin Brookshire and Lady. Bryan Patillo was the featured poet and he was in fine form, despite the announcement that he had lost his bag full of poems and a novel in progress. Everyone in the audience winced. I've got my work backed up on disks all over southern America because I'm paranoid. Kodac Harrison was talking up the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology, which went to the printer over the weekend. Hooray!
Tonight, I was the featured poet for the House of Poets at Red Light Cafe in Midtown Atlanta. There was big crowd, with lots of friends in the audience, including the Lovelace/Davis front, who all did blindingly good sets of poetry. Alice Lovelace always inspires me, and there was some great poets I'd never heard rocking the mic tonight. I did mostly new work that had never been read anywhere (some of it very graphic and sexual). It took me a minute to warm up and the audience to figure out what was going on with my work, but I heard Alice laughing and Rupert Fike giving his audible "yeah" when he's particularly enjoyed a piece, and I knew I was on the right track. Thanks to hosts Amanda Kail and Phoenixyz for having me, and extra special thanks for Wendy and Ward for coming out and supporting me.
On another Red Light note, I got an email today from Anna Camilleri the editor of the Red Light: Superheroes, Saints & Sluts anthology being published this fall by Canada's Arsenal Pulp Press. This is the book that is publishing Why I Want To Be Pam Grier and I'm very excited about the cover art and the line-up of poets included. Check out this link for more information about the book, which will be out in October. There will be readings in New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Toronto in late 05 and early 06, and I plan to hit at least two of them. More on that soon.
Also in the post today came a package from England from my pal Colette. It's a bootleg DVD of all of Kate Bush's tv appearances from around 1978 to 1993. Absolute heaven. I needed a little Kate to boost my spirits.
Comments