Launching my Heartbreak into Re-Verberations and Falling Out of the Loft
None of that makes sense. I'm a featured artist on 11/30; also, there's a book launch and some open mics.
Next Wednesday (November 15th), there’s a book launch for a first-ever-of-its-kind anthology: American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion. From the website:
Fifteen essays coedited by a collective of award-winning incarcerated writers, featuring contributions from Michael Torres, Alice Paige, Inara Verzemnieks, Sarith Peou, Kristin Collier, Angela Pelster, Lauren Markham, Lacy M. Johnson, Steve Almond, TM "Redd" Warren, Kao Kalia Yang, Kiese Laymon, and Valeria Luiselli, with a foreword by Zeke Caligiuri and an introduction by Eula Biss.
I’m a little salty that I was so excited I preordered my copy, which it turns out was a much slower way to get it than if I’d been slightly more patient. But that more-patient me is a myth, so I will live with the me that I am.
The American Precariat book launch is Wednesday, November 15, 2023, at the Hook and Ladder Theater (also livestreamed via YouTube). I’ll be there when the doors open at 6:00 PM, but leaving before the actual reading starts at 7:00, alas, because…
On Wednesday, November 15th, 2023, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, is the latest installment of the Heartbroken Open Mic, at Open Book. This one is sponsored by Telling Queer History, though it’s not at all limited to queer folx. (We do often have a lot of heartbreak to process, but so do the rest of humanity. Being human, and all.)
I was sad to miss out last month (though I did love 🥰 getting a last-minute feature spot at Poets & Pints, courtesy of the inimitable Dralandra Larkins, who curated that particular iteration). This month I’m planning to bring some tragic spice (not one of the Spice Girls, but maybe it should’ve been). I’d say you should be there, but you live your life how you do. IYKYK.
As always, there has been a lot of Re-Verb Open Mic in my life (shout out to TruArtSpeaks) — just about every Thursday, 6-8 PM at Flava Coffee & Cafe, at University and Dale in St. Paul. There’s more coming up, and I’m the Featured Artist on the 30th 😁.
[Momentarily hilarious GIF of Tina, from Bob’s Burgers, dancing; it got increasingly annoying as I edited the post, though, so it’s gone. You’re welcome.]
There will be no dancing. Not by me, anyway. Other dancers may show up! It’s happened before! I will be reading some poetry 😁.
The Loft Student Reading which was planned for Thursday, November 16th, has been cancelled, but I’m on the list to read at the Spring reading, whenever that turns out to be. I’ll be at Re-Verb, instead, which is fine, fine, very fine; I plan to read a small excerpt from my memoir-in-progress. (Everyone who signs up gets six minutes, generally, unless the list is very long. The Featured Artist gets 15 minutes.)
As always, you can check out my website for more information on my latest publications, a couple videos of me reading (I’m getting better, so they don’t really reflect the current state of the art 😉) as well as the calendar of my readings & events.
That’s it for Davi Gray’s Writing News for now! Feel free to subscribe if you want to keep up with what’s going on. Otherwise, I hope you had a fabulous read, and please find some joy in the rest of your day 😊.