I don't want to have to work the space bar with my forefinger!
Jesus, I'm getting ahead of myself. Okay, deep breath.
On Friday the twelfth, I will be reading at Lip Service West, Joe Clifford's ongoing series of readings. Literary writers reading transgressive autobiography. It's an impressive series. It's my second time reading there. I am all excited and shit.
FAVOR REQUEST
Please come. If you live in the Bay Area come, and if you don't live in the Bay Area, please spread the word.
Sean Craven
Lip Service West
Friday, August 12
5512 San Pablo Ave. Oakland, CA
7 p.m.
Lip Service West
Friday, August 12
5512 San Pablo Ave. Oakland, CA
7 p.m.
Why should you go? Well, the show is solid. Joe gets good people in, and makes them work. While I've seen some insane performances elsewhere (John Shirley, who proves that there is real punk in cyberpunk), from beginning to end this is the best live literary experience I've seen.
And I, he said with no trace of false modesty, will be devastating. I am candid about my weaknesses; forgive me if I am candid about my strengths.
My piece is one of the very best things I've ever written, and I wrote it in blood and at great personal cost. I have taken one of my most shattering personal experiences, and one that I have not shared with many people, and turned it on both myself and society with as much honesty as I am capable of.
I talk about things you aren't supposed to talk about, and I do so clearly and at volume. If you've ever spent time with me and had the experience of getting a sudden, nasty time bomb/pit bull vibe? This will give you some idea where that comes from.
I was confident before my first reading; that confidence was accurately placed. I will be better this time -- the work is stronger, and now I know that when I am in front of an audience, I am in my proper place, and I have power, and I know what to do with it.
It's not often you get to see someone's balls drop in public. Don't miss the opportunity.
And besides. If I don't get enough people to show up?
Joe Clifford takes my thumbs.
And I don't wanna work the space-bar with my forefinger.
2 comments:
It's a brutally honest piece about violence, ignorance, and racism, a dangerous topic, and Sean doesn't shy from illumining his own prejudice and weakness, his own part in the play--but just as importantly, he does not apologize (as so many writers in his spot might do) for the same in others. In short, it's a gritty, real, and raw story about American, urban living in the modern age. I am proud to have him read at Lip Service West. (And you should come, because he's right: he fails to bring 10 people, I take the thumbs. Them's the rules. He knows that going in.)
Joe, I can't tell you how sad I am that it would be impractical to have this tattooed on the inside of my right forearm.
It would be nice to have ready access, in case of emergency.
Post a Comment