When Moments Come Together

Recently, Skylight Books, where I've hosted for 18 years, had a staff showcase.  It's an opportunity for Skylight staff to show off their talents.  I showed a painting (pictured), while my colleague Arlo sang.  I like how our talents meet in the above picture: the guy singing in a hat is being admired by a painting of guy in a hat. Arlo confessed that he saw my painting earlier in the day, and he may have subconsciously wore his hat because of my painting.

Ritual in Literary Spaces

When news broke that Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison passed away, I slipped into pastor mode. I took a class in divinity school on rituals.  Rituals are an important part of life.  Marriage, graduation, birthdays are all forms of rituals.  Rituals mark transition.  Rituals are important.

I felt Toni Morrison's passing required some kind of ritual.  On my Facebook feed, I saw people lamenting her death.  The literary community that I circle in was truly mourning.  So, I organized a tribute, asking some awesome writers to participate (photo above, starting with back row: Jervey Tervalon, Gary Philips, Nina Revoyr, Lisa Teasley, Michael Datcher, Terry Wolverton, Lynell George; front row: me, Dana Johnson, Natasha Deon).

At Skylight Books, we discussed the work of Toni Morrison and what she meant to us, then we read passages from her novels.  It was an awesome turnout.  I was thrilled that Walter Mosley (Devil in a Blue Dress) showed up.

At the end of the reading, I did feel a sense of closure. I don't know about anyone else, but I felt this literary ritual was an important one to have.

"LGBT Writers Who Inspire Us" on June 6th!

Skylight Books has been kind enough to allow me to curate this series.  It's been in existence for three years, and falls on the eve of Gay Pride in Los Angeles.  On June 6, the work of James Baldwin, Oscar Wilde, Lidia Yuknavitch, Eloise Klein Healy, and Jerome Steuart will be explored by some of today's finest writers.  Naomi Hirahara, Ali Liebegott, Wendy Ortiz, and Jervey Tervalon will light up the night!

 

June 6

7:30pm

Skylight Books

1818 N. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles  CA  90027

FREE

 

Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award Winning writer.  Her debut mystery Summer of the Big Bachi received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.   It has been included in the trade magazine's list of best books of 2004, as well as the best mystery list of the Chicago Tribune. Gasa-Gasa Girl, the second Mas Arai mystery, received a starred review from Booklist and was on the Southern California Booksellers' Association bestseller list for two weeks in 2005. Most recently Snakeskin Shamisen, the third in the series, was released in May 2006. In April 2007 it won an Edgar Allan Poe award in the category of Best Paperback Original.

Ali Liebegott is the author of the award-winning books The Beautifully Worthless and The IHOP Papers. In 2010 she took a train trip across America interviewing female poets for a project titled, The Heart Has Many Doors; excerpts from these interviews are posted monthly on The Believer Logger.

Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. Her first book, Excavation: A Memoir, will be published by Future Tense Books in summer 2014. Her second book, Hollywood Notebook, is forthcoming from Writ Large Press in 2014. She currently writes the monthly column "On the Trail of Mary Jane" about medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles for McSweeney's Internet Tendency. 

Jervey Tervalon is the author of All the Trouble You Need, Understand This, and the Los Angeles Times bestseller Dead Above Ground. An award-winning poet, screenwriter, and dramatist, Jervey was born in New Orleans, raised in Los Angeles, and now lives in Altadena, California, with his wife and two daughters.
 

Memorials

It's hard going to a memorial. I went to three recently.  One was for activist Tak Yamamoto did a lot for the gay and Asian community.  Another was for Dramaturg Jim Boyle who did some good workin LA Theatre and worked as a screenwriting professor at USC for many years.  They led full and interesting lives.

The hardest memorial was Justin, a bookseller I worked with at Skylight.  He was 35.  He died of alcoholism. 

Memorials or funerals are more for the living.  It helps with the grieving process.  We gathered and remembered him.  I didn't want to be caught babbling, so I wrote a poem. 

Namaste.

Meeting Jeanette

I met Jeannette Winterson, a true icon of mine. She came to Skylight and I had the honor of introducing her at her very first reading in Los Angeles. I read her novel The Passion some years ago, and it stuck with me. It wasn't until later that I discovered that she was a lesbian or that her work had been snubbed by some of the literati in her country (She's never won a major prize in her country). She has no problem attacking a literary male hero like Henry Miller. She called out the sexism in Mr. Miller's life, like using his girlfriends to prostitute themselves so he can sustain his life as a writer.

There were two things that she said that really meant something to me:

1. Trust the chaos. Writing can be an emotionally wrenching experience. Sometimes you just don't know which way is up in a story. That's ok.

2. This is your time. She said we can change alot about our selves. We can change where we live, what we look like (including our gender), but there is one thing we can't change: the time we were born. This is the hand we were dealt. We can not change the time we're living in.

This resonated with me, because I do think I was born in a rich, textured time (1968) and currently live in interesting (not necessarily the best) times. My time on earth is what I get to leave behind for others to read.

I'd been writing about the 1980's alot...great! It reinforced that I'm writing about what I need to be writing about.

Skylight Musings

I'd been hosting events at Skylight for over TEN years now. I'd had some great times there. Indeed, a big part of my writing community is because of that bookstore. The picture above is of me and a fellow skylight staffer Kevin. See other pictures here.

What's great about Skylight is that there is a great bunch of weirdos who work there. They even started a Skylight band! The band is called Staff Juice.

I was cleaning up after a book event when I saw some of the guys fiddling with some recording equipment. They wanted to know if I'd like to sing.

"Sing what?" I asked.

"Anything."

"Anything?"

Well, I sat down, put the mic to my mouth and recorded this song. I totally made it up on the spot! It's coarse and funny. My voice is wacked, but, hey, it was a blast. You can also hear our store cat "meow," along with other staff folks chiming in. Hear us screech here.

To hear other Staff Juice songs, click here.

John and Me

Showing Some Promise

The Promising Series on September 25
Features Ama Birch, Richard Villegas, Kim Savo
And NPR/BBC Journalist Cash Peters

(Los Angeles) The Promising Series is the only reading series in Los Angeles that exclusively features Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender writers. A goal for the series is to celebrate established authors and introduce the next generation of LGBT writers.

“I think Americans are really interested in what we have to say,” said Series Curator Noël Alumit. “From marriage to the military, our lives have become important topics of conversation. We should let people know what we think and feel!”


The next reading will be held on Friday, September 25th 2009 at 7:30pm.


The reading will feature:


Cash Peters is an author and broadcaster based in Los Angeles, California. He can currently be heard on Marketplace on American public radio, and every week live on BBC Radio 5 Live. Cash has written seven books altogether, including his latest, Naked in Dangerous Places. http://cashpeters.com/



Ama Birch has had a wide variety of jobs: barista, prep chef, personal assistant to a mortician, stagehand on rock concerts, carpenter, amanuensis, educator, day camp counselor, and Christmas ornament shop clerk. Ama has written three full-length pieces for the theatre, and she has self published two chapbooks of poetry. Currently, she is living wherever she is working and looking forward to the publishing of her first full-length book of poetry Sonnet BOOM


Richard Villegas graduated from the University of Southern California’s Masters in Professional Writing program in the spring of 2008. He has published an essay and poetry in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Latino Arts Anthology 1998-2000, respectively. He currently teaches small people in LA Unified as he revises and revises and revises his novel, A Genealogy of Cannibals.

Kim Savo serves as a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles, defending poor people accused of federal crimes. She writes to stay connected to her own humanity and to make visible the humanity of her clients. Before becoming a lawyer, she taught literature and composition at East Los Angeles Community College and the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Echo Park with her partner of 13 years.

The Promising Series will take place on Friday, September 25 at 7:30pm. Skylight Bookstore, 1818 North Vermont, Los Angeles, CA 90029, (323) 660-1175.

XXX

Literary Move

The Promising Reading Series Moves to Skylight Books


(Los Angeles) The Promising Series is the only reading series in Los Angeles that exclusively features Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender writers. A goal for the series is to celebrate established authors and introduce the next generation of writers who will explore the GLBT experience.

“The Queer Voice is more important than ever,” said Series Curator Noël Alumit. “In America, gay rights has become a polarizing issue. In other parts of the world, you have gay men who are being executed in the Middle East and lesbians being raped in South Africa. Those of us who can speak, should.”

With the unfortunate closing of A Different Light Bookstore in West Hollywood, The Promising Reading series has moved to Skylight Books in Los Feliz. “A Different Light Bookstore gave a lot of queer writers a launching pad,” said Noël Alumit. “I was saddened with its closure. However, Skylight has always been supportive of queer writers and was kind enough to host the series and support its goals.”

The next reading will be held on Friday, June 5th 2009 at 7:30pm.

The reading will feature:

Cheryl Klein’s first book, The Commuters, won City Works Press’ Ben Reitman Award and was published in 2006. Her novel Lilac Mines was published by Manic D Press in 2009. For more of her writing and blogging, visit http://www.cheryl-klein.com/.

Raquel Gutierrez is a community based performance writer and cultural activist. She is a co-founding member of the queer performance art ensemble, Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, and has written their first play currently in production called The Barber of East L.A., commissioned by a humanities initiative at USC that enabled the troupe to work with Luis Alfaro. http://www.raquefella.com/

Scott Turner Schofield’s first book Two Truths and a Lie (Homofactus Press) was a finalist for two 2008 Lambda Literary Awards, and made the 2009 American Library Association's Rainbow List. His latest performance, “Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps,” plays at Highways in Santa Monica June 12-13. http://www.undergroundtransit.com/

Orlando Ashley is an actor and comedian embarking on a literary career in Los Angeles.

The Promising Series will take place on Friday, June 5 at 7:30pm. Skylight Bookstore, 1818 North Vermont, Los Angeles, CA 90029, (323) 660-1175