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Events Sun Jul 06 2014
"Lecture, Argue, Proclaim, and Complain" at Napkin Poetry
It's a truism that much of the audience at any given literary reading will consist of other writers. The organizers of the Napkin Poetry reading series don't just acknowledge this--they force the issue, encouraging the audience to take part in the performance whether they're on the lineup or not. Their manifesto reads, in part:
We highlight working writers embedded in community performances. We engage many dialogues -- to this end all can lecture, argue, proclaim, and complain . . . . Because poetry is only alive in conversation, our community talks back . . . . For us to live with poets we have to be them too.
To that end, many of their events include an open mic (although not this one) and Q&A segment.
This month's installment -- held Tuesday, July 8, at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee -- offers other ways of mingling different voices. Romanian-born poet Gene Tanta presents what Napkin Poetry calls "a hybrid overlapping of poetry reading and poetry workshop" that examines "why audience members come to readings and why poets offer readings of their work."
After exiting that hall of mirrors, the room will welcome Daniel Borzutzky and, possibly, Bugs Bunny. Borutzky's performance on "Loony Tunes, immigration, and early representations of Latin Americans in the U.S" will take the form of benshi, an art form of Japanese origin in which a live performer gives narration over film. Finally, the prolific and surreal Lina Ramona Vitkauskas reads from her just-released book Spiny Retinas. Things get rolling at 7pm.
