Category: readings

  • Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch read from Ten Walks/Two Talks

    Ten Walks/Two Talks combines a series of sixty-minute, sixty-sentence walks around Manhattan with a pair of roving dialogues—one of which takes place during a late-night “philosophical” ramble through Central Park. Mapping 21st-centure New York, Cotner and Fitch update the meandering and meditative form of Basho’s travel diaries to construct a descriptive/dialogic fugue.

    TenWalks

    “Barbed with genius.” -Wayne Koestenbaum

    “Poetry in motion.” -Lynne Tillman

    “Magic… A new way of moving through our worlds.” -The Boston Phoenix

    [Five-Star Review] “Fantastic… A deceptively simple book, Ten Walks/Two Talks demands little but offers much. Cotner and Fitch invite us to experience our city with fresh pleasure and renewed awe.” -Time Out New York

    “I hate exercise, and I hate conversation, but I love Ten Walks/Two Talks.” -HTMLGIANT

    “This is a gift, a beautiful book, and nothing in it is forgettable.” -Bookslut

    Also joining the bill are Chicago authors Joel Craig, who will read from his book Shine Tomorrow (Lost Horse), and Jessica Savits, who will read from her book Hunting is Painting (&Now Books).

    For more info: http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/catalog/browse/item/?pubID=63

  • Mike Faloon, James Jay and Jonathan Messinger

    Mike Faloon, editor of the world-famous Go Metric! zine, celebrates the launch of his new book of stories, The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock: Stories, out now on Gorsky Press. Faloon is on tour with fellow Gorsky-ite James Jay (The Undercards), and will be joined by Chicago guy Jonathan Messinger (Hiding Out).

    According to conventional wisdom some goals are best not pursued. The characters in The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock have yet to learn this. Pocket Hercules taps into the power of the ancient wonders to mend a broken heart, with some heavy metal to help. Little League coach Gary Shouldice probably goes too far in motivating his son. Leon Rayner serenades a girl he barely knows with his week-old punk band. From small town watering holes to veterinary clinics to jam band festivals the people portrayed in The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock are undeterred in the pursuit of their dreams. And maybe they should be. Deterred, that is.

    The Performers:

    Mike Faloon has paid the bills as a DJ, dishwasher, drummer, and school teacher. He is the publisher of two zines (Go Metric, Zisk) and a contributing writer to magazines such as Chunklet, Razorcake, and Roctober. His work has also appeared in The Zine Yearbook (Soft Skull) and The Overrated Book (Last Gasp). He lives in Brewster, New York with his family.

    Poet and essayist James Jay lives in Flagstaff, Arizona where he has worked as a bartender, fire fighter, dish washer, janitor, furniture mover, and the like. He has taught poetry in high schools, jails, and universities. Currently, he is the Executive Director for the Northern Arizona Book Festival and the Managing Editor for Two Dogs Press.

    Jonathan Messinger is the co-founder of Featherproof books, co-host of the Dollar Store reading series, Books Editor for Time Out Chicago and author of the short-story collection Hiding Out. He’s currently at work on Hiding Out 2: Hiding In, and Hiding Out 3: Don’t Stop Hiding.

    For more info:    Mike Faloon: http://www.gometric.typepad.com/ James Jay: http://jamesjay.org

    Jonathan Messinger: http://featherproof.com

  • Tesco Vee and Steve Miller from TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-83

    Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson launched Touch and Go fanzine in Lansing, MI, in 1979, and set out to chronicle, lambaste, ridicule, and heap praise on the new punk happenings. In laughably minuscule press runs by today’s standards, T & G was made by guys within the Midwest scene strictly for the edification of scenesters and pals in other cities like DC, Philly, Boston, LA, SF, and Chicago. Inspired by Slash and Search and Destroy and writers like Claude Bessy and Chris Desjardines, TV and DS pumped out twenty-two naughty, irreverent issues, spawned a legendary independent record label, and brought fame and fortune to the best bands in the land, including:  Black Flag, Minor Threat, the Misfits, Negative Approach, the Fix, the Avengers, the Necros, Discharge, Die Kreuzen, Poison Idea—any punks worth their weight in glorious black and white.

    T&G4T&G3T&G2T&G1

    balloon-proof

    I was inspired by how fearless and together Touch and Go were. They were really wild and extremely funny.”—Henry Rollins

    “It was really one of the first times anyone outside of Washington really paid us any mind. The fact that Touch and Go took an interest in us really blew us away.”—Ian MacKaye

    “Anyone who’s ever published a true DIY fanzine owes at least a small debt to Touch and Go.”—Decibel

    For more info: http://www.touchandgobook.com

  • Poetry From Nicole Wilson, Kate Dougherty, and Patrick Culliton

    Nicole Wilson is the Assistant Programs Director of Poetry and Literature at Columbia College Chicago. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Coconut, Fifth Wednesday, RealPoetik, pacificREVIEW, Rabbit Light Movies, and Another Chicago Magazine, among others.

    Kate Dougherty’s e-chapbook, We Trundle We Ignite, is forthcoming from Scantily Clad Press. More poems are published or forthcoming in The Carolina Quarterly, Cannibal, SIR! Magazine, Used Cat, and Action Yes. Kate holds an M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago,Hornet Homily where she served as editorial assistant on Court Green.

    Patrick Culliton’s chapbook Hornet Homily is available from Octopus Books. Recent work has appeared, or will soon, in Another Chicago Magazine, Beeswax, Conduit, Eleven Eleven and elsewhere. He teaches at UIC and Loyola.
    For more info: http://www.octopusbooks.net/

  • Eugene Nelson Jr. Reads From Covert Operations: Alpha

    Covert Operations: AlphaWhen asked about his influences, Eugene Nelson Jr. points to three enduring sources: growing up on the Southside of Chicago in the 1970s and 80s, playing Role Playing Games with people all over Chicago, and loving my family everyday. Not a likely combination for a writer, but one that has brought forth Covert Operations: Alpha (AuthorHouse Publishing), a debut book that is filled with action, love, friendship, death, mystery, humor, magic, betrayal, technology and vengeance. All set here in the back drop of Chicago. Fast paced and intriguing, Covert Operations: Alpha’s science fiction marks the difficulties of everyday life in a world that has evolved into a powerful society filled with powerful beings. This book will wake up every brain cell you have in an effort to understand each character and their actions. Just when you think you understand something, everything will change and so will your understanding. This is the thinking man’s book and you will enjoy every moment of it. So check your equipment at the door and get ready for the time of your life as you are introduced to the world of Covert.

    Bad attitudes meet sophisticated intelligence, and underground crime meets big business in this involving debut book. Eugene Nelson Jr.’s complicated characters and rude cut offs in Covert Operations: Alpha evoke a self-absorbed population. Eugene Nelson Jr., who still lives in Chicago, works from home now and spends most of his time creating new and exciting tales from his role playing game by the same name of Covert Operations.

    For more info: http://covertoperationsalpha.com/

  • Alan Goldsher & Artist Jeffrey Brown

    Paul Is DeadWriter Alan Goldsher & Artist Jeffrey Brown will present their new book, Present Paul Is UnDead: The British Zombie Invasion, that Goldsher wrote and Brown illustrated.

    Are readers ready for a world in which the Beatles just wanna eat your brains? ALAN GOLDSHER (Hard Bop Academy) thinks so, and he may be right. In this humor-filled splatterfest, the rise and fall of the zombie Beatles unfolds through eyewitness accounts, newspaper clippings, and interviews. Violence and music go hand-in-hand as the zombiefied Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney fight, eat, and rock their way to fame and popularity while ninja lord Ringo Starr tries to keep them out of trouble. Nothing can stop them–not even a vampiric Pete Best, zombie-killing Mick Jagger, rival ninja Yoko Ono, or bad reviews. In fact, their only enemies may be one another, as personal conflicts threaten to break them up for good. Roughly paralleling the real-world career of the Beatles, this alternate history reimagines successes, failures, and rivalries with over-the-top bizarro charm.

    JEFFREY BROWN illustrated Paul Is Undead. He’s best known for his bittersweet autobiographical graphic novels like Clumsy, Unlikely, and more. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, NPR’s This American Life, the Chicago Reader, the New City, and Time. He has been featured on and created a short animated music video for the band Death Cab For Cutie.

    For more info:
    alangoldsher.com
    Jeffreybrowncomics.com
    http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/jeffrey-brown

  • Robert K. Elder reads Last Words of the Executed

    Last Words Cover

    The final words of the famous and infamous have been collected since antiquity because they speak to a primal curiosity and spark introspection: What does one say on the edge of oblivion?

    We expect last words to be poignant, a résumé or summation of life experience. Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not. We want them to reveal secrets. But they very seldom do. Journalist Robert K. Elder spent 7 years writing Last Words of the Executed, chronicling the ?nal thoughts of the most discarded, reviled members of society. It’s an oral history of the overlooked, the infamous and the forgotten—who nonetheless speak to a common humanity with their last act on earth. This is the history of capital punishment in America, told from the gallows, the chair, and the gurney.

    “This is a dangerous book. Who knows how we will emerge from the encounter? It makes me want to live, to use my energies in soul-sized pursuits like justice, like love…”
    —Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking
    “Robert K. Elder is a journalist in the noblest tradition. . . . What I will remember most about this book is its poetry in the speech of people at the most traumatic moment of their lives.”
    —Studs Terkel, from the foreword

    For more info: http://lastwordsoftheexecuted.com

  • Chris Besinger Reads The Usual Beast with Group Icky Rats and ONO

    Don‘t miss this dual release show featuring Chris Besinger, reading from The Usual Beast collected writings (Laughing Mouse Press) performing with Group Icky Rats from their work Group Icky Rats LP (Coat-Tail Records) with ONO.

    Chris Besinger is vocalist for Minneapolis’s STNNNG. In addition to bringing copies of his new book, The Usual Beast (Laughing Mouse Press), a collection of STNNNG lyrics and other writings, with cover art by Tom Stack, Besinger will be performing with Group Icky Rats, his all-improvised rock band that is releasing its LP this month.

    Group Icky Rats –Chris Besinger (STNNNG) on vocals, Jon Skuldt (White) on guitar and keyboard, and Bryan Reynolds on drums—forms, through its headlong charge into constant error, and force of will, new and gorgeous spectacular failure. That’s how it’s supposed to go when you make up all your rock songs on the spot. Wherever this vector directs the music, its components are 1) one poet dedicated, as are the finer ranters in the short history of rock—think Brewer from Saccharine Trust—to both massaging and upending the form through the formal and the informal, the situational, the “poetic” (Besinger); 2) another poet dedicated to –think Metal Machine Music—the piercing and to music-as-irritant (Skuldt); 3) and a shit-hot drummer who will crush you –think being destroyed— with total unadulterated punishing awesomeness (Reynolds). The new Group Icky Rats LP, out in an edition of 100 on Coat-Tail Records (home to releases by The Flying Luttenbachers, Xerobot, Melt-Banana, et al) will be available at the show and contains guitar from Mark Shippy (US Maple, Miracle Condition).

    This event will also feature longtime Chicago way-out unit ONO, recently resurrected in what is now their nearly 30-year career, whose work –verifiable through early 80s releases and numerous performances archived on the internet— keeps re-setting the bar for total mind-bending performative fuckery.
    For more info:

    Group Icky Rats www.myspace.com/groupickyrats
    ONO www.travistravis.com
    Laughing Mouse Press www.laughingmouse.net

  • Kate Zambreno Reads From O Fallen Angel, With Friends

    OFallenAngel

    Kate Zambreno will read from her debut novella O Fallen Angel, published in April by Chiasmus Press, winner of their “Undoing the Novel” contest. The work is a triptych of modern America set in a banal Midwestern landscape, inspired by Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, also a grotesque homage to Mrs. Dalloway. O Fallen Angel commits an act of anarchic literary sacrilege that calls to mind the rant and rage of an American Elfriede Jelinek, an exorcism of the culture wars and pop-cultural debris, a sneering indictment of deaf ears, blind eyes, and mute mouths. An editor at Nightboat Books, Zambreno keeps the literary blog Frances Farmer Is My Sister (http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/). An essay collection inspired by the blog will be published by Semiotext(e)’s Active Agents series in Fall 2011.

    Like Angela Carter’s fairy tales, Kate Zambreno’s O Fallen Angel deftly exposes the psychic brutality that lies underneath the smooth glassy surface of parable. Set in Midwestern America in approximately 2006, Zambreno’s character/archetypes—a Mommy who names her golden retriever after Scott Peterson’s murdered wife Laci, a daughter who signs her suicide note with a smiley face and a doomed psychotic prophet—are all agents and victims of disinformation, but this doesn’t make their pain any less real. In Zambreno’s SUV-era America, unhappiness doesn’t exist because it can be broken down into treatable diagnostic codes. As she writes, “Maggie wants to be FREE but she also wants to be LOVED and these are polar instincts, which is why she is bipolar, which is a malady of mood.

    ” A brilliant, hilarious debut.”    -Chris Kraus, author of  I Love Dick and Aliens & Anorexia

    Also joining the bill is John Beer, Jeremy Davies, Daniel Borzutsky, Megan Milks, AD Jameson and James Pate.

    For more info: http://francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com/

  • Damali Ayo Reads From Obamistan! Land without Racism: Your Guide to the New America

    Obamistan

    Funny, unique and fresh, Obamistan! Land without Racism helps the American public take responsibility for its development, rather than sit at home and hurl disappointment at their televisions, newspapers, and web sites, claiming that President Obama hasn’t lived up to his promises. As the first black president becomes the easy and favorite target for many conservatives and liberals alike. This book uses humor to create a shift in the reader’s perspective. It holds firm the idea that we have work to do as the citizens of our country- amongst ourselves. It shows us that we can make a real difference in support of change by embodying the change ourselves. “Change” is a call to action that does not sit only on the shoulders of our president- but on our capable shoulders too. This book holds the voting public to their word and asks them to put up or shut up.

    “Funny, poignant and consistently absorbing.” Davy Rothbart, Founder of FOUND Magazine and contributor to This American Life.
    For more info: http://welcometoobamistan.com