Matthew James DeCoster + John Panzer

Donna Laemmlen + friend

Matthew James DeCoster, Gravity Goldberg, Evan Karp

What a room!

Gravity Goldberg + Chris Cole

Matthew James DeCoster + Jane Smiley

Ian Tuttle, Chris Peck and David Whitten

Allen Ginsberg and Gravity Goldberg

strange, strange creature in its natural habitat

all first-timers to Quiet Lightning

all first-timers to the Contemporary Jewish Museum

Tom Comitta

Susan Steinberg

and beanbags for all!

Susan Steinberg

Chris Peck the Town Crier

Evan Karp

Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley!

Lauren Becker + Brian Cullen

Joseph Lease

Joseph Lease

Chris Cole + Evan Karp

Jonathan Hirsch, Valerie Chavez, Matthew James DeCoster + Nora Toomey

Intermission - what just happened?!

The Swag of Heroes

Chris Cole and Glen David Gold

Scoping the programs

Sherril Jaffe and Geoffrey Katz

Hello!

Start of Set 2

Glen David Gold editing before his reading

as an introduction…

Rapt

seriously… so funny

Glen David Gold

Michael David Lukas

Michael David Lukas

Susan Steinberg

Karen Penley

Karen Penley

Karen Penley

HEROES LISTEN (Susan Steinberg, Joseph Lease, Kevin Killian)

Lisa Brackmann

Kevin Killian reading Jack Spicer

Lisa Brackmann

Kevin Killian

Kevin Killian

a round of applause!

You can read our 40th issue of sPARKLE & bLINK right here and watch the entire show (with author links) here. You can also enjoy this photo of heroes Kevin Killian and Susan Steinberg in the restroom, taken during the afterparty at Novela by hero Kobek:

“…her reading was explosive, the sort of thing you remember forever.” – Kevin Killian of Susan Steinberg

Major thanks to everyone at the museum, to our volunteers, staff and board of directors — but most of all to our heroes for coming together to create another unforgettable show, and to everyone who was there to be a part of it. You can purchase a copy of the book, with art by Amanda Cruz, right here.

A kind of town hall of the Bay Area literary scene, where both established names and emerging writers come together for a consistently evolving, experimental show – Neja Talreja

Next Up

It’s Beast Crawl!
Saturday, July 6th @ Duende in Uptown Oakland

Featuring: Liana Holmberg, Pam Benjamin, Annie Avery, Matthew DeCoster, Joe Case, Amy Glasenapp, Genine Lentine, and José Luis Gutiérrez! For more info on all of the artists, check out the fancy QL // Beast Crawl page. We’re kicking off the festival – 5pm with a bang!

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Our one night stand with The Rumpus is Tuesday, July 9th!

Featuring readings by Alice LaPlante, Brandon Brown, and a literary mixtape you should submit to, with music by Le fomo and comedy TBA. This will be at Balançoire — get ready to party!

On the Horizon

• Our three-show series with the Conservatory of Flowers begins on August 5th and continues on September 2nd (submissions open soon).
• Then we’re celebrating City Lights’ 60th birthday with a special Quiet Lightning in Kerouac Alley! That’s September 22nd (more info very soon).
• The Greenhouse Effect concludes with a third evening at the COF as part of Litquake on Monday, October 14th.
• Then we’re doing a special collab with the Center for the Art of Translation in November, and
• finishing off our 4th year — and our first Tour Through Town — with a show in Sausalito as part of Why There Are Words on December 12th. We could use your help with this one — we’re raising money to rent Chicken John‘s bus so we can go up there together; we’ll be serving dinner across the bridge! All donations are tax deductible and every bit helps — plan to come, and help if you can.

Thank you all so much for everything. We are overwhelmed by the year we’re having! Who said don’t get high on what you create?

xoxo
Evan for
Quiet Lightning

The post museum recap, beast crawl + the rumpus appeared first on Quiet Lightning.

If you’re just tuning in, we’ve done shows in dive bars, classy bars, art galleries, music halls, bookstores, night clubs, a greenhouse, a ballroom, a theater, a mansion, a sporting goods store, a pirate store, a community center… and this will be our first museum show!

Featuring:

Jane Smiley
Glen David Gold
Lisa Brackmann
Michael David Lukas
Susan Steinberg
Kevin Killian
Joseph Lease
Tom Comitta
Karen Penley
Chris Peck the Town Crier

For only 5 dollars! Lagunitas will be in the house with cold draft beers. Don’t miss this, even for your grandparents; they would want you to be at Quiet Lightning! More info will be up shortly, but you can get tickets now – don’t sleep! Museums are pretty strict on things like capacity, you know. RSVP on the Facebook.

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July 6th we’re going back to Oakland to be a part of the second annual Beast Crawl! Last year we debuted our Random Play series, which we’ll do again; more to be announced soon, but for now you can read some background on the festival and a recent interview with co-founder Paul Corman-Roberts. Also, you can see a list of confirmed events that will happen — all on that one day in Oakland’s Uptown  – right here.

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It’s true! We’re teaming up with The Rumpus, too. How amazing has this Tour Through Town been? Any ideas on what we should do for our fifth year?! Hold those (better yet: send them in!) because for now, let’s talk about Tuesday, July 9th. We’re putting this show together now and would love you to send in your work. Any kind of writing at all. Deadline is Wednesday, June 9th. You know this show is going to be slamming — we’re going to have music and comedy in true Rump fashion — so be a part of it! More info soon.

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August 5th we return to the Conservatory of Flowers for our third annual three-show series The Greenhouse Effect. The other dates will be Sept 2 (Labor Day, with a picnic litnic on the lawn) and October 14th as part of Litquake!

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Then we’re teaming up with the Center for the Art of Translation and Why There Are Words, which will close out our year. Somewhere in there (November!) is our 50th show. Can you believe it?

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Thanks for your ongoing support. We are always accepting donations, which are entirely tax deductible and can be made here. For every $10 you donate, we will spend $10 on the greater Bay Area literary community. We’re trying to raise enough money right now to rent Chicken John’s bus to take people to Sausalito. How much fun would that be? We’ll cook a big meal for everyone and have a blast all the way to the show (see photo to the right for an idea or two). Help!

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Finally, you can now enjoy our recent show with Oakland’s Studio One Reading Series here (video and full text online).

The post neighborhood heroes @ the contemporary jewish museum appeared first on Quiet Lightning.