This show was curated (and will be hosted) by Shideh Etaat, Sara Marinelli, and Evan Karp. We received 33 submissions and accepted 10 (30%). Of those 10:
Because we love the challenge at the end of every year to select six of the best pieces we published—in 13 books, two chapbooks, and a magazine, featuring 118 different authors!—this year we’re thrilled to have nominated the following:
We’re doing a yearlong back and forth between visual art and writing, concluding with a gallery show and reading in December 2015. We’re currently open to visual art and would love you to submit, or to tell someone you know… the first two selections will launch us off on an unpredictable series! Let’s see where they take us.
Our art exhibition, featuring 11 previous sPARKLE & bLINK cover artists, is up at The Emerald Tablet through the end of January. Watch and read our show, which was held there on 12/4:
sparkle + blink for the first 100 people, featuring art by Lana Licata. Cheap ice cold draft beers courtesy of Lagunitas. First look at the art exhibition (more info below).
Curated and hosted by Evan Karp and Lapo Guzzini, we received 52 submissions for this show and accepted 11 (21%).
The third in our Chemical Wedding series and the launch of our biannual magazine, vitriol; admission includes a limited copy (click the link to see contributors).
Advance tickets are recommended; between contributors and performers the 91-capacity is starting out ~ half full.
Food menu and full bar available. Come early and admire the magazine, mingle with a bunch of budding brilliant minds, and raise a glass to 5 more years of Quiet Lightning.
We begin with an Exit Manifesto, “we want to make / sure our labor is pointless.” Magic, “a glowing green neon hand with “Psychic” written underneath it,” “distilled almost to a vapor. / Meanwhile, the violation / of social distance defines” Mattress Man, for when we are wolves we will spare you, a Disappearing Mirror, a raspberry macaron disappearing behind red, red lips, flying kites as a kid, eating peanut butter on saltine crackers, maybe someone will hear us, we’re on a carnival ride, “the saintly palms positioned in” us, “the long terror that plants other mouths in” us – all inspired by + lifted from an all new spell entitled “Quiet Lightning 67 // sPARKLE & bLINK 59”
The powers of 67/59 will live on in sPARKLE & bLINK, featuring art by our own Laura Ceron Melo and given out to the first 49 people at Viracocha on Monday, November 10 — but this will likely be the only time the verses come together to speak for themselves.
We’re selling a limited number of tickets to ensure seating, due to the room capacity. It would be wise to preorder a ticket if you hope to attend! Door tickets not guaranteed; get tickets here now.
$10-20, 1/2 of of the proceeds to benefit the magic that happens at 998 Valencia St.
Doors 7 p.m., show 7:30 p.m.
December FIVE YEAR
It feels impossible, but it’s true: we’ve been bringing writers of every imaginable kind to your favorite (and new favorite) Bay Area spots—this year alone to a dance club, a dive bar, a print shop, the headquarters of an app, a movie theater, a neighborhood patio, an art gallery, a co-working space, a museum, a hotel, a creativity salon, a cave, and a cultural center—for five years now, featuring a total of 777 different readings by 429 authors!
To celebrate, we’ve put together a few things in the hopes that you can join us for at least one of them:
The exhibition will be on display at The Emerald Tablet through December and January; most of the art will be for sale, along with artist back issues and select prints.
Also on that night, we launch a year-long ekphrastic project: submissions will open for visual art, and Sidney and Laura will each choose their favorite piece; we will publish their favorites and open submissions of written responses over the course of the following three weeks, at which point we will publish our favorite written responses and open submissions to visual responses, repeating that process throughout 2015 and ending with another gallery show featuring all of the visual and written works!
Soon: the winner of our second book contest, and our first solicited full-length!
A special holiday/end of the year package that includes admission to all of our monthly 2015 shows and their corollary issues of sPARKLE & bLINK, each Chemical Wedding, and everything else we publish in ’15: both issues of the biannual Vitriol, the chapbook, and the full-length for $100. ¡Hey that’s a $220 value! Impress your friends with the QL All Access Package. Make package jokes. Tell your grandparents. To order yours, make a donation to QL through PayPal and be sure to write in the note if you’d like the package(s) for yourself or as a gift, and don’t hesitate to contact us for any reason: evan AT quietlightning DOT org.
A new board member! Kelsey Schimmelman was voted into the Secretary position; she’s been the acting secretary for the last nine months or so after volunteering and expressing interest in getting involved. She’s the second person to be voted on (after Josey).
psst. We’re always looking for people to co-curate one of our shows. Last year—the first time we opened curation up beyond board and staff—we’ve had 18 different people make a QL mix, and they’ve all said good things about the experience (here’s an example).
Enjoy our last book and our last show below. Thanks for five amazing years! Hope to see you and celebrate together soon.
If every artist is a reason, there are about 500 reasons to attend our show on Monday.
The show is in conjunction with ArtSpan + SOMArts, whose annual SF Open Studios and Day of the Dead exhibitions showcasing the work of over 450 local artists will be on view at SOMArts during the event.
Doors open at 6:30; come check out the art and have some cheap ice cold Lagunitas straight from Petaluma via keg (wine and non-alcoholic bevs will be available too).
Submissions are open through the end of Wednesday, Oct 22. We’ve done one show there, premiered the QL Chorus. Will we use both floors, one floor, the piano, the cat? Haha you’ll just have to see. Kelsey Schimmelman (pictured «) is curating this show.
This will be our 65th show, and the 58th issue of sparkle + blink. The first 150 people in attendance will receive a copy. Be there early; this show is in conjunction with ArtSpan & SOMArts, whose annual SF Open Studios and Day of the Dead exhibitions—showcasing the work of over 450 local artists—will be on view at SOMArts during the event. Come check it out!
December is our 5-yr anniversary. Save the date: December 14th!
ps. Thanks to everyone who came to Lookout Point to watch the sunset with us, and to all of you who stuck around for our first cave show! If you missed it, enjoy these photos courtesy of Gracie Malley and our Instagram friends:
Now accepting submissions of all kinds for our September 15 show, to be held at an outdoor location in San Francisco! More information to be announced closer to the date. Send us your bravest writing, send us your weirdest writing, send us the noises you make when you’re dumbfounded, send us your unspoken confessions, your only truth, your missed connections. Do it by the end of Wednesday, August 27th ———> click here to do it in style.
Below you can watch our first Chemical Wedding (we’re getting married every other month from here on out, y’all):
If you want an unforgettable experience this weekend, join us on Sunday afternoon for an intimate performance by Luz ElenaMendoza and Edna Vazquez, in town from Portland to play The Fillmore the night before; they both make beautiful music and we’re thrilled to have them as part of our first collaboration with Name Drop Swamp Records and The Emerald Tablet.
Well, technically this is our second collaboration, but it’s the first in this new ongoing series we’re doing because the first one was so inspiring. Read what Chris Peck the Town Crier had to say about the first one:
Was it the Portuguese wine? The fearsome beautiful bands? Surely not. It must have been that poet, Jon Siegel. His voice was booming and sweet when he asked “Where is there a place left to Breathe, to Regain Strength, to Build New Hope, and Prepare For A Better Tomorrow?” Was it J.Brandon Loberg’s poem, which quoted Alter the Path’s poem, which spoke of some Uncle named Failure? No no. It was the cigarettes we smoked outside in Fresno Alley. It was a small region of sky I looked at, as I paused between two undefendable assertions. After some cocktail of the above, I said “This must be culture”.
If I know you, you’ve read much about the death of culture in San Francisco. This is not one of those entries. This is about a small culture, of which I am a part. Across ten years, mainly in one venue and on one street corner and a smattering of roofs, we’ve made something. We know each other’s poems, and each other’s moments. Some happened in front of a crowd: a rude, lovely man takes a well-deserved sandwich to the face. Other moments were private, and then seeped out through the lenses of the tribe: I am naked and dusted by a fire extinguisher. These people did these things here, though many of us have moved.
Last Sunday, June 22nd I went to the Emerald Tablet to listen to poetry, hear some bands and see old friends who were either back in town or still living here. If I’d only accomplished that, I would have gone home very happy. In addition to these things, though, I answered for myself a couple nagging questions: Are we a culture? One that’s worth re-uniting? Read the rest of the entry…
Joining Luz and Edna will be Terry Taplin, Monica Mody, Liza St. James, and Raul Ruiz, writers we are proud to share with you. We’re going to have two readings, followed by a performance, followed by two readings and more music. There will be cheap ice cold draft beer, thanks to Lagunitas Brewing Company, and (as always at The EmTab) complimentary snacks. Join us! You won’t forget it.
show at 5pm, doors at 4:20 80 Fresno St. $10-20 sliding, no one turned away
Submissions open to September 15 show
We’re doing a special show in September at a secret location TBA … shortly before the show. But it will be in SF. We’re doing this one in the middle of the month because our October show with Litquake + ArtSpan is on the 13th. Submit here!
But be sure to take their work home with you. First 150 people get a copy of sPARKLE & bLINK, featuring art by Tanya Hollis created for this very evening!
We also have a show on Saturday, Aug 9 as part of the 25th Annual National Poetry Slam. It’s our first hotel show! Also our first three-shows-in-one-month month. Courtyard Marriott Oakland, 12:30pm. Announcing the lineup soon; thanks to all who sent us work.
