Briefly, I hosted a reading series in Chicago as a corollary to the journal. We held it at a friend's cafe in Logan Square.
The first reading was an offsite event for AWP in 2009. Readers included Chicu Reddy, Sara Veglahn, Rick Meier,
Lily Brown, NEG, Arda Collins, Lisa Fishman, Suzanne Buffam, Sarah Gridley, Jaswinder Bolina, and Joel Brouwer filled in
for Abraham Smith, who'd lost somebody and had to be in Texas. I filmed it all, but the footage was destroyed.
Like a casette, my little mini dv tape unspooled, and I couldn't salvage it.
Anyways, we did two more readings. The second was on March 10th and featured CAConrad, Aaron Kunin,
and Magdalena Zurawski.
They were on a midwestern tour and we were lucky to have them for our series, in its infancy. The noise of the cafe
was formidable, but the three of them handled it well.
Joshua Beckman was our next and final event--some weeknight in April. The cafe has an 80s theme. And the sandwiches
have an 80s theme, too. When my friend, the cafe owner, refused to ask his employees not call out the names of the
sandwiches as they came up ("Flashdance!" or "Swordfish Trombone!"), we knew it was time to shove off. Which was too
bad, since students who maybe couldn't get into Danny's would come. Alas, Joshua handled it like a professional. He
gave a stellar reading from Take It, which had just come out.
Suzanne Buffam and Chicu Reddy were kind enough to meet me at the Edgewater, a pub in our neighborhood.
We filmed these on the Edgewater's patio after drinks. This was fall 2008.
The movies of Graham Foust and Lauren Levin were done in the same old hotel room on the campus of the
University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Lily Brown and Claire Becker helped out with the sound on both of those.
We were down there (this is October 2008) for the Frank Stanford Festival that the Henriksens
and Susan Scarlata were throwing.
The movie of Brandon Shimoda was also shot in Fayetteville also. I think Brandon's movie--
as well as Sam Amadon's and Susan's movies--was shot outside the hall where the all night reading of The Battlefield
Where the Moon Says I Love You was taking place, while it was taking place. I think it lasted fifteen or more hours.
You couldn't really be in there the whole time. So, we made some movies.
Dottie Lasky's little movie was filmed at Danny's in Bucktown, Chicago. The best place for readings in the city,
to my mind, but very difficult to film there. This one is nearly all darkness. It was filmed on June 10, 2009.
Little movies (from past episodes) of Cathy Wagner, John Keene, Chris Stackhouse, Chuck Stebelton, and perhaps
others--Christian Hawkey and Robyn Schiff--were all shot there as well.
Joel Craig has been lovely to let us film there. Matthea Harvey's was shot there too, come to think of it.
Catherine Theis also lives in my neighborhood in Chicago, and this one was shot outside her apartment on the street
the day after Dottie's. I think Lily helped with the sound on this one too.
--jmw