Post-Boog-City/DA Levy Lives Reading Post

Photo of me reading courtesy of A.P.  Due to the glare from the stage lights and my pregnancy roundness, other photos from his perspective made me look like an atomic blueberry. So, this pic of my boots will have to do.

Bernadette Geyer graciously tagged me for the "Next Big Thing" Series/meme that's hit the interwebs, and I think that technically I was supposed to post my answers on Monday, but due to the rather frenetic week I'm going to save that post for Saturday, February 2.

Instead, I thought I'd post about the loveliness of the Hyacinth Girl Press/"Boog City Presents" poetry reading on Tuesday. 

As I told a friend over Facebook yesterday, there's something about delving into the writer-world for a few short hours for events such as this reading that leave me feeling really happy and content. I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy -- although there was a lot to be happy about on Tuesday evening, I must admit. 

Some of my nearest and dearest.

There were a lot of friends and family members in the audience at the reading -- and it's so, so nice to be able to read to your nearest and dearest. I guess, in a way, it's kind of satisfying to be able to show them -- see! This poetry stuff leads somewhere . . . even if it's just to the stage in this bar! -- and also, it was lovely to (maybe, possibly, thanks to the chapbook coming out) gain a few readers. There were three people (non-family!) who approached me after the reading to let me know they enjoyed my poems, and two of them spoke about how they were looking forward to the chapbook, and just the fact of that happening makes me nearly giddy with gratitude. 

My incredibly talented sister M.K. outdid herself, too, in the showing-support department. First, she smuggled my mother up from Virginia and kept her hidden in NYC all weekend, so that when we met up for dinner at the Sidewalk Cafe before the reading, I was completely floored to see my mother standing before me.  Mandy had mentioned something about our mother coming up for the reading waaaaaay back in 2012, maybe around Thanksgiving (although I suppose it could have been Christmas, because even four weeks ago seems a lifetime away right now), but because no one had said anything about it recently, my preggers-brain had assumed that she was, naturally, not coming. But she did! She was at the reading! She and the incomparable Ms. C.C. were able to meet and bond over glasses of prosecco -- another awesome occurrence I really wouldn't have foreseen -- and even though I couldn't hang around to horn in on their conversation in the bar after the reading, it means so much to me that they were both there, and that they met and got along so well.

"The Stories Our Mothers Teach Us"

And TWO, and here's the incredibly-talented part, M.K. was able to throw together, at the absolutely-very-last minute, a beautiful broadside featuring one of the poems from the chapbook. I had the idea for the broadside during my commute into work Tuesday (of course, at the last minute), and when I phoned M.K. to tell her about it, instead of telling me to buzz off because she had mountains and mountains of real design work to do, she not only humored me by designing the broadside super-fast, but she was able to print out copies for me and bring them to the reading! 

I gave them out to anyone who seemed even remotely interested in my work that night. Those three people who made the mistake of approaching me to compliment my poetry? They weren't able to leave without having one of these babies in their hands. At the bottom is the address of HGP's website, so that if they do actually remember my work a couple of months from now, when they're cleaning out their messenger bags or purses and they happen to find this paper folded up inside, they can maybe-possibly order the chapbook if it's maybe-possibly published by that point.

Isn't M.K. a clever lady? She's super mad at me for forcing her to left-justify the poem. Her superior design sensibilities told her to center it, but I had to tell her, no dice. And she humored me. She's very good to me.

At the reading, I was finally able to meet J.Hope Stein (fellow HGP poet and the editor of the site poetrycrush), and Sarah Reck (the layout editor/designer of HGP chapbooks) and also see Niina Pollari's band mindtroll play two sets between and after the reading. The only remotely-bad thing about the night was that I had to leave so soon after the reading, and I couldn't hang around in the bar ('cause 8-months pregnant ladies in bars are always a welcome sight, non?) with all of the lovelies who came to the reading.

I did, however, get to spend a solid hour and a half on the train back to Long Island with A.P., and I'm sure our ridiculous and radically un-P.C. conversation amused/horrified our fellow passengers.

I'll end this post with some rather lame photos I took with my cell phone at the reading, just so you can get an idea of, you know, the perspective from which my pregnant round-lady ass was parked, and also what the back of my brother-in-law G.S.'s head looks like:

J. Hope Stein reads from her chapbook, [mary]

Niina Pollari reading poems

mindtroll makes me ridiculously happy.

Sarah Reck reads selections from HGP chapbooks

Oh, and if you're interested in a copy of the broadside, please feel free to email me with your request.