On Saturday, I participated in the "You're Just My Type!" event and Arts Central, hosted and organized by the lovely Janine Van Gool of Uppercase gallery. At 2pm, there was a reading in the Pallette coffee shop. The reading was attended by a modest but very enthusiastic audience. It was particularly interesting for me to hear Paulina Constancia read -- I was completely unfamiliar with her work, and the bilingual pieces she performed were lovely to listen to. This was also the first time I'd heard ryan fitzpatrick read from his newest series, and I was very pleased by how well they can off. I've been reading them as they've appeared on facebook, and I expected them to go over well, but the vulnerability that ryan infused them with -- or perhaps that the pieces infused ryan with -- was unexpected and extremely effective. I think he's really got something here, and I can't wait to see where they go.

After the reading, for the rest of the afternoon the readers milled bout as poets for hire. The idea was that we were to write poems for anyone who asked, which they could then turn in to cards with all the awesome stationary Janine supplied. However, it seems our potential hirers were typewriter-shy, so most of us began to make our own cards and poems and other poetic doohickies for each other. I was particularly proud of the card I made for Ed, which has crushed pieces of potato chips glued to the cover that soaked ominously through the envelope on the way home.

Labels: Literary Events