Monday, October 13, 2008

LITQUAKE INSPIRED ME

I had the opportunity to take in two Litquake events over the last two weeks. Litquake is San Francisco's annual literacy festival, which ran Oct. 3-11.

On October 3rd I went to a theatre across from City Hall to see famed authors tell stories revolving around being "Suckered." Unfortunately I could only stay for the first half of the show, since I had to get up early for a flight to Atlanta for a wedding, but the parts I did see were amazingly fun. A lot different than live theatre, more entertaining than television or movies and most - if not all - of the story tellers were very talented and inspiring.

Favorite: A black woman from the south side of Chicago told a story of when she met Whoopi Goldberg. This "No one has to rush back to Oakland!" story was unforgettable for me.



John and I ended the festival at Clarion Alley, see video above for what the beautiful murals looks like in this alley. We arrived at 7 pm, and saw the open mike reading, where people just showed up, signed their name on a chalk board and took turns reading their stories. Some were great stories tellers with years of experience, others were young poets filled with energy and all were fun to watch - it was so darn diverse it put a smile on my face.

The second part was a presentation by two writers from New York who have made a living inspiring people to come up with six word memoirs. They had people who were featured in their books read their six words of greatness and then the crowd read their six word memoirs out loud - interactively cool!

John and I went to our favorite Italian Restaurant called Poesia (I had the best tomato soup and steak dinner - yummy!) in the Castro neighborhood and talked about our favorites.

Favorite Reader: A woman who spoke about her days as a cigarette girl at bars throughout the city.

Charming Attempt: A young poet boy - maybe 14-15 spoke and had to start and stop twice because of his nerves. He was standing next to us with his mother and was really nervous - too cute! When he read, it was great - obviously talented, but hard to understand because he read so fast - I'm confident he'll get it together soon.

My Six Word Memoir: Chicago Cubs Broke My Heart Again!

John: leave your six words on my comments, I don't want to get it wrong - You were very sweet to write your six words about me, it made my blush!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

bossy boy that looks like star

KSLATZ said...

UM, who are you? John?