TONIGHT: DRUGS, GRIEF, EARTHQUAKES
Come check out LA's kewt underground poetry scene
Recently I’ve been going to underground poetry readings that unspool in gardens, patios, and tennis courts around LA—it’s a really chic queer scene, which is something I never thought I would say about poetry readings lol. My friend Sammy hosts one of these roving series called Casual Encounters and he asked if I’d like to share some of my work at tonight’s edition, which will be at 7:30pm at an intriguing space called the Poetic Research Bureau.
Tonight’s reading is actually celebrating the launch of a newly translated book by Mariam Rahmani, based on the cult hit novel In Case of Emergency by Mahsa Mohebali, which is about a woman navigating earthquakes and civil unrest to score opium in Tehran. “Read something druggie,” said Sammy, so I decided I’m going share this grief poem I wrote when my friend Gian OD’ed earlier this year. Seems heavy, I know, but Gian would have loved this, and anyway it’s one of the rawest things I wrote this year—this thing that just spewed out of me as I tried to understand how death is so beautiful.
I’m low-key terrified because this is my first poetry reading (I’m a JoURnaLisT I don’t do this shit!)—but if you’re in LA and wanna hang at a non-rave with some cuties tonight come through! 7:30pm at the Poetic Research Bureau (2220 Beverly Blvd, LA)
This morning Dublab premiered my episode of The Quarantine Tapes—a podcast hosted by Onassis Foundation’s intimidatingly intelligent Paul Holdengräber about pandemic-era paradigm shifts. Paul asked me to unpack my work this summer covering protests, parties and psychedelics for this very newsletter, and our convo roved from Marcel Duchamp to Hunter S. Thompson to shroom parties and beyond. Give it a listen :)
I wish I could be there in person to see you kill it at this poetry reading! You are brilliant 💜...Enjoy✨