This is very likely news I should have announced many weeks earlier, but life happened or maybe laziness happened—for the sake of appearances, I’m going to go with “life happened”—and I did not get around to posting about a very cool opportunity I was fortunate enough to be a part of a couple weeks ago.
I was invited by the lovely Dustin Brookshire to participate in the Wild and Precious Life Series, a virtual reading series that has been going strong for months now. It offers poets a platform to share and promote their work in the middle of a pandemic that makes in-person readings highly irresponsible.
I got to read alongside Ashanti Anderson and Luther Hughes, who were a delight to listen to. I haven’t been to a reading in a long time—let alone read at one myself—and I’d forgotten how much fun readings can be. Not only because you get to share your poems with an actually interested audience, but because there’s a really nice community vibe at good readings.
The reading was a fantastic ego boost. So often, even having published a decent amount now, it’s hard not to feel like I’m writing in a vacuum and the only audience interested in my work is me. Which is kind of depressing. I ended this reading feeling so excited about poetry and writing.
A number of friends and family were able to attend the virtual event (one big plus for virtual events vs. in-person ones). Dustin has been recording these readings and posting the videos to the Wild and Precious Life Series website, which means anyone interested can check out the videos page and listen/watch Ashanti Anderson, me, Luther Hughes, and a whole host of other poets read.
If you’re curious about just my section, you’ll have to scroll down the page until you come to the August 5 video. My reading starts at around the 17:00 minute mark.