Upcoming NYC readings & some thoughts on reading your work out loud
Plus a clip of me reading. You're welcome.
People of New York: Prepared to get sick of me this month. In an unexpected and wonderful coming together for my birthday month, I will be reading at three fantastic and iconic New York reading series in August: Written in Brooklyn, Must Love Memoir, and Seanchoíche. You can find the details below.
One year ago, in June, I read at my very first literary salon,
’s Tortured Blogger’s Department. You can read me gush about that here. Since then I have have been fortunate enough to read at five more reading series: Generation Women, Craft & Release, New Tricks, Miss Manhattan, Generation Women NJ, and TTBD an additional time.Reading your writing aloud in front of a living, breathing audience is so very different from hitting publish and sending it out into the void. Lines and jokes I think will be HILARIOUS don’t land, while other lines I don’t give much thought to crack people up or make them gasp.
Having an audience (of New Yorkers no less) on a journey with you and the piece that you wrote and the story you’re telling, is so very special. The community and human connection that comes with laughing and sighing together, with someone approaching you afterward to tell them they went through something similar, or simply that they enjoyed it — well, that is really soul affirming. The stuff of cups overflowing, if you will.
I am still learning have learned to stand closer to the mic, project with more confidence, talk to the audience a bit more, and ham it up a little. And all the while, I am having just the best time. The energy and the high of those nights, for me, is unparalleled. I walk away buzzing, feeling tapped in, and ready to GO.
Four years ago, my best friend gave me a framed photograph of Jack Kerouac reading at an event in NYC. It’s black and white, and sits on my desk. On the back she wrote, “There’s no reason you can’t be like Jack here - reading your work to a bunch of New Yorkers. I’ll be first in line to buy a ticket.” At the time I thought: Wow, could you imagine? It made me nervous and excited and I had no idea how the hell I would make it happen. At the time it seemed like a wild farfetched dream that she had to dream for me, because it almost felt too big for me to hold.
Day-in-and-day-out, LIFE can get tetchy and mundane real fast. But don’t forget to also realize how far you’ve come and marvel at how much you have accomplished. Keep doing the damn thing. Surrender to your dreams, make-out with your goals. You’ll get there. You just will.
And, if you are a writer, do yourself a favor and find yourself a reading series, an open mic, an event, a living room — somewhere to read your work. Give voice and volume and life to your words. You will not regret it.
So anyway, reading details & Generation Women clip below. More writing coming more regularly here because, as my husband had to remind me the other night, “Writing is your anchor. Write.” And I’m still over on Instagram yapping away about being AWomanInHer40s™ and sucking the marrow out of life and just fucking going for it. It’s a good time. According to me.
ILYSM. Happy Friday. xoxo
Written in Brooklyn (Hosted by the fabulous
)
Farm One (Brooklyn)
6 August | 8-9:30 (Doors at 7)
Theme: Take Me Baby. Or Leave Me.
Buy tickets here.
Must Love Memoir (Hosted by
& Hope Elizabeth Kidd)
The Oak Cellar Room at Jake’s Dilemma (Upper West Side)
12 August | 7:30
Theme: Memoir (duh)
Free & open to the public
Seanchoíche1
Public Records (Brooklyn)
19 August | 7:30
Theme: Change
The show is already sold out, but you can put yourself on a waitlist here.
The below is from Generation Women’s Sexy Summer Show last August. If you were there or have seen the video, you know that my story was, um, not demure. Want to hear the whole thing? Become a paid subscriber and I’ll send you the link. Because the rest of that story absolutely lives behind a paywall ok. xoxoxo EMG
Pronounced “shanna-key-ha”, a portmanteau of the Irish words Seanchaí + Oíche / “Storyteller” + “Night”, Seanchoíce is a storytelling show founded in Dublin and now taking over the world, with shows in multiple cities and languages.
Love the video! I really dig your storytelling style 💖
Impressive journey keep on keeping on 🥰🥰