As a member of the audience I was particularly moved by Tyson Vogel of Devotionals’ (the featured band of the evening) performance of a piece by performer Joanna Lioce, who could not be in attendance:

A piece that will be featured in the forthcoming “Tenderlogue” series, and in the first edition of TENDER-LOIN. As this was my first time hearing this piece (as editor and co-editor respectively of both of these publications) I found myself moved beyond words by the beauty and tenderness of it; some of the lines have stayed with me for days after.

Then there was a magical confluence of factors in the reading of musician, poet, and Synergyzine Editor Michael Warren Grant. I remember speaking with Michael just a week before the reading, and we both had been grappling with producing substantive material for this event; to express the complexity of our prompt with honesty and integrity. Then an unforeseen event in Michael’s life brought to light a stunning set of poems straight from the heart. I felt truly fortunate to have been able to provide a platform for the airing of these new works:

Nicole De Ayora performed her thougtful pieces from a vault of unperformed work, noting to me after the show that this was the first time she had performed her writing since college. Her performance was perhaps the most often mentioned to me of the evening.

As Ms. Chavez noted in her introduction, some of the poems performed on Sunday night had not fully coalesced until only hours before the event, but in typical fashion they were presented with the incisive wit and soulful charm that is characteristic of her work:

“At 19 I lost my virginity, then my hair, and now this. But that’s what we do. We just go out there, and we lose things.”

I am honored and excited to share the duties of hosting and curating the future Clattering Loom readings with her.

I was heartened by the reoccurring theme of the Tenderloin in the readings, some of the contributors being TLRS alumni. It amazes and inspires me to know that this project has had an impact outside of the readings themselves. The two year anniversary is right around the corner, March 19th @ Koko Cocktails at 7:30pm.

For those of us in the know, we can never really get enough Charlie Getter.  Charlie closed out the night with an introspective and deliberate piece that seemed to be a delightful departure from previous works of his I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing:

Charlie will be a featured guest at the TLRS two year anniversary as well.

Before I sign off, I wanted to say a little bit about The Devotionals. The band recently re-arranged their sound, and this performance was my first contact with the new orchestration. I remember almost two years ago seeing Tyson perform to a loud and distracted audience at a bar in the outer richmond; just him and a violinist. Now these same compositions have expanded to include cello, percussion, vibes, the vocals of Emily Ritz of Honeycomb, and on. Their sound is at once cinematic in scope and punctuated with deep and particular emotion. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better musical accompaniment for the evening.

Thanks to Litseen for documenting the event, and if you’re available on sunday please make it down to Kaleidescope. Help Mr. Karp continue to perform this invaluable service.

The summer installment of Clattering Loom will be on Saturday, May 28th. More details on venue and theme to come very soon.

J