About the Reading Series:
“Real, clever, unpretentious and interested in bringing people together.” – audience testimonial
The Barbershop brings together writers, readers, musicians, and arts lovers for a relaxed evening in a slightly irreverent setting. Meet new friends in the local arts scene, relax in a retro barber chair with a cold beer, and hear both new and established authors and musicians perform their latest works without espresso machines frothing milk in the background. All this and we still get you out the door before ten p.m.; afterwards grab a drink or dinner at any of the great bars and restaurants around Church and Market Streets, and keep your Saturday night rolling along…
We have partnered up with Books, Inc. to sell the books of our featured authors during the events.
The Barbershop reading series will take place once a month, usually the first Saturday, starting June of 2009, at 8 pm.
The Barbershop is looking for writers of literary fiction and nonfiction, poets, and a guy or a girl with an acoustic guitar. If you are a local writer, or if your book tour or other travels bring you through San Francisco, and you’d like to read at the Barbershop, please contact us here, and tell us a little about yourself, including any publishing credits, and your availability. We’re open to both emerging and experienced writers and musicians.
About the location:
We are thrilled to partner up with Joe’s Barbershop, at his new location: 2150 Market St, between Church and Sanchez in the Castro district, just a half block west of all Church Street Muni stops. Joe’s Barbershop was named the city’s BEST BARBERSHOP of 2009 by SF WEEKLY.
About the Host:
Michael McAllister completed his Master’s in Fine Arts from Columbia University in 2007. He’s had work published in various literary magazines, and The Minnesota Center for Book Arts published a limited-edition chapbook of his poems, Jack on Jack on King on King, designed by the book artist Inge Bruggeman, in 1996. He is currently finishing a memoir, an excerpt of which appeared in the anthology From Boys to Men, from Da Capo Press, in 2006. He has authored the blog, Dogpoet.com, since 2001.
He teaches a private workshop, The Barbershop Writing Group, in San Francisco. Members of the writing group have the opportunity to read in the series as well. Click here to find out more about the workshop.
About the Music Curator:
Local musician Michael Mullen has been a hard-working fixture of the local music scene for many years, producing work under a variety of projects. As Pocket Shelly, he wrote and recorded the full-length CD, “Small Illuminations in a Darkening Sky” (2006), of which Indiefolkforever said: “Putting vocals, piano and acoustic guitar front and center, Mullen has put together a stunning album of romantic but grounded songs, generous, open-hearted stories of everyday longing, regret and joy that fans of American Music Club and Mark Eitzel shouldn’t miss.”
Mullen is also part of the songwriting team with Adam Klein. Working as the art-rock outfit Glasstown, they produced two records: “Living and Forgetting” (2001) and “Your Trendy Dump” (2002). Simultaneously working as Roman Evening, they created the moody “Together Now” (2002) and “Tiny Ladies” (2003), which was inspired and thematically related to Klein’s novel of the same name.
Mullen and Klein are currently co-writing songs for The Size Queens, who have released “Is It In Yet?” (2006) and “Magic Dollar Shoppe” (2008).
Mullen plays regularly in San Francisco as the keyboard player in The Seedy Naturalists (with songwriter Abel Mouton, Paul Lee and Phil Crumar).
