Clockwise from upper-left: 1. Poet Oscar Bermeo, Host Michael McAllister, and Poet Barbara Jane Reyes. 2. Oscar Bermeo. 3. Writer Brent Fluty. 4. Michael McAllister. 5. The Barbershop crowd. 6. Barbara Jane Reyes and Joe Gallagher, shop owner. 7. Musical Curator Michael Mullen. 8. Musician Terese Taylor. 9 (center): Barbara Jane Reyes.
Our August 1st event was another terrific night of words and music played to a nice full energetic house, whom we shamelessly bribed with cupcakes and wine. Poet Oscar Bermeo was the first to read. I’d wanted him on board since his first email to me, in which he intuitively grasped the connection between a barbershop and a literary reading: “Some of the best stories (and sh•t talkin’) I’ve ever heard has come to me while waiting to get a new fade or catching a close hot shave so it feels only natural to bring some literature to a place where so much orature goes down.” His cool, clever and heartfelt poetry used rhythm and repetition to great effect. His recap of the reading can be found here. More of his photos from the night can be found on his Flickr page.
Brent Fluty, a participant in the first Barbershop Writing Group, read the opening pages of the story he wrote during our workshop, about his relationship to a Chicano named Roy, in New Mexico. The story illuminated, with self-deprecation, issues of festishism, cultural collisions, and the consequences of mouthing off to figures of authority.
Terese Taylor, a local singer-songwriter, absolutely rocked the barbershop with her songs, alternately melancholy and abrasive, but consistently compelling. The crowd loved her, and kudos to Michael Mullen, our musical curator, for getting her on board.
Barbara Jane Reyes closed out the evening. Though she shares the label “poet” with her husband, Oscar Bermeo, the first reader of the evening, their individual work diverges in style and content. Reyes read poems that used lyricism, allegory, and incantation to marvelous effect. Her recap of the reading can be found here.
Thank you to all of all performers, and to the awesome crowd. Our next event will take place Saturday, September 5th. In honor of that month’s annual Folsom Street Fair, the theme will be “Chains of Love!”
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