Last night I met recent MacArthur Genius Award recipient Yiyun Li right after she watched her short story “Souvenir,” from Gold Boy, Emerald Girl acted out on stage at the Berkeley Rep. Ms. Li did not know me but I recognized her and immediately after the show I walked up to her (actually, I was walking up to Alia Volz, who was sitting right in front of her, but Yiyun got up first) and I asked, “What did you think?"
I had deduced before the show, talking to New Yorker top 20 under 40 author Daniel Alarcon, that these artists did not know anything about the proceedings. “Are you excited,” I asked him. “I’m curious. I have no idea what’s going to happen.”
Li responded: “I thought it was exceptional. I had no idea there were going to be multiple actors.”
Like July’s shindig with Christopher Moore at the Brava Theater, for which ACT had some of their actors read from the author’s recent book, a group of 6 actors took the stage to read a story apiece by each of the aforementioned authors and one by Mr. Daniel Handler. Produced by San Jose, who is co-founder of Intersection for the Arts’ award-winning resident theater company Campo Santo, the stories were broken into lines not demarcated by punctuation or even character shift.
As the actors delivered the lines of the authors, I couldn’t help but desire to one day write something good enough to be read by actors on a stage. It felt like The Big Time. The lines were broken up to emphasize different aspects not only of the characters themselves but also of the text, the story. It was very clever and in fact more often than not elucidated the stories in a way that would not be as apparent on the page.
In this interview I conducted with author Matt Stewart in August, he said: “This is a time when publishing hasn’t really evolved like other industries. And I think the book is a terrific art form. But I think we’re looking at a generation that expects more bells and whistles.” Last night it was resounding: bells and whistles can in fact enhance our writing – not just adorn it. Here’s a far lesser but still debatably good example.
I can’t stress to you how much I enjoyed this production. I thought the stories were all excellent, and again (I really can’t stress this enough) San Jose’s decisions were profoundly affecting, even down to the order in which they were read (Alarcon, Li, Handler). I have the videos but am not sure we have clearance from the actors, so stand by. I do not accept bribes (but you should offer. I'd love to watch them with you).
What did I do afterward? Sure, Litquake was over for the evening. But was I through with Litquake? Well, kinda … I went to 16th and Mission, where every Thursday for almost the past 7 years now a devoted group of poets and musicians convene between 10pm and midnite to share a circle in which anyone who wants to express him or her self can so do … so long as they can get into the circle (there is no order and there are essentially no rules). Here’s a video I made from 3 weeks ago. It was a pretty random sampling, and I apologize for being in there myself …
It was packed last night, and people were well-behaved (if not over-zealous to jump in). Charlie Getter, who was one of the founders of this unofficial congregation, has a tendency to say, when people are chomping at the bit to do their bit, “Don’t be vultures.” I looked around and saw over 100 people, mostly youngsters (and by that, people, I mean younger than my 28), and I wondered how many of them even knew about Litquake. I would say probably – and this is only a guess – no more than 25%.
What struck me though was how strongly this scene was flourishing without any knowledge of what they might do with their words. This scene is an important forum, for as my friend (and poet, or probably it’s the other way around) Andrew Paul Nelson said, and I paraphrase: “Without a place to share art it becomes neurosis, and that’s why I support the corner. It has to be public.” And some of the street poets who just last year had only recited their hearts there, at 16th and Mission, have spent the year climbing up the literary ladder and onto their own stages; some conduct reading series; some, oh lord, some are going to steal the show in Saturday’s Lit Crawl. I promise you that.
I stood there in my vest and tie and lavender button down shirt - it’s not important, but it wasn’t out of place either, even though the homeless weren’t out of place (and far from that, I’d say – they were home), and the drug addicts were not out of place …
I stood there and I filmed these young poets who do not have ambitions beyond expression, I filmed them with no intentions myself and I thought about Ms. Li, who again has just won a prize for being a genius, for that ultimate accomplishment wherein one is supported for the creation they have already achieved so that they may produce even more of it for the good of society, I thought of her sitting in the back of the Berkeley Rep watching these actors read one of her stories and smiling, and I remembered being in kindergarten. I remembered cutting up different colors of construction paper with plastic green scissors for my favorite teacher, even then having moments of what am I doing. I remembered graham crackers and apple juice and simply chewing. This is just like a poem I’ve written, only not as good.
What I want to say is that I saw two ends of the spectrum last night, and I know everyone comes from a different place but I also know we are what we make ourselves. I don’t know what these artists eat for breakfast and I don’t know what books they read; I do know, however, that a star shines in all of their eyes, and when it twinkles we see ourselves and lean over into one another’s ears because it’s exactly what we are trying to say.
— Evan
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