Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Great District 8 Chili for Chile Challenge:
Eat, watch supes duke it out, and rebuild an orphanage in Chile all at the same time!


Hey "The Defibrillator Readers"! Want something to really get your heart going? My friend Jeff Cotter, the handsome E.D. (that's Executive Director!) and founder of Rainbow World Fund (shown here at another event with Dame Edna!), is hosting this fabulous event in the Castro this Sunday, May 23. 


The Cook-Off is a fundraiser to rebuild an orphanage in Santiago, Chile. How cool is that? Please come, and invite your friends! 

Event: The Great District 8 Chili for Chile Challenge
Time: Sunday, May 23 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: Most Holy Redeemer Church Hall, 100 Diamond St., San Francisco, CA 94114 (in the Castro)
This is a Chili Cook-Off between the District 8 Supervisor Candidates to raise funds to help rebuild an orphanage in Santiago, Chile that was destroyed by the recent earthquake.
The Cook-Off will be Emceed by Supervisor Bevan Dufty and Sister Roma of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgences and will include participation by the top District 8 Supervisor Candidates (Rebecca Prozan, Scott Weiner, Rafael Mandelman, Bill Hemmenger). Other participants will include The Consulate General of Chile, Betty Sullivan, Andrea Shorter, Greg Bronstein, Ethel Merman of EMX and an array of glittering talent from our community. The Challenge: Each of the Board of Supervisors Candidates from District 8 are bringing a large pot of their best chili recipe to be judged by a distinguished panel of celebrity “chili experts” alongside that of each of the other candidates. Prizes will be awarded and there will be musical and comedy performances. Silent Auction and Raffle. There will be wine, vodka, and tequila bars, and free food!


Come cheer on your favorite candidate! This is a fantastic opportunity for the LGBT and Friends community to come together in unity to help the children of Chile.

If you absolutely can't come, you can still help by spreading the word - tell your Bay Area friends about the event. Make a donation:  http://www.rainbowfund.org/donate
Visit the event website to learn more about the participants and the orphanage:
http://www.rainbowfund.org/chile 
Check out the event on Facebook at: 
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101880723192066&ref=mf

Drew Boles, Brent Calderwood, and Russell David at Bluesix, Thursday May 20, 9pm Sharp!












Start Time:
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:00pm
End Time:
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:00am
Location:
Bluesix
Street:
3043 24th Street at Treat
City/Town:
San Francisco, CA
Drew Boles, Brent Calderwood, and Russell David @ Bluesix
Local queer singer-songwriters Drew Boles and Brent Calderwood perform acoustic and electronic guitar- and piano-based pop and folk music at the hip Mission club. Singer-songwriter Russell David also performs. Singer-songwriter Marianne Barlow makes special appearance. Cover charge: $5. 9:00pm 3043 24th Street (at Treat).
www.drewboles.com, www.myspace.com/brentcalderwood, www.simplemuzik.net 








Small Town Boys: Gay Men Revisit Their Histories and Hometowns on June 11




SF LGBT Center, Ceremonial Room, 4th floor

1800 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102 
A great artists collective I'm a part of, GuyWriters, will present award-winning author K.M. Soehnlein at its June 11 literary reading titled “Small Town Boys: Gay Men Revisit Their Histories and Hometowns.” Soehnlein is the author of The World of Normal Boys and most recently Robin and Ruby. The reading is part of the Queer Cultural Center’s National Queer Arts Festival.

This presentation from GuyWriters will offer a night of poetry, fiction and essays on life before the big city. Sometimes San Francisco can feel like a city of small town boys. Ask a gay man where he is from, and you’ll here destinations near and far. Whether it’s the Bible Belt or the Rust Belt, the Eastern Seaboard or the Gulf Coast we all came from somewhere. What did we leave behind? And what did we hope to find in San Francisco?

Other featured readers for this event include poets James J. Siegel (Ghosts of Ohio), and Eric Leigh (Harm’s Way). Also featured is Michael McAllister (Dogpoet.com and contributor to “From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up.”), Michael Layne Heath and Gabriel Lampert.


Monday, May 10, 2010

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Poets 11 Finale Reading at the SF Main Library this Saturday, plus What's New in LGBT Lit


As many "The Defibrillator" readers know, April was National Poetry Month, and the City of San Francisco, a major contributor to Modern and Postmodern Poetry, was well-represented. Among the many poetry-related events in April were the SF Public Library's branch readings, at which laureates from each of San Francisco's eleven districts, as selected by poet laureate at Beat hero Jack Hirschman, were invited to read their winning contributions to the 2010 Poets 11 anthology, a handsome volume published each year by the Public Library.



This Saturday, May 8, yours truly will be among the laureates invited to read at the Poets 11 Finale in the Koret Auditorium at the Main Library at 1pm. Yes, that's right. I was named a winner for the Sunset District—I love the beach, and am happy to call the Sunset home. I was even happier to call it home when I found out about my Poets 11 honor!

The San Francisco Library system has been keeping busy with events for readers of all stripes, and among its recent events was a celebration of the latest batch of Lambda Literary Awards nominees, hosted by Christopher Rice, scion of Anne Rice, as well as lesbian mystery writer and editor extroardinaire Katherine V. Forrest.

Tony Valenzuela and Katherine V. Forrest. Photo by Rink

Also in attendance were Lambda's new, handsome E.D. (that's Executive Director, boys) Valenzuela, and many of the Bay Area finalists who are currently under consideration for this year's Lammies, to be held Thursday, May 24 in New York City: Tommi AvicoLli-Mecca, Patrick Latellier, Randall Mann, Minal Hajratawa (who has a poetry project about unicorns in the works!), charismatic Portland artist and zine grrrl Dexter Flowers, the always urbane Kevin Killian ("purring like a cat or a vibrator" stood out from his reading) and many more!

Lambda has been good to me—I've won two fellowships to study with great teachers like Dorothy Allison, D.A. Powell, and Eloise Klein Healy at Lambda's annual Writer's Retreat in L.A. In fact, for over 23 years, Lambda has been good to a lot of LGBT writers, awarding the established literati and nurturing the careers of emerging talents. Support Lambda by visiting their website, donating to the Writer's Retreat, or becoming a member!