Saturday, May 04, 2013

Poetry Readings Numbers Game

Me and a friend (to establish the informality of this study) were talking about how it seems like there are more poetry readings that feature women readers than men in the Bay Area, and are we feminist now?


So I counted.

Maybe not the most scientific study, but I counted literary readings (including fiction, but not nonfiction) that I was invited to on Facebook for the month of April.

Certainly there are more readings that don't advertise on Facebook, and some readings on Facebook that didn't invite me (possibly). I tried to make sure to cut out obvious musical acts. However, out of some of the readings that I did not attend, some seem to involve writers/poets and music, and I am not sure if they were singing or what, but I'm still counting them if web searches proved them to be involved in the literary world in any manner. So.

The final count: 99 people gave readings in the Bay Area in April 2013. 56 Men, 42 Female, and 1 Gender Variant. Not feminist at all!

Why is this? Is this one of those our tastes dictate our consumption, and our consumption does not tend to steer us towards the more male centric readings? I don't know!

(I am available for readings, Bay Area.)


My list:


APRIL Poetry Readings 2013

APRIL 4 Rock Paper Scissors presents a reading of small press prose with:

Daniel Coshnear (Kelly's Cove Press)
Karen Lillis (Spuyten Duyvil Press)
Ocean Capewell (High On Burning Photographs zine)

APRIL 4
Wanda Coleman and Brenda Coultas
Poetry Center Book Award reading

APRIL 6
Anselm Hollo, a Memorial Tribute

Alan Bernheimer
Mary Burger
Maxine Chernoff
Brenda Coultas
Steve Dickison
Stephen Emerson
Derek Fencer
Gloria Frym
Tinker Greene
Donald Guravich
Paul Hoover
Alastair Johnston
Joanne Kyger
George Mattingly
Lucy Farber Mattingly
Sarah Menefee
Jim Nisbet
Eric Olson
Michelle Puckett
Kit Robinson
John Sakkis
Andrew Schelling
G.P. Skratz

APRIL 6
Amerarcana reading at Bird & Beckett

Ava Khoobor,
Patrick James Dunagan,
Christina Fisher,
Rod Roland,
Carrie Hunter,
William Rockwell
Jack Hirschman,

APRIL 7 SPT
Carla Harryman and Jon Raskin

APRIL 12 BAM RE@DS

Zoe Tuck & Wendy Trevino!

APRIL 13

PAWA and Arkipelago Books Presents an evening of conversation with author R. Zamora Linmark.

APRIL 13
THE BREW presents: A spoken word-music showcase with:

Jam Hands - Garth Bunse - Raul Gilbert - MG Roberts - Avrille Godchaux - Scot Young - Garrett Murphy

APRIL 14

Enjoy the poetry of Joseph Lease and Peter Burghardt at University Press Books

APRIL 14

The Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno St, San Francisco

The following readers will perform their work:

Art Beck
Judith Ayn Bernhard
Neeli Cherkovski
Agneta Falk
Jack & Adelle Foley
Maketa Smith-Groves
Jack Hirschman
Clara Hsu
Ava Koohbor
A.D. Winans

APRIL 14

Manifest #14 features poetry from Kate Menzies, and Lindsey Boldt

APRIL 15
Quiet Lightning

Moneta Goldsmith » Rachel Ann Brickner » Matthew Rodgers » Mario de la Vega » Katie Wheeler-Dubin | Allison Landa » Jan Richman » Baruch Porras-Hernandez » Matt Pine » Charlie Getter » Katie Carter

APRIL 18 MFA MIXER 2.0 USF

*Jen Larsen, Stranger Here: How Weight-Loss Surgery Transformed my Body and Messed with My Head (nonfiction)
*Chris Carosi, Bright Veil (poetry)
*Lindsay Tam Holland, The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong (fiction)

APRIL 18 Woolsey - Brent Cunningham and Thom Donovan

APRIL 18 Hearts Desire Reading Series - Cedar Sigo, Jason Morris Sara Larsen

APRIL 19  Underpass Reading Series at Bica
ALLI WARREN / ANGELA HUME

APRIL 20 The Other Fabulous Reading Series

Brandon Brown
Donald Dunbar
Robert Gluck

APRIL 21
MAGED ZAHER & STEVE FARMER at SPT!

APRIL 25

Clark Coolidge and Steve Dickison

APRIL 25

1111 issue 14 party

SB Stokes
MG Roberts
Olga Zilberbourg
Ben Mirov
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier

and just added

Explore the compelling work of Cannon Dill (CCA alum).

APRIL 26

Under the Influence

Lizzy Acker
MK Chavez
Mariama Lockington
Genine Lentine

APRIL 27

Oakland's Backyard Open Mic
Featuring Youssef Alaoui

APRIL 28

Triple Publication Party!

Actual Café
Hugh Behm-Steinberg’s “The
Opposite of Work” (JackLeg Press), Steve Gilmartin’s "Comes Up to Face
the Skies" (Little Red Leaves Textile Series), and Maw Shein Win’s
“Ruins of a glittering palace” (SPA/Commonwealth Projects).