Happy Birthday, Bob Holman! & more Beyond Baroque shenanigans

Tonight Sat. March 15 at 730pm Beyond Baroque and poets Wanda Coleman, Lewis MacAdams and more will gather to celebrate Bob Holman’s Birthday.

Bob Holman, in case you’re not up on contemporary poetry, is the co-editor of Aloud:Poets from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, he spearheaded the popular TV series The World of Poetry, and he’s a stellar, dynamic, energetic, and charismatic poet.

Happy Birthday, Bob!

Sorry to miss out on the party tonight, but I’m still recovering from venturing out of Ventucky to Beyond Baroque last night with nila northSun for her reading there with Bill Gainer, Karen Harryman, and Conney Williams during the Moe Green Poetry Show with hosts Rafael F.J. Alvarado and S.A. Griffin.

Nila rocked!! She thoroughly entertained us, with her stories and her reading from her new collection, love at gunpoint (RL Crow 2007), making us laugh at her dancing in her granny panties and cringe with poems about staying in a women’s shelter. While she read, I sat with Amalio Madueno, poet and Taos Poetry Circus organizer, who was in Cali for business and drove up from San Diego for Nila’s reading as a surprise.

Nila drove in from Reno to Ventucky early Friday afternoon so we went to the beach before driving down the coast lavish with wildflowers, mostly yellow brittlebrush and hillsides covered in coreopsis around Point Mugu.

We arrived early enough to have a drink on nearby Abbot Kinney…no, we didn’t want to hang out with a bunch of yuppies in a foofoo wine bar kinda place–isn’t there a real bar around here? we asked. “Roosterfish,” two guys replied, “it’s a gay bar down the street but it’s the only real bar you’re going to find within walking distance.” Roosterfish is quite colorful on the outside–and on the inside, of course, and we enjoyed the art, a lot as well as our saphire gin martinis up with a twist…

After the reading (which went until almost 10pm!), Rafael, SA, Bill, Amalio, Nila, some guy named Dean (rumour had it his last name was Morairty but I had my doubts) and two women (they were at the far end of the table and their names escape me!) all squeezed into a booth at La Cabana for dinner and tequila (well, tequila for Amalio, Nila and I!) It was great to see Amalio and we made arrangements for him to come read in Ventucky April 9, and Nila talked with Rafael about interviewing Amalio and I for the Moe Green radio show sometime next month. Late night driving home after but Nila and I talked a mile a minute the whole way.

So sorry Bob to miss your birthday party–I would have painted your toenails blue for you like I did at Taos! I am sure the party will be lots of fun!