working [class] reading series

:working [class] reading series

* Amee Puckett Boswell in conversation re: working, illness, property, management, momness and more
* Mg Roberts as featured poet
* and David Brazil, Steve Farmer, Sara Larsen, Lauren Levin, and Suzanne Stein - some of the organizing members of the Poetic Labor Project - filling us in on their symposium and blog (http://www.labday2010.blogspot.com/)

bring a covered dish or beverage. bring some pomes or almost poems. bring your curiosity about poetry, your thoughts on work or class or access. also, think christmas lights, driveway, old couches, kids and dogs, barbeque, after party.

:first fridays beginning may 6, 2011
:8pm at michelle puckett’s house
:702 w. macarthur blvd
:oakland, ca

with this series we aim to soften things up. we are thinking of people who interest us and then asking them what poems or thoughts they might have about work, bodies at work, working class perspectives on the world, stories of capitalism, commonality, and the millions of offshoots poetry allows us to consider given these things. we want to mix scenes and get comfie. we want hot dogs.

what we are looking for:

1. any work, on any topic, by people who identify as raised-poor or working class.
2. work from people from other classes, granted it considers deeply the plight and dignity of working people and casts them centrally in the writing.
3. also, we want to facilitate a short dialogue with a worker – most often one who does not identify as a “writer” – each month. we will look at poetics and the work of words through a loose lens of labor and the body that performs it.

it is important to say that this series consciously considers physical bodies. the venue, a garage, will have space heaters and blankets and fans if oakland nights get hot. it is also completely wheelchair accessible, though we really regret to say that bathrooms are upstairs. assistance will be provided to anyone who needs it and there is a bathroom at the gas station across the street and at macarthur BART.

we think just by talking about couches and kids and bathrooms we are making for a new tone as far as reading series go. we hope you’ll join us. hot dogs will be provided but BYOB.

:michelle puckett & amber dipietra

working.class.reading@gmail.com