Thursday 25 September 2008

photos of the third night

here's a few photos taken on the night:


(the tiny man on stage reading from a laptop is Socrates Adams-Florou.)

tao lin's reading for september's reading night


poetry reading for manchester from tao lin on Vimeo.

the third reading night happened and it was good

Tuesday's reading night was the first upstairs in the big live music hall.

We were nervous. I was especially nervous because I was reading, and because the new room has a great big stage. It’s very grand. There’s a gigantic mirrorball in the ceiling. I think every reading night should have a mirrorball. We set up tables and cables and computers and candles and OHPs and things. People started to come in.

People kept coming in. The seats on the floor, the tiered seating at the back, and the mezzanine all filled up, incredibly. There was a good atmosphere. I felt better because everyone looked about a hundred times more comfortable than they did in the little basement bar.

The readers were fantastic. Sadly, Jenn Ashworth couldn’t make it because she was poorly (hope you’re feeling better, Jenn) but everyone else was present and correct. Thank you Thomas Fletcher, Sam Garrett, Nicholas Murgatroyd, Socrates Adams-Florou, Luke Yates, John McAuliffe, Joe Stretch, David Gaffney, Matthew Davis and Tao Lin, who read via special video from New York. There were stories and poems about work, shower curtains, sex, powerpoint, existence… and all manner of things in between.

What was great was that we had lots of interest in the open mic, too, despite the big scary stage, because the point in no point is that everyone can get involved, if they want to.

Tuesday 9 September 2008

exciting things are happening

there is a lot of behind-the-scenes reading night activity going on at the moment. The last night on the 26th was generally considered a 'resounding success' by everyone involved. Thank you to all the readers, and of course, anyone who came down.

You can read a really nice review of the night by one of our readers Emma J. Lannie here.

Because of the amount of people that have shown up so far, we're getting a bit cramped in our little basement. It was very hot down there last time, and it was looking like people might start fainting. Because of this, the kind people at Trof have offered to let us use the glitzy upstairs music hall. It's got a giant mirrorball and a mezzanine floor, and its own balcony. It's pretty cool. We're really excited about there being more space for everyone to sit down and, well, just generally breathe comfortably.

We'll post a date for the next night as soon as it's confirmed. In the meantime, we're going to be updating things on here a bit more. If there's anything you'd like to see featured or you have any good links you think we should put up or you want your own reading thing plugging or you've got a book coming out and want to promote it or anything like that, let us know.