September 17, 2006
King & Esser & Hall (& Russell & Lyle &...)
At his most recent Observable Reading, Aaron Belz joked that the preview in that day's Post-Dispatch was most surprising in that he didn't know the author. Maybe you had to be there, but the comment was both apt and a hoot. I know most of the folks involved in an event coming up this Thursday and hope that doesn't lend any less impatct to the idea posited here that this will be one of the most interesting readings of the season. See you there.
From C. King, participant, the details:
Reminder: Book party for me and Joe Esser at 8 p.m. next Thursday, Sept. 21
upstairs at the Tap Room. Star-studded supporting cast. Free to get in, $10
each if you want the books. Pictures of book covers and sample poems at:
http://www.skuntry.com/home.cfm
More complete event info follows. Hope to see you there! Chris
Book Party for Joe Esser and Chris King
Fellow Hoobellatoo poets to read with them Sept. 21 at Tap Room
On Thursday, September 21, two local* writers – Joe Esser and Chris
King – will celebrate the release of their new books of poetry at the St.
Louis Brewery & Tap Room, Schlafly’s downtown location at 2100 Locust St.
Reading along with them will be two other (better) local poets, K. Curtis Lyle
and Stefene Russell, with musical interludes by local acoustic bluesman Tom
Hall and a special performance by the Robert Goetz band.
Joe Esser’s book, titled “Pink Skunk Clownfish,” is a sheaf of pages
from the field guide of a vexed suburban nature poet. Chris King’s book,
titled “A Heart I Carved for a Girl I Knew,” is a collection of 31 poems about
23 years of intermittent, mostly self-inflicted heartache.
Local artist Andrea Day drew Joe’s cover art and Portland, Maine
tattooist Chris Dingwell (Sanctuary Tattoo) drew the art for Chris’ book. The
books are being published locally by Skuntry and printed locally (and
beautifully) by Firecracker Press. They will be on sale at the Tap Room for $10
each.
Stefene Russell will read poems from her CD “Radioactive Cat Radio,” and K. Curtis Lyle will read from his book “Electric Church.” Tom Hall plays National Steel Guitar. Robert Goetz will also lead a band that includes Adam Long (cello), Lindy Woracheck (saw) and Anne Tkach (drums) in playing a song he made from one of the poems in Chris’ book.
The reading at the Tap Room will kick off a miniature book tour that will
travel to Nashville the next night and Athens, Georgia the night after that,
with local musicians performing in those Southern towns.
The book party and reading begins at 8 p.m. Thursday, September 21, in
the upstairs Club Room, where Brett Underwood (producer of “The No Show” on KDHX) will be the bartender. It is a full-service bar with a specialty in diverse beers made on-premise. If you want to eat at the Tap Room that night, you’ll need to eat downstairs before the reading; no food upstairs, for logistical reasons. Brett gets very crabby about this.
Joe Esser, Chris King, Stefene Russell, K. Curtis Lyle, Andrea Day, Robert Goetz and Brett Underwood are all part of the arts collective Hoobellatoo.
For more information, email brodog@hoobellatoo.org or call (516) 314-7364.
The number at the Tap Room is (314) 241-BEER.
* NOTE * Joe Esser, technically, lives in employment and domestic exile in Wayne, New Jersey, though he studied at Washington University and spends as
much time in St. Louis as he possibly can.