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Where to begin.
First, apologies. I’ve thought of this little space on the internet frequently and missed it. I’ve been buried under moving boxes, and my thigh and gluteus muscles will tell me nothing else. But boy, do we have some catching up to do.
Second, the Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show.
Just kidding. I’ll get to it at the end, but DAMN. Damn.
The big news
In reverse chronological order:
Nonfiction for No Reason (NFNR) won a grant last week from ArtsWA. This particular award is called the Emerging Organizations Grant. We’re emerging! They had 90 applicants and we were one of the lucky few chosen. It’s a big deal; it’s a new funder; it means more folks see potential in this wild randomly international series. I’m so grateful to you all for being part of that, watching from afar, participating in big and little ways.
This grant also means fiscal sponsorship from a Seattle nonprofit called Shunpike, which means NFNR can apply for bigger grants as an “acting 501c3” which we couldn’t do as an organization without that status. My dreams for this series are big.
I’ve been listening for where the strength of this series lies. What do I need from it? What does the community need from it? I’ve been hearing more and more about collective and collaborative community support, which turns away from the traditional methods of funding an organization. I want to learn more. I want to hear from you all what you get from this thing, what you want more of, what you wish it would do. Tell me about it. Anonymously. Loudly and publicly. I’m listening.
Next up
As part of this collective collaboration I’ve been thinking, learning, being about, the next Nonfiction for No Reason is MAY 18 AT 7PM and a fundraiser for Common Area Maintence. A long-standing crux of our literary and arts world in Seattle, they’re expanding to another building down the street in Belltown to create an exclusively writer-focused space. Our goal is $1,000 for the night, the line up, as usual, is insane, and the extras are wild.
I really don’t know what to say first. Off Alley is serving duck rillettes on crostini and handpicked white and red wine. They are a beloved spot for me and many and I cannot wait to have them there feeding you all. Meghna will be at the table and she is a wild delight of a human. They alone are a reason to come. And that’s just the snacks.
Then there are the writers. Jesus. So, clockwise from top left, Nina St Pierre is in from New York. Again, a reason to come, all on her own, and her new memoir, LOVE IS A BURNING THING, is burning me down. Then there’s Putsata Reang, who is a wonderful force and who I’ve long been trying to find the right date for. She’s here, she’s coming, you gotta hear her. Jessica Johnson is up from Portland as is moonyeka, the two of them wildly generous members of the literary and arts community in the PNW. Jessica is the co-host of Constellation Reading Series from Tin House and moonyeka co-created the incredible Paruparo, a QTPOC-centered artist and healing venue that offers classes, workshops, and practice space. Jessica will likely read from her own new memoir, METTLEWORK.
Should I go on??? Amy Hirayama is also a community force and an inherently creative and resourceful fount of a person. Her reading will surprise you; count on it. Jay Aquinas Thompson is a dear heart and friend as well as a storyteller that comforts and sets on edge at once. Kamari Bright is a performer, artist, and writer, and will have video art to go with her piece. And farthest from least, Dr. Anu Taranth is a light seeking justice inside and outside of academia and I cannot wait to hear her for the first time.
Naturally, Third Place Books will be there selling what you hear.
All of this in the name of making space for more work. Seattle needs CAM’s new writers space.
Come out. Be with us. Show your support. No one will be turned away. <3 Suggested donation is $10 - $50, but as they say, we need you more than we need your money.
In other news
Tokyo wants to keep NFNR going. I’m working on how to do that. So we’re taking the summer off to document what it is we do, apply for more grants, get things in order, and REST.
We’ll be back in September, in New York, with an incredible line up I’m co-curating with Jessica Lynne, past NFNR reader, recent MFA grad, art world critic, MoMA podcaster, and an incredible writer with a beautiful book in the works. If you don’t know her, get to know her.
Okay, so.
I was a latchkey kid raised on Oprah. This is my memoir and my truth. So the revived experience of learning about life from television is transcending me, and Jerrod Carmichael is the host. The deep look in his particular experience with gay life with an art/literary bent?! I need a 24-hour livestream. I need emersion in this shit. I need a life inside his. I’ll abandon it all to know this world.
As an anxious/disorganized attacher, I can’t stop thinking about Michael. We don’t know him; we know Jerrod. Jerrod is intentionally playing his own messy, human villain or something in this show, so we don’t know Mike’s part in the cheating and lying and evasion. A note: to look at all this strictly relationally is highly limiting, but I’m speaking here as a viewer, not necessarily a critic (though I DO judge, OUF). I just want to know more about this little white gay writing a novel at Iowa being flown out by his famous beautiful charming hilarious toxic? boyf every weekend.
The last episode gave us more than we’ve ever gotten of Michael, including him in his underwear, which is not insignificant, given the lead poster for the show (see above).
We’re getting a view into his complexity as well, rather than just a witness and recipient of Jerrod’s choices. It all has me desperate for more.
They don’t read this part in the show, but in this letter, Michael writes, “I never thought I would be loved in this way because I had figured myself undeserving of it. ‘Rejection left a void,’ carved out for —fteen years. You are unknotting — you’ve already -ndone — an old pain that I can now live —thout”
I have THOUGHTS. But I’ll leave it to the poll.
And that’s my nonsense for today. There is so much incredible writing to read about this show. And it will give you big questions. Highly recommend.
Grateful, as always.
Thank you for reading, for being, hope to see you on the webs or this very Saturday. <3
Katie