Durty Bull 8/17 Reading Recap

This summer was my first time working at a bar and last month I hosted my first reading as organizer and MC. Durty Bull has been a fun new way to pay rent this summer and meet some artists and creatives in the process. It's sad that it's going away because, if all of the local venues and establishments that host Durham's creativity are turned into apartments, where are those people that live in them going to go? I was offered the chance to organize the reading at Durty Bull by my friend and coworker Jo. She had the idea to try to envision the kind of creative space the bar and brewery could be after it closes its doors. I invited my friends Cortland Gilliam and Robert Creekmore. The flyer was posted. I arrived day of and opted to prepare and invite people last minute via a group text instead of participate in the other event that was going on (will have to learn to belly dance at another date). My family came. Elisha was out of town but she made sure a couple of our mutual friends, Olivia and Aja, who she sees on a regular basis made it out. A local from the bar, who I've gotten to know during my time there, named John also made it out along with Jo's mom and Ade. Cortland started us out with some poetry—some new and some nearly new. Then Rob read from an introduction to one of his novels. I closed the show by reading "Fifteens," a story I had published in Oxford American, for the first time. I liked keeping it to a few readers because we each had more time to share our words. I don't know if this is 100% true or not, but I think I'm better at expressing myself in fifteen or so pages than seven or eight. I do have a piece of flash fiction coming out in a magazine soon, which I'll post more about when the inks dry. But this is a new development. I'm mostly a long form writer. Anyway, the reading was fun. It was nice to see a place where I've mopped, taken out trash, and scrubbed toilets (in addition to meeting a lot of great people and making some good tips) as a place to be my truest creative self. Thanks to everyone that participated and showed up. I spoke a little more about this event in my I Should Be Writing podcast interview which I completed this afternoon. I'll share a link on this page as soon as it's posted. I'm working on edits of RAPTURE READY, but hope to be on submission with it soon. I also finished the first draft of a new novel around noon today. It's been a busy week, summer, and year. But I like it that way.