‘II’ because I featured at Voz Sin Titna for the second time and because I featured at The Music of the Word/La Parabla Musical for the second time.

In fairness, it probably won’t make much difference to who shows up but if you have a writing-oriented blog it just makes sense for you to mention on that blog when you’ll be reading things you’ve written.

So, yeah, while I meant to mention the most recent readings I did, I never got around to it. And considering the state of the world, the lockdowns/shelter in place orders, the coronavirus, I likely won’t be reading anywhere for quite a while (on a side note, if not a feature, which hasn’t happened a ton, I’ve been reading at open mics pretty consistently for a few years now and it’s a little strange for that to suddenly stop…but then everything’s strange lately.

Anyway, I read at both of those places in February and it was great to be back as a feature (though I’ve been to Voz plenty since and at least a couple times in the months leading up to La Parabla).

There’s always such a spirit of sharing at Voz – in the space, in the reading, both features and open mic folks. I read with a cough drop the whole time by the way. This wasn’t planned but was a product of bad timing on my part but it seemed to go okay anyway. Though I can’t believe I forgot to mention Valentine’s Day when I have so many weird love poems (this edition of Voz was on the 14th).

Thanks to Rene, thanks to Marguerite, thanks to Ash and fellow feature L. Sherman.

La Parabla offered some surprises – like me semi-hosting for the last half of the event and as with Voz there was a great variety of stuff read (and sung!), powerful stuff from features Wolf Hawk Jaguar, Tony Aldarondo and
Tureeda Mikell, great to hear from all of them as well as the open micers; thanks to them and to Avotcja.

* * *

Voz and La Parabla are both, I believe, continuing virtually in the face of the lockdowns and whatnot. There seems to be a lot of that these days, physical reading series becoming Zoom reading series. I actually have no first-hand experience with them so far which might be surprising since I used to go to a lot of readings but there are complications for me with these things, complications I wouldn’t necessarily have foreseen if I’d anticipated the need for virtual readings (and I’m sure there were virtual readings before the pandemic but I don’t know of any).

You might think a virtual reading is a lot more convenient than a physical one and that’s probably true for a lot of people—you don’t actually have to take the time to go anywhere and all the readings I go to require a not-insignificant amount of travel—but for me it’s been awkward. Most readings seem to be at dinnertime and while I’d just figure something out with regard to dinner if I had to go somewhere, the particularities of dinner at home mean I’m not really online around then and I tend to forget about those virtual readings.

Besides that–and this is probably* the bigger thing–the idea of logging onto one of these virtual readings provokes a also not-insignificant amount of anxiety in me. I’m somebody who does not at all enjoy the act of calling someone. To put it more succinctly, I hate making calls, I’m better with taking them but the rub with the online reading thing is the prospect of “going” feels like making a phone call and while I know probably it’ll all be fine after logging on, I’m having trouble seeing past that barrier. I could go on but right now I have other things on my mind. I still assume I’ll tune into some virtual readings sooner or later because we’re a very long way from normal…

*Definitely is.