After the reading in the New York heat with the weird lighting–it was hot but these were not thunderstorms
Quirkyalone readings are not just readings–they’re community happenings. The New York event last week lived up to that promise.
I arrived in New York for the first heat wave of the summer; everyone was walking around in flip-flops and the only logical thing to do during the afternoon was hide out in a movie theater. But then evening came. Ahhh. Relief.
There was some chaos at the beginning of the event. The reading was supposed to be at Bluestockings, the venerable feminist, collectively-run bookstore on the Lower East Side, but Bluestockings hadn’t completed their renovation and at the last minute they had to move our event to a private lounge at a bar three blocks down–Lolita’s at Broome and Allen. So it was an extra walk, but it was cool and dark inside, so all was well. I must say, it was really meaningful for me to return to my old stomping grounds of NY where I started out as a writer in the zine community.
The event was great–a diverse range of people. The crowd wasn’t as talkative, say, as in Seattle or Berkeley, where people are USED to sharing, but we did get New Yorkers to open up, an accomplishment in itself. A woman named J. took email addresses to organize future New York quirkyalone gatherings. (I don’t have her email address and hope she will post too on this website’s online community.) Others vowed that next year New York will have an International Quirkyalone Day celebration. (There was one NY IQD in 2003 at Botanica, and two in 2004–one at DT/UT Cafe on Avenue B and another in Brooklyn, but none, sadly, in 2005.)
Meanwhile, I’m very excited about this week’s reading in Providence at Books on the Square in Wayland Square. Providence is the city around which I grew up, and all kinds of people will be coming out from Rhode Island–certainly one of the quirkiest states in the nation. Providence is just a short one-hour trip from Boston, so I encourage everyone from the Boston area to come down.
Related posts:
Are you a quirkyalone?
Quirkyalone: n. adj. a person who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and prefers being single to dating for the sake of dating. It’s a mindset. Quirkyalone is not anti-love. It is pro-love. It is not anti-dating. It is anti-compulsory dating. Quirkyalone is a book, a holiday, and a movement. Are you a quirkyalone? Take the quiz and read the original essay to find out.
Just for fun