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5 Reasons Why You Need To See Sister Spit's Rambling Road Show, Like Now.
1. Sister Spit is the San Francisco-based iconic feminist-lesbian ‘rambling road show’ co-directed by novelist Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson. Per their website: “Sini and Michelle gathered together a group of some of the most notorious, talented, and just frickin' interesting women and dykes, and went on tour all over the U.S.” Past tours have included legendary gay poets and authors like Eileen Myles, Jan LeCroy, Miranda Mellis, Beth Lisik, and Lynnee Breedlove. Their epic cross-country tours made national headlines. The Boston Phoenix described the group as “the coolest (and cutest) line-up of talented, tattooed, pierced, and purple-pigtailed performance artists the Bay Area has to offer.” In the Village Voice, poet Eileen Myles wrote about her encounter with Sister Spit as a “life-defining” event and declared, “I can’t believe I’ve found my generation at last.” According to Myles, the two-van tour hit 30 cities in 28 days, and they slept on the floor of anarchist bookstores and squatted, when they could, with friends. This was approximately ten years ago. But, fear not—
2. After nearly a decade, Sister Spit is, officially, back on tour. The ‘new generation’ features writers and performers Myriam Gurba, Amos Mac, Mari Naomi, Blake Nelson, Kirk Read, Ali Liebegott (award-winning author of The IHOP Papers), and Michelle Tea (award-winning author of Valencia, soon to be a feature-length film). Their official declaration: “Zinesters, Fashion plates, novelists, performance poets shape-shifting self-help gurus and fancy scribblers, the vanload of magnificent and underground brilliance blazes through the USA and into your town! The latest in a tradition of rowdy, raucous literary adventures stretching all the way back to 1997!”
3. Sister Spit’s performance at The Echo last Saturday was awesome. The bombastic author Myriam Gurba set it off with the tongue-in-cheek poem Imposter (“I would be a better lesbian if I…”). Next up was Amos Mac, photographer and founder of the trans male culture mag, Original Plumbing. He read a touching letter to performance artist Zackary Drucker, wherein he spoke of the joys and struggles of being trans and showcased his renowned photography. The talented graphic artist Mari Naomi read awesome sexploits from her illustrated chapbook Estrus and her graphic work Kiss And Tell. Writer Kirk Read read a seriously hilarious piece about the woes of selling used clothing to the Crossroads thrift store.Michelle Tea read from her graphic novel Rent Girl about the trials and tribulations of running a three-girl sex hotline by herself. Young adult author Blake Nelson (author of Paranoid Park) read from his new novel Recovery Road. And Ali Liebegottread about the downsides of sliding scale therapists. The place was packed and the reading was effortlessly enjoyable. Hilarious, sad, joyous, poignant, absurd, grotesque, and beautiful—the event ran the emotional gamut. And with Michelle Tea as emcee, music, photos, and all-around hillarities ensued. Part comedy show, part theater, part performance art, part art exhibit—Sister Spit is hardly a mere reading.
4. One-liners from the show:
“I would be a better lesbian if I suffered Fibromyalgia...if I had my own talk show...if whales gave me boners"” (Myriam Gurba).
“They aren’t just judging your clothes, they’re judging you.” (Kirk Read).
“Nobody was there when I answered the phone and officially became three people.” (Michelle Tea).
“I wish someone had told me a long time ago, beware of a sliding scale that slides too low.” (Ali Liebegott).
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5. Sister Spit’s Rambling Road Show has two more (pretty immediate) SoCal performances:
Sister Spit at USC
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 @ USC, Taper Hall, Rm 101
7pm. Free.
Sister Spit in Long Beach
Thursday, March 24, 2011 @ Viento y Agua, 4007 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA
8pm. $10.
After that, they’re back up north :
Sister Spit in Santa Cruz
Saturday, March 26 @ Bookshop, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA
7:30pm. Free.
Sister Spit in Arcata
Sunday, March 27 @ Arcata Theater, 1036 G. St, Arcata, CA
6:30pm. $8.
Check out Sister Spit! Visit their tour page for more info.
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