📙 Poetry reading with Danielle LaFrance, Jeremy Hoevenaar, Cecily Chen & Léon Pradeau

Hello Philly friends,

I hope all of you are managing to stay cool at the moment— the hallucinatory heat of high summer is truly upon us. Stay hydrated!

I’m very excited to be hosting a phenomenal reading in a few weeks at Philly’s best radical bookstore, Iffy Books.

Joining us will be Danielle LaFrance, a writer of the poetry-research-theory books JUST LIKE I LIKE IT (Talonbooks, 2019), Friendly + Fire (Talonbooks, 2016), species branding (Capilano University Editions, 2010), and #postdildo (Talonbooks, 2022), a component of a larger project that thinks and writes through the fantasised limitlessness and constructed limitations of sexuality, communication, and desire. Other poetry and critical writing have appeared in such magazines and journals as ASAP/Journal, The Capilano Review, LESTE, Tripwire, and Organism for Poetic Research. They collaborated on a feminist materialist co-reading and journal making endeavour About a Bicycle (with Anahita Jamali Rad) and currently on an intertextual sound project Yes, Sydo (with Josh Rose). Yes, Sydo has recently commenced with a reading + listening group, which invites all to collectively critique the cultural significance of Homer’s Odyssey as it is intervened by other texts and sounds and presently unfolding contexts. They live deliciously and hate to rent and work on the sovereign, yet still occupied lands, of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ peoples.

Danielle will be joined by our very own Jeremy Hoevenaar. Jeremy lives in a barrel with his beautiful family. There is a book called Our Insolvency, published by Golias Books.

As if that duo wasn’t enough, two Chicago denizens will be joining the lineup. Cecily Chen (she/her/hers) is a PhD student in English and sexuality studies at the University of Chicago. Her work focuses on fucked up Chinese women and bad sex. She is the resident gremlin & poetry editor at Chicago Review.

Léon Pradeau is a poet, translator, and PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Born in France, he is now wondering what it means to be American and has naturally started with the small world of midwestern body shops, where flesh, steel and plastic are mutually commodified. A resulting chapbook, titled body shop, is in progress. His research and writing explore the erotic, technical, and political assemblages of poetic bodies. With his colleague Clara Nizard, he has recently translated a volume by Cécile Mainardi, Rose Mortal Activity. Parts of it are forthcoming in FENCE this Summer.

We’ll be arriving at Iffy (319 N. 11th St #2I) around 7p, with readings to follow shortly thereafter. It would be great to see you! See attached flyer in my typical style, featuring a very sultry Scotty.

Until then, love and solidarity to you all!
ted