Spirits in the Air Reading Goes Virtual
Sixth Annual Potent Potable Poetry Event Hits Zoom on April 24
Santa Barbara poets aren’t letting COVID-19 kill the libation-meets-lyric party they throw every April in honor of National Poetry Month.
On April 24, at 7 p.m., the sixth annual Spirits in the (Virtual) Air: Potent Potable Poetry reading will go down, but this time via Zoom rather than in a bar. Hosted by Indy food writer George Yatchisin, the digital gathering will feature poets Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Susan Chiavelli, Diana Raab, Linda Saccoccio, David Starkey, Emma Trelles, Jace Turner, and Chryss Yost reading their works about alcoholic beverages.
“This event makes clear just how fun poetry can be, and how the magic of words can help unite us even in a time like this when we are physically isolated,” said Yatchisin, whose poem “Imports” is below. He’s encouraging onlookers to order themselves pick-up cocktails from Shaker Mill to go along with the reading. (Order before 4 p.m. from shakermillsb.com.)
Imports
There’s that relief when statistics
prove what you know in your gut:
this morning NPR says “teenage drinking
peaked in the late 1970s.” I did my part
to make that a fact, blearily, boozily
reified, even if the Marxism came later,
perhaps listening to the Gang of Four,
and hoping to make sense of lines
like The body is good business while
living as antithesis, perhaps, developing
a taste for decidedly bougie beer despite
being the son of a machine shop owner who still
drove a truck with others’ names on its door.
My parents were kind enough to buy me
Heineken and I was eager enough to drink it,
somehow already knowing I needed out.
Visit ucsb.zoom.us/j/94305572625 to join the meeting or use the ID 943 0557 2625 on April 24 at 7 p.m.
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