Wednesday, January 30, 2008

BACK ROOM LIVE SATURDAY NIGHT FEBUARY 23RD 7PM!

BACK ROOM LIVE ! Saturday Night ! Febuary 23rd 7pm ! With prose writers and poets ! Lisa Gschwandtner ! Jack Morgan ! Jarrod Roland ! Erika Stati ! BACK ROOM LIVE ! Mc Nally's Irish Pub ! Rockridge !

Erika Staiti is writing and thinking about the line that divides Oakland and Berkeley. She lives in oakland. She works in berkeley. The line curves on its own.

Lisa Gschwandtner has studied creative writing at the University of Virginia; the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. She is currently a student at St. Mary's MFA program in fiction. She lives in Berkeley.

Jarrod Roland is a poet and prose writer living in San Francisco. His work has appeared in several journals, and many people like him because he is kind and gentle. Every man wants to be him and every woman wants to be with him. He also moonlights as Jack Morgan's personal stylist.

JackMorgan edits Sorry for Snake, a poetic journal. JackMorgan won the Judith Stronach award for poetry. JackMorgan is the author of 2 chapbooks entitled /Your/ and /Dearest Children of the Revolution, I am Pleased to Announce my Resignation/. His illustrations and graphic design have been published worldwide. Jack Morgan has curated reading series in Hannover, Germany and the SF Bay Area. He currently helps curate the Holloway Reading Series at UC Berkeley.

LIFE LONG PRESS ! OAKLAND ! FEBUARY ! 2008

So that's,
Sat. Febuary 23rd at 7pm
McNally's Irish Pub
5352 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-9463
Minutes from the Rockridge BART Station
and on the 51 bus line

Join us for the Life-long Press Publication event on Saturday March 29 w/ poets Lyn Hejinian, Brenda Hillman, Geoffrey G. O'Brien and Graham Foust, as well as copies of our first publication /Back Room Live/. Check out the extended shed. for Back Room Live to the right.

Monday, January 21, 2008

BACK ROOM LIVE TONIGHT AT MC NALLY'S!

January 26th 7pm ! Mc Nally's Irish Pub ! Victoria Hudson ! Patrick Holian ! Clare Becker ! Lily Brown !

BACK ROOM LIVE is a monthly multi-genre reading series at 7pm on the last Saturday of each month
(barring major holiday or sporting event).

LIFE LONG PRESS ! OAKLAND ! JANUARY ! 2008

McNally's Irish Pub
5352 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-9463
Minutes from the Rockrdige BART Station
and on the 51 bus line

Check out Blurbs about this months writers below and the extended shed. for BRL to the right.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Results of The Life Long Press Challege Grant are In!!!

This funds drive has been more of a success than I could have imagined esp. considering I had not imagined having one at all. So, I would like to thank our initial donor and the many others who followed suit. I am deeply moved. The funds will be put to good use. The work of 25 writers will be represented. The magazines will be ready for the publication event on March 29th. I hope to see you there or at one of the many other Back Room Live readings upcoming (shed. to the right).
We have raised- $1,440.00 + a very generous matching grant which brings the grand total to $2,880.00!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Challenge Grant Extended Until January 17th!

Good news! The primary donor for the Life-long Press challenge grant has agreed to go beyond the initial $1,000 dollars promised. No donation is too small. Every dollar contributed equals two!
Just click the donate button to the right and follow the PayPal instuctions.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Afgahanistan, Life and Spirit of Kabul- Now Showing!


Photography by Mojhgan Mohtashimi showing at the LightRoom Gallery Jan. 7th-Feb. 15th. 2263 5th St. Berkeley, Ca 94710. Reception Saturday, Jan 12 3-6pm. For more information about the artist and the gallery go to http://www.mojhgan.org and http//:www.lightroom.com

! BACK ROOM LIVE ! SATURADY JANUARY 26TH ! 7PM !

! BACK ROOM LIVE ! Is back in action ! Saturday Night ! January 26th 7pm ! Mc Nally's Irish Pub in Rockridge ! With poets and prose writers ! Lily Brown ! Victoria Hudson ! Clare Becker ! Patrick Holian ! BACK ROOM LIVE is a monthly multi-genre reading series produced by Life-long Press, always at 7pm and on the last Saturday of the month (barring major holiday or sporting event).

After a chance encounter with John Madden, Patrick discarded his childhood ambition of becoming a writer to pursue a career in competitive rambling. Also, he's broken his nose and femur, and wants to thank all of you for being here.

Claire Becker lives in Oakland and teaches at the California School for the Blind. Her poems have been published in Typo, Tarpaulin Sky, The Alembic, 580 Split, the tiny, Octopus, and H-ngm-n and are forthcoming in Octopus #10. Her chapbook Untoward was just published by Lame House Press. She holds an MFA from St. Mary's College and a BA from Pomona College and studies in the Program in Visual Impairments at San Francisco State. Her presence can be felt at humanisanimal.blogspot.com.

Victoria Hudson finds winter gardening a bit more challenging than spring and summer gardening. When not protecting fledging plants from frost, she tends to feral cats and other procrastinations. Occasionally she writes poetry and prose.

LilyBrown holds an M.F.A from Saint Mary's College of California and currently lives in San Francisco. She is the author of the chapbook The Renaissance Sheet, published by Octopus Books in 2007. Kitchen Press will publish her second chapbook, Old with You, in 2008. Poems have appeared in Typo, Octopus, Fence, Tarpaulin Sky and Handsome and are forthcoming in Pleiades, 26 and Cannibal.

LIFE LONG PRESS ! OAKLAND ! JANUARY ! 2008

So that's,
Sat. January 26th at 7pm
McNally's Irish Pub
5352 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-9463
Minutes from the Rockrdige BART Station
and on the 51 bus line

Monday, January 7, 2008

Violence | Kindness

One of my co-workers rolled up to the door w/ a friend after closing time. Which isn't rare, so my first thought/words were, "%@&?, we're almost out of here." But I could see he was hurt so I motioned them to another door. He was really hurt. They had been jumped. His friend was hurt too but not as badly. They didn't want to call the police. I locked the door and went for the first aid kit to see what was under all that blood. There's no crying in waitressing. I cleaned up his face with a warm wet towel, asked questions, found a cold pack, asked a few more times about calling the police, found the bacitracin, asked my other co-worker to call a cab, gave him some acetaminophen in lieu of ibuprofen (better for inflammation). We waited. His friend rode home. We locked his bike in the back. He wanted to sleep. I kept asking about a concussion, giving motherly advice and putting my hands on him whenever appropriate. A third co-worker got out of bed to come take him home.

My fellow closer said he was worried about safety for the first time. I wondered if I was safe riding my bike home. They had been attacked when vulnerable, one man down, my co-worker attempting to help his friend up. I was already in rout while my fellow closer and I said our goodbyes. I thought about war. Violence. Wounded soldiers, but mostly wounded people who beget what they get. I'm not defending the perpetrators.

I can see where violence comes from. Us. The tears start a quarter block from home. In my apartment I make it to the bathroom, sit on the edge of the tub and sob (I share the wall against my bed w/ my neighbors toddler and I don't want to disturb her sleep w/ despair). I feel sorry for myself being alone with this shock/ world-ache. I think of reaching out, wishing for someone to put their hands on me. I think of his face. I think of the children who have seen their mothers face wounded that way (and worse) who have felt theirs, their father's, their bodies. And war again and innocence. Humans’ enactment and defense of violence. I wish to be sheltered or depart from the world’s seemingly insurmountable violence while I sob for a few more moments. Then I think, I can do-- this!

I can write KINDNESS and mean it! I can write RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS! Be kind to people whether you want to or not. I'm not so naive to think that my friends could have been kind to their attackers any more than innocent people on the ground could be kind to missiles to prevent the onslaught of physical and emotional pain. I wonder if my friend’s attackers had experienced any kindness from strangers that day?

When you feel; threatened, afraid, offended or just plain mad, think a moment, or a few, or minuets (if you don't need to run or holler for help), whatever it takes. "By any means necessary" PRACTICE KINDNESS!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Life Long Press is pleased to announce

The editorial board; Trevor Calvert, Elinore Baine Johnson, Zack Demby, and Challen Clark, for //Back Room Live// LLP’s first official publishing venture, an anthology of prose and verse, due out in March. Thank you C, Z, B and T-- I’m happy to be working with you +V.

Life Long Press is Accepting Donations On Line!


Help us keep the fire burning! Click the donations button to the right and make a tax-deductible contribution to Life Long Press any time using your major credit or debit card or your PayPal account. Thanks to all of you who have contributed. Be expecting an update January 17th about the outcome of our Maching funds drive!