Folding Chair Reading Series

I recently got the chance to read from the completed draft of my novel at The Folding Chair reading series, a great newish series about a brick-wall and rustic wood-table wine bar on Bergen Street in Brooklyn. The upstairs room where the readings take place has the feeling of a renovated attic, or a studio at a well-funded artist's colony.

Every month curators Oana and Prudence put together an eclectic, engaging and--sometimes provocative--showcase for Brooklyn artists (musicians and artists, as well as writers).

One of the challenges of dealing with the material of this novel is how to evoke the weird beauty of ballet and, at the same time, what goes on--uh--behind that. So I chose an early scene and one from later in the book. And I read edited versions of two scenes, with an eye toward showing the paradoxes of "onstage" versus "backstage." The draft was so fresh, it felt good, if odd. And clarifying.