Stepping Out of my Comfort Zone 2

I’ll share the most personal first.  On Friday night I presented two of my short stories at Write on the Dot reading series at Savin Hill Yoga Coop. 

I was one of 4 writers that night.  The other readers were Rayna Bricenco (fiction), Josh Jones (poetry), and Caleb Nelson (poetry and short story).  A nice ice-breaker that started the evening was two instant poems created on-site by two poets who “faced off” again each other.  The poets, who happened to be roommates, reached in a fishbowl for the phrases submitted by attendees and created a poem while the rest of us were schmoozing.

Two friends of mine attended and gave me moral support.  Both used the T to get to the reading.  I feel so honored that they came because they walked 10 minutes on a windy, drizzly rainy night to come.

Larry Pryor, teacher and founder of SHYC, led us in a meditative exercise before we read.  It helped calm my nerves and centered me.  Still, it was scary to go on especially since I was the first reader.  (I’d read GREAT TIPS for reading aloud in front of an audience recommended by Lynn, one of the organizers of the reading, and it helped tremendously.)

 I also did a practice run-through to an intimate group of writers in a writers group I joined that morning. I only stumbled once or twice during the reading and managed not to have my hands shake.  (I thought they would because there was no podium to hide behind, just a microphone with the audience within touching distance.)

As I read, the audience responded with laughter in the right places and gasps of surprise at the ending twist in the story.  VALIDATION!  I felt so validated.  I’d labored over this short story and I felt I’d chosen the best story for the crowd that attended.  It was a great mix of ages, genders, townies and students from UMass-Boston. 

I hadn’t read one of my own pieces publicly for about 10 years.  (I read at a conference and the piece I read, while powerful, was such a downer that it sucked the air out of the room.  After that experience, I did not so much decide not to read publicly again, as allow myself to avoid presenting my own work by concentrating on promoting the work of others in my role as director of ACT Roxbury.)

What a wonderful evening. All of the writers’ work was provocative, some brilliantly so.  I am always amazed by the creativity of human beings and how the same words can be used in such different ways. I felt connections with the other writers.  Writers, audience and organizers shared a affirmative evening.

Writing is often such a solitary pursuit that one can end up too often being too frequently isolated with oneself by oneself. 

The next event of Write on the Dot will be held at the Banshee (Food, Soccer, Music, Beer)  in Dorchester on Oct. 25 from 7-9pm.  It’s an Open Mic event.  Contact Write on the Dot for details.

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Related: 

Writers gather to share stories, inspiration on Pearl Street by Chris Harding  (Thank you Chris and the Dorchester Reporter for always providing coverage of the range of events in Dorchester.)

Savin Hill Yoga Cooperative (11 Pearl Street, Dorchester)

The Savin Hill Yoga Cooperative was formed in the fall of 2011 to support yoga classes and related activities at Pearl Street Studios at 11 Pearl Street in the Savin Hill neighborhood of Dorchester. The studio at Pearl Street is a beautiful renovated livery stable built expressly as a yoga studio.