Phoenix Poetry Series launched its fall season with an evening of readings by literary advocates Jake Friedman and Kelsey Pinckney on topics ranging from uncomfortable first dates to the relationship between Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un.
The couple is well-known in the Phoenix literary community for Four Chambers Press, where Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief and Pinckney the assistant director. The series, now in its ninth year, drew a crowd of local artists, writers and students.
Earlier this year, Rosemarie Dombrowski, ASU English literature professor and host of the event, approached the couple and asked them to do a double feature. Readings are each fourth Friday of the month at {9} the Gallery in downtown Phoenix on Grand Avenue.
“We work together in the literary community and we’re a couple, so it’s all very ‘cute,’ I guess,” she said. “We spent the whole summer working hard.”
The couple stepped out of their comfort zones by sharing several prose pieces to the crowd gathered at the {9} The Gallery.
The prose pieces Pinckney and Friedman read covered a wide variety of topics, including uncomfortable first dates, love and relationships, and the friendship between Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un.
Pinckney opened the night with her piece, ‘In the Beginning.’
“This piece has evolved, I wrote it a few years ago … I wrote it in a moment of frustration about the stories of how you know what you’re hearing is true or not,” she said. “It just turned into a really broken thing of someone trying to remember an event.”
Pinckney said she is unsure when she will preform next, as she said she is a slower writer and appreciates the evolution of her writing.
“My writing has evolved so much in the past years and I’m sure it will evolve in the next few years too,” she said.
Friedman’s writing is evolving as well. He said he had put poetry on hold six months ago but is now refocusing on multiple prose pieces.
“I moved from poetry to prose poetry, to experimental prose. Now I don’t really write ‘poetry,’” he said.
One of the three pieces Friedman shared was titled, “Don’t Be a Melvin,” inspired by Phoenix based billboards and commercials about a man getting himself into awkward and inappropriate situations.
The fall season of the series will continue in September at {9} The Gallery. Owner Laura Dragon has allowed Phoenix Poetry Series to use the gallery since 2013 and said that doing so is her way of giving back to the Phoenix poetry community.
When Dragon first opened the gallery, she wanted the space to be a melting pot of creativity, she said. The gallery is home to music, dance, workshops and book signings in addition to artwork.
“I’ve kind of gotten the opportunity to see some of the local poets really expand in their craft, as well as in their professional life, as far as their community involvement,” Dragon said. “That’s been really cool to watch.”
Contact the reporter at JLott3@asu.edu.
