Live Reading

Two local authors wax poetic on Philly

Poets CAConrad and Frank Sherlock are reading from The City Real & Imagined (Factory School, 2010) about their literary wanderings in Philadelphia at Giovanni’s Room tonight. And nothing is off limits for these two experimental scribes who have known each other since the early 1990s. Their verses weave through Philadelphia’s people and places with a magical ease, conjuring both the familiar and arcane, like the absurdity of urban planning and Philly’s own Fringe Festival.

“This is a psychogeographical poem,” explains Sherlock. “It is at its essence a wandering through landmarks that remain standing, and a revisiting of citizens that live on in memory.” He says the book also explores the future mapping of the city yet to be realized.

“Conrad and I have very different experiences and expectations within the same shared geographical space,” says Sherlock. “CA came to Philadelphia as a rural PA refugee. He found the city to be a safe place for a young queer. This idea interested me, since solace wouldn’t be the first word that came to mind when describing my hometown.”

Sherlock admits he was still working through the residue of growing up in a Rizzo culture when he and Conrad met. “The book extends the invitation to others to take part and assemble new relations to spaces they (we) move in and out of on an everyday basis,” he says.

Listen to Sherlock read from his works online thanks to Pennsound Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania.

Also sharing the mic is Danbert Nobacon, a singer, songwriter and comedian, who’ll read from Three Dead Princes: An Anarchist Fairytale (Exterminating Angel Press, 2010), a book Iggy Pop called “beautiful.” Nobacon was a founding member of the band Chumbawamba. Yep, he’s the guy responsible for that “Tubthumping” ear worm back in 1997.

“A Reading with CAConrad, Frank Sherlock and Danbert Nobacon,” Oct. 18, 5:30 p.m., Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St., 215-923-2960.