The But Also Reading Series

Square image with a gradient purple background, featuring text and a green squiggle. Text reads, “The But Also presents: Nicole M. Young & Brian Whitener Doors 6:30, reading 7:00 Tuesday, June 21 113 Market Street Northampton or zoom https://bit.ly/39eYIPg

Come over on 6/22 between 2-6 pm and hang out on our porch in Northampton, MA (contact for address) & support Threshold Academy! Threshold Academy is a future bookstore and non traditional education space.

By support we mean: come hang out, sell your books, buy some books, buy a tote bag, shop some vintage goods, imagine Threshold Academy, pitch an idea for an event or workshop. Get a tarot card reading & tarot poem ($15-$25-no one turned away for lack of funds). Right now, $$ contributions go towards keeping the But Also in snacks, buying books to open that future bookstore, materials for residency programs (to be announced soon) & more...

stick around for But Also #16 at 6:30pm!

Come over for the 16th installment of The But Also Reading Series (contact for address). We are so excited to host the ever talented out of towners: Sean Collins, Christy Davids & Sam Cha along with Western MA's very own Emilie Menzel.

Christy Davids is a poet, teacher, and co-curator of the Philadelphia-based reading series Charmed Instruments. Some of her work can be found in VOLT, Open House, Bedfellows, Jacket2, Dusie, The Tiny, and the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet, among others. Her chapbook “on heat” (2017) was selected by the editors in BOAAT Press’s 2016 chapbook competition, and her chapbooks "wanton" and "dysphoric / geography" are forthcoming from DoubleCross Press and Neighboring Systems respectively.

Emilie Menzel is a poet, writer, educator, and creative community builder whose work seeks to engage both creative and analytical properties of language. Her writing explores the language of "childishness," fables and fairy tales, grief and haunting, and metamorphoses of the body. She has been rejected by such prestigious journals as Poetry, Electric Lit, Winter Tangerine, and more (forthcoming). Emilie is the recipient of the Deborah Slosberg Memorial Award in Poetry (selected by Diana Khoi Nguyen) and the Cara Parravani Memorial Award in Fiction (selected by Leigh Newman), and she completed her MFA in poetry with the University of Massachusetts Amherst this May. Emilie currently lives in wooded Massachusetts but will be flying south to make another home elsewhere soon. Follow along for updates and odd findings on Instagram @emilieideas.

Sean Collins is a poet and arts administrator from Western Massachusetts. He lives in Philadelphia, where he works with Christy Davids on the Charmed Instruments reading series. He received his MFA in poetry from Temple University in 2018, and his chapbook, Planchette, was published by Accidental Player in 2019. With Maude Haak-Frendscho, he co-runs the publishing and performance project Neighboring Systems.

Sam Cha bio forthcoming

Come over for refreshments at 6:30 or just come inside from the porch, if you are already here from the Pop Up from 2-6!

The reading will begin at 7pm.

Accessibility Note: This is a first floor apartment. There are a few steps leading to the front door. There is a small chihuahua that lives in the apartment. We sometimes burn incense and scented candles.

Queer Night: Poetry and Dancing Against Prisons

*BRING UR FRIENDS, BRING UR EX, BRING UR MOM*

Please join us at your weekly pop-up gay bar for a nerdy and fun night in support of the Western Massachusetts Bail Fund (info about the Fund at the bottom of description):

ALL NIGHT: A raffle/fundraiser featuring donated gifts from a variety of local business. Offerings TBA. We will also continue our free in-house bring a book/take a book library at 5.

8PM: An evening of queer and trans poetry and literature hosted and curated by Zoe Tuck (www.zoetuck.com). Featuring readings by: ANDREA LAWLOR, CAMERON AWKWARD-RICH, EMILY HUNERWADEL, MARÍA JOSÉ GIMENEZ, and ZOE TUCK.

AFTER DARK: A fresh and fruity dance party to the sounds of DJ HONEYSUCKLE.

$2-10 suggested donation // no one turned away for lack of $$$

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(what is it) a weekly pop-up gay bar featuring queer humans/art/music/food/magic

(why is it) because there isnt one

(where is it) the majestic saloon, downtown northampton

(when is it) july 3 and every wednesday forever

16 taps of beer/cheap cans/good wine/pretty and pink mocktails and specialty drinks featuring fresh cold-pressed juice from Iconica Social Club.

Bullshit will not be tolerated xoxo

Majestic is fully wheelchair accessible, with ramps to entrance and a chair accessible, gender-neutral, single occupancy bathroom.

*BOOKING POETS/BANDS/DJS/DRAG SHOWS/TAROT READERS/VIDEO ARTISTS/YR GAY IDEAS xxx COME BY AND PITCH US YOUR THING*

and follow us on instagram at @popupgaybar

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ABOUT THE WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS BAIL FUND:

Did you know: If the system of cash bail ended right now, approximately 536,000 people in the U.S. would not be in jail tonight (Prison Policy Initiative, 3/18).

Cash bail exists simply to ensure that people who have been arrested show up at their next court dates. People with money can afford bail and are released almost immediately. Poor defendants can’t afford bail, so the system simply holds them in jail until their case. This can take weeks, months, or even years.

The Western Mass Prison Abolition Network has helped to open a local bail fund with the Massachusetts Bail Fund (MBF) last June; that fund has meant release for about 20 people each month held on up to $500 bails in Hampshire, Hampden, and Franklin Counties.

These defendants have not been proven guilty of any crime. In fact, over 50% of all Massachusetts Bail Fund clients have their cases dismissed. In a money bail system, those too poor to afford bail spend time in jail simply because they are poor.

Pretrial incarceration has disastrous impacts on the lives of the incarcerated.

This is exactly why it is not only important that we post bail for folks who can’t afford it, but also that we expand our services to provide ongoing care in whatever ways we can. Namely, we’re putting together support backpacks– filled with basic essentials like food, toiletries, and materials on where to find other aid/resources– for bail fund clients. We hope to ease people’s transitions back into daily life after such a significant, often traumatic, disruption.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at 5 PM – 1 AM

The Majestic Saloon

24 Main St, Northampton, Massachusetts 01060

Threshold Academy is a future bookstore and alternative educational space.

Come hang out on our porch on July 28 from 2-6 pm and support Threshold Academy by buying and selling books, get a tarot poem ($15-$25 no one turned away!) shop some vintage clothes, accessorize yourself with a tote bag, create, dream and be together! Sing karaoke or read a poem on our porch!

Purchases made support Threshold Academy in programming such as the But Also Reading Series, The At Home Library Archival Residency and supports Threshold in realizing its dream as a bookstore.

Want to get involved, be a resident, plan an event, teach a workshop? Let's talk!

Come in from the porch for poetry at The But Also Reading Series https://www.facebook.com/events/850401588692510/

The But Also is excited to present CB Wilson, Franny Choi and Diana Alvarez for its 17th installment of living room poetry and performance.

Come over at 6:30 pm on Sunday, July 28th, after the Porch Pop Up closes for the day!

Franny Choi is the author of two poetry collections, Soft Science (Alice James Books, 2019) and Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014). A Kundiman Fellow, she co-hosts the Poetry Foundation podcast VS and edits for Hyphen Magazine. She is a current Charles Gaius Bolin Fellow at Williams College.

CB Wilson is a bicoastal poet and baby clinician, skipping back and forth between Appalachia and the West Coast. Her work has appeared in Headwaters Journal, The Pedestal Review, Spitjaw Review, Rogue Agent, and Your One Phone Call, among others. She has been rejected by prestigious journals such as Ambit, The Adroit Journal, Tin House, and many, many more. In a former life, CB co-curated and hosted the decade-old quarterly reading series Juniper Bends out of North Carolina. In addition to all this, she also has a body.

With her voice and guitar, Diana Alvarez creates an atmosphere where you can hear a "pin drop." Alvarez's soulful, bilingual music exalts queer love and liberation, and is the armature of her multimedia performance, Quiero Volver: A Xicanx Ritual Opera. Described by the press as "a visually and acoustically stunning performance meant to honor women, non-binary and genderqueer people of color," Quiero Volver features Alvarez's original music, sonic text scores, a poem-script for ensemble performance, and documentary video portraits. In 2018, Quiero Volver was produced by grassroots organizers and Smith College at the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, where the performance event raised over $10,000 to support immigrant justice initiatives through the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Come over at 6:30 for refreshments and hangs.
Performances to begin at 7:00pm

Please bring your lovers, friends, crushes, beloveds and kin

Accessibility Note: This is a first floor apartment. There are a few steps to the front door. There is a small elderly chihuahua named Patsy who might bark hello to you when you come in. We sometimes burn incense and scented candles.

The But Also #18 is excited to introduce Threshold Academy's first ever resident of the At Home Library Archival Residency, Ell Davis. Ell will release her interactive project made in residency at this event!

Shy Watson and Romeo Romero will also be featured and we are so excited to host them. Come over for 6:30pm enjoy a refreshment and reading shall begin at 7ish.

Ell Davis is a writer & artist from Columbus, Ohio. She works in the Juniper Archive of recorded poetry at UMass Amherst and helps to produce small edition chapbooks as part of Daisy Mayhem Books. She is the author of a zine called How to Open the Star.

Romeo Romero is a gender-fluid poet of Puerto Rican and Jewish descent. Their poetry exists in the depths of diaspora, dysphoria, ancestors, and being a being in a body. They believe poetry is both a magic and a medicine, and they write with the purpose of reminding themself and their peoples that healing is not only possible, but inevitable

shy watson is a writer & artist originally from rural missouri. she now resides in brooklyn where she co-edits the online journal, blush lit. her debut full-length, cheap yellow, was released by civil coping mechanisms in 2018. her work appears in places like hobart, new york tyrant, & the rumpus. follow her on twitter @smoothbrainicon.

Accessibility Note: This is a first floor apartment. There are a few steps to the front door. There is a small dog named Patsy who might bark at you when you arrive, she is just saying hello. Sometimes we burn incense and scented candles.

PS All summer long Threshold Academy is hosting a porch pop before the But Also reading so come hang on our porch form 2-6 for tarot, books and hangs and other fun activities!

Dear friends,

The But Also reading series returns with a wonderful line up of performers! Please come over for an interdisciplinary evening of performances from Marie Buck, Vick Quezada and Jina Kim.

Marie Buck is the author of Portrait of Doom (Krupskaya, 2015) and Goodnight, Marie, May God Have Mercy on Your Soul (Roof, 2016). She is the managing editor and online literary editor at Social Text and lives in Brooklyn.

Vick Quezada is an artist that currently resides in Western Massachusetts and they were born on the U.S., Mexico border in El Paso, TX. Historically, Quezada has occupied spaces in the grates where worlds clash, this both informs and incites the tension in their work. From 2016-17 Quezada was a curatorial fellow at the University Museum of Contemporary Art and worked with Fred Wilson over the course of a year; which led up to the the exhibit Five takes on African Art. Quezada’s work has exhibited at the Nolen: Smith College, and the Mead Art Museum, the BGSQD, the Living Arts Festival in Tulsa Oklahoma, and they are currently an artist-in-residence at NYU: Latinx Project. Quezada’s work is featured in the issue of Transgender Studies Quarterly, Duke Press 6:4 and the Believer Magazine. Quezada earned a BFA from The University of Texas at El Paso in 2005 and graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Jina B. Kim is an academic and writer who currently lives in Northampton, MA. She is an assistant professor of English and the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College, where she teaches and writes on race, disability, and gender in the contemporary U.S. Her essay, "Love in a Time of Sickness: On Race, Disability, and Intimate Partner Violence," was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and is forthcoming in The Asian American Literary Review. For the But Also #22, she will be reading a draft of an essay on queer friendship. 

Come over at 6:30 for refreshments and togetherness. Performance to begin at 7pm. Accessibility Note: This is a first floor apartment with a few steps to the front door. We sometimes burn incense and scented candles. There is a small dog named Patsy. Bring your friends, lovers, crushes & kin

xoxo,The But Alsoaka Britt Billmeyer-Finn & Zoe Tuck

Email thebutalso@gmail.com for address.

FB event listing here.