Home » Eating & Drinking, Free Food, Theater & Performance

“Under the Influence” Reading Performance Series | North Beach

Dang! This event has already taken place.
>> Want to see our Top Picks for this week instead?
Thursday, May 21, 2015 - 7:00 pm | Cost: $5*
*Suggested donation to support the venue. Nobody turned away for lack of funds

The Emerald Tablet | 80 Fresno St., San Francisco, CA

Event Details

“Under the Influence” Reading Performance Series | North Beach

The Emerald Tablet in North Beach hosts a homegrown reading performance series, Under the Influence, co-created and hosted with Quiet Lightning‘s Evan Karp.

Four artists read works by some of their major influences, followed by original work performances created for the show that channels that influence. Artists have 15 minutes each to perform and will help select the following month’s performers, so that each show is inspired by the one before.

Approximately once a month an influence will be announced, and they will accept submissions of original work in response.

There will be complimentary food. Drinks are by donation.

Thursday, May 21 Lineup:

M.C. K~Swift (New Rap Order/ Universal Zulu Nation) is a Hip-Hop artist and educator, who has been recording and performing since 1994. He’s been a published poet since the age of 17, and appears in HBO’s “Brave New Voices” series. M.C. K~Swift has conducted creative writing and performance workshops in hundreds of high schools as well as in institutions including: CUNY Grad Center, The New School, Michigan State, Stanford University, NYU, Wesleyan University and Columbia University. He has also trained educators at numerous schools, non-profit organizations and community centers on cultivating creativity in their classrooms.  A founding member of the progressive Hip-Hop collective, New Rap Order, and a member of the Universal Zulu Nation, M.C. K~Swift is among both the vanguard and the old guard of True School Hip-Hop Culture. Originally from NYC, M.C. K~Swift now lives in Oakland and is currently a Lead Artist at Youth Speaks.

K-Swift will be channeling Fela Kuti! Check K out in this great music video and here he is live. If you don’t know Fela Kuti, click on the name and send your thank yous to K in person on May 21.

Brigid M. Hughes is a writer and editor. She received her MFA in short fiction and personal essay from the University of San Francisco. Her work evokes the role of observer, with a particular interest in the humorous and absurd. She is not the Brigid Hughes who currently edits A Public Space, but she appreciates the friend requests each year during AWP.  Brigid M. is a third-generation San Franciscan and currently lives in the Haight.

Brigid will be channeling the benevolent Joan Didion, specifically excerpts and impressions from Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

Joshua Braff is the author of The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green and Peep Show. He lives in California with his wife and two kids. Please visit his website for more information.

Joshua will be channeling Flannery O’Connor! You can watch him discuss his second novel, Peep Show, here, and here’s a more recent Q&A about his new novel The Daddy Diaries and his writing process.

Jack and Adelle Foley: Jack Foley is a widely-published poet and critic who, with his wife, Adelle, performs his work frequently in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has published thirteen books of poetry and seven books of criticism and with poet Clara Hsu co-edits Poetry Hotel Press. Visions and Affiliations, his 1300-page “chronoencycledia” of California poetry from 1940 to 2005, has received international attention with reviews in both England and the USA. He has produced radio shows on Berkeley, CA station KPFA for the past 27 years. On June 5, 2010, Foley received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Berkeley Poetry Festival, and June 5, 2010 was proclaimed “Jack Foley Day” in Berkeley. His selected poems, EYES, appeared recently along with a chapbook, LIFE. Poet/Critic Christopher Bernard has called Foley “a many-tongued master…one of American poetry’s essential thinkers and practitioners.”

Adelle Foley is a retirement administrator, an arts activist, and a writer of haiku. Her column, “High Street Neighborhood News,” appears monthly in The MacArthur Metro.  Her poems have appeared in various magazines and textbooks. Along the Bloodline is her first book-length collection. Beat poet Michael McClure writes, “Adelle Foley’s haikus show us humanity. Their vitality and imagination shine from her compassion; from seeing things as they truly are.”
Jack and Adelle will be channeling Robert Duncan! You can watch them perform here (that might be all you need to see), but here is a bonus treat. Click on Duncan’s name for a wealth of resources.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: $5*
*Suggested donation to support the venue. Nobody turned away for lack of funds
Categories: Eating & Drinking, Free Food, Theater & Performance
Address: 80 Fresno St., San Francisco, CA