I’ve been gone for a bit, partly writing, partly living, but I wanted to peek in and inform you of my upcoming appearances.
Tonight I’m participating in the Women of Color Reading Series at Jefferson Market Library in the Village. I’ll be reading excerpts from “Under the Canopy“ and I’m nervous but excited to finally premiere this piece. Even if it’s just for seven minutes.
Then on Sunday, I’m hosting our summer edition of the New Voices Reading Series at La Casa Azul Bookstore in East Harlem, and if there’s time, I’ll be sharing an excerpt from another new piece, “Three Seconds,” which I read at Sycamore Stories shortly after I returned from Santo Domingo.
He sat on the side of the road—no shoes, torn pants, unkempt beard—selling platanos. They were beautifully green and meaty platanos, like all the others we’ve seen on the backs of trucks coming and going from La Descubierta. Many times, from the back of the car, I was tempted to reach out of the window and snatch a bunch to smuggle into my luggage. All I can get in Brooklyn are emaciated platanos imported from Ecuador and men imported from nowhere as nice as the vendor on the side of the road.
He sat on the side of the road loosely hugging his knees and watching the cars go by, cars full of people that weren’t stopping to buy his crop. He sat and watched all the money he wasn’t going to make that day kick up dust in his direction, and in one white SUV sat the woman of his dreams that he never got to meet: me.
Next week on the 24, I’ll scurry up to the East Harlem Cafe for their open mic, where I hope to read an updated version of “What the Lake Stole“ for a whole new audience. Exciting, right?
Hope to see your smiling faces in the audience at one or all of these, and don’t forget to keep up with my appearances and writerly activities by clicking here.
xoxo,
Raquel Ivelisse