SMART GALS PRODUCTIONS: The Speakeasy

Sunday July 27, 2003

Sunday, July 27th, Smart Gals monthly "semi-literary" salon, the SPEAKEASY stirs
up a literary evening with MacAdam/Cage Publishing which was founded in 1998
with the aim of publishing edgy, experimental books as well as more standard
literary fare, with the emphasis on first-time writers. We'll be featuring two of their
Southern California-based fiction writers, Michael Kun (The Locklear Letters) and
Craig Clevenger (The Contortionist's Handbook). Abbie Baron Morganstein
(Fun with Marshmallows) is the visual artist for July and will design the bookmark*
for the night.

For those not yet in the know, the SPEAKEASY is a monthly mixer with guest hosts,
local artists, parlor games, conversation and moonshine.

We will mix this event up with an epistolary game of sorts, serve up some secret
sauce and end with readings by both authors.

Michael Kun is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University
and The University of Virginia School of Law. His first
novel, A Thousand Benjamins (Atlantic Monthly Press),
was published in 1990. His short stories have appeared
in Other Voices, Fiction, Story Quarterly, and
Cottonwood, among other publications. He lives and
works in Los Angeles, where he is writing a new novel,
a short story collection and a children's book.

His latest novel, The Locklear Letters is a farcical look
at celebrity worship in today's society through the
eyes of Sid Straw, an affable, if not boring, software
salesman who tries to rekindle an acquaintanceship
with his former college classmate turned Hollywood
Star, Heather Locklear.

Craig Clevenger was born in Dallas, Texas and raised
in Southern California, where he studied English at
CSU Longbeach. He has traveled extensively and lived
in Dublin and London. Disillusioned, he resigned from
the high-tech industry to pursue a writing career. He
currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, where
he is at work on his second novel.

The Contortionist's Handbook tells the story of John
Dolan, a talented young forger with a proclivity for
mathematics and drug addiction. In the face of his
impending institutionalization, he invents a new
identity for himself aware that, in his world, the
truth will not set him free, but lock him up or get
him killed.

Abbie Baron Morganstein received her BFA in Studio Art [painting] at Scripps College in Claremont, California and her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts [CalArts] in Valencia, California.

She is exhibiting her paintings in a solo show at the "Local Gallery" in Los Feliz. She is also currently part of a traveling group exhibition entitled:
"The Greatest Album Covers Never Made". This show will be at Bergamot Station's Track 16 Gallery on October 11, 2003 through November.
http://www.theartrocks.com/tgactnw/50morganstein.html

She is involved in two different public art projects for 2003-2004: As lead artist, with her group the Happy Puddle Collective; she is a recipient of funding from the Clover Park Fresh Art program for the city of Santa Monica. She has been chosen to participate in the Judy Chicago/Donald Woodman public art project entitled Envisioning The Future, funded by the City of Pomona.

Sunday, July 27th
(& the last Sunday of Every Month)
8:00 until 10:00 in the evening

Mt. Hollywood Underground
4607 Prospect Avenue
(Underneath Mt. Hollywood Church in Silverlake, corner of Prospect
and Rodney, one block North of
Hollywood and one block east of
Vermont. Enter on Rodney)

Gents and Dames welcomed with equal regard!
Admission $5.00
Bookmarks $10.00*

Passwords & such
310.572.7347
www.smartgals.org

Mix, mingle, swoon, shine, speakeasy!

*Keeping this all on the QT, we
don't sell booze, but we do sell
bookmarks. Do I make myself
mysterious enough here? We
don't sell booze, but we do sell
bookmarks. Pack $15.00 for a full
night. And hush!

click here for the password