Dear John, You know that feeling. The moment of inspiration and intimacy with whoever’s on stage, be it a well-known kindred spirit or someone completely new. At Litquake, we are routinely transformed through the mysterious, age-old miracle of storytelling. Today, we’re asking you to keep the miraculous alive.
Imagine you’re seated and kibitzing with your friends pre-show at the Verdi Club when the Generation Women speakers take the stage. Women in their 20s, 30s, 40s start in on the night’s chosen theme of Bodies: sex, swimming, locker rooms, food, aging, relationships begun and ended, being invisible, being shamed, breaking into Yosemite on an electric skateboard. Then, a moment that speaks to you: In 1974, novelist Alka Joshi’s mom encouraged her teen daughter to try on a dress with a keyhole for her cleavage. Nerdy and flat-chested, Alka hid in her books and stewed over her mom’s suggestions. Alka’s mom wore a sari every day, years after they’d arrived. “She never even wore make-up.” Alka says. Whispers, titters, gasps. As Alka tells her story, she begins removing her coat and shawl, moving on to her sweater. Alka now knows that her mom was trying to give her the freedoms that she had been denied. In her time and place, very little was left to her. Today, Alka celebrates her freedoms and her mom in her novels. She has her own style: asymmetric haircut. Chunky, purple glasses. And as she finishes her story, teary-eyed, she reveals a shirt with a keyhole…You cheer. The crowd cheers. We are a community created again and again through these connections. Thousands of us gather together each year to share the stories that matter to us most.
Community. Connection. Stories. Your support makes that possible. Donate today.
About Litquake Litquake’s live programs bring people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuate a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. www.litquake.org
