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(Nicole McFeely)

The Tenderloin is a prison of dirty windows. It is pigeons pecking at the flesh of discarded chicken bones lying next to human feces on the sidewalk, hunger stretching its terrible limbs block after block, shooting up in doorways, and choking on the smoke of the cigarettes held by hookers, advertising sex as others walk by, turning their heads only briefly—if at all. Briefcases, attempting to escape to later on or elsewhere, their faces glued to tiny screens in sad attempts to ignore the near tangible hum of apprehension all around them.

Some people are caught up in ignorance. Others are caught up ignoring.

Jonathan Hirsch, founder and host of the Tenderloin Reading Series, is not one of those people. Neither are Paul Corman-Roberts, Joel Landfield, Julie Michelle, William Taylor Jr., or Michael Warren Grant. People like this, people who pay attention, are dangerous, especially in numbers. Read the rest of this entry »

(Nicole McFeely)

Featured Event: Saturday, July 30th - Bay Area Poetry Marathon

Marathon is right. What used to be a weekend-long event in Boston has transformed into a momentous event in the Bay. With brief author introductions and a loooooong reading, this edition of The Bay Area Poetry Marathon features a wonderful lineup of up-and-coming and experimental authors, including Maxine Chernoff, Kevin Killian, and Dean Rader. For more information, read this profile or check out this review of their last show. Read the rest of this entry »

(Maureen Blennerhassett)

If you live in the Sunset, Pac Heights, North of the Panhandle, anywhere that doesn’t smell like piss: chances are you’re a little bit afraid of the Tenderloin.

Despite what the New York Times says, I’m not convinced that the neighborhood is pulling many tourists into its labyrinth. That’s okay with me though. The T.L. isn’t for everybody—drunks, public urination, buying-selling-smoking, squalor, homelessness, prostitution, sirens, fights, the blatancy of it all—yet some citizens with furniture and health insurance choose to live there. And I’m one of them (well, minus the health insurance).

So is Jonathan Hirsch, founder of the successful Tenderloin Reading Series. On Saturday the 19^th, the quarterly event celebrated its second anniversary. Despite the ominous pre-apocalyptic storm outside, diehard fans packed into Koko Cocktails to hear short stories, poems, and nonfiction celebrating the beautiful ugliness of San Francisco’s infamous neighborhood. Read the rest of this entry »