Quiet Lightning commandeered the neighborhood dive El Rio for its monthly reading series. In the afternoon there were writers posted at typewriters (will type for donations, will type for the love of it…). When the sun dipped (and the temperature dropped with it), an uncustomary hush fell over the usually raucous patio and Quiet Lightning’s literary mixtape began to play.

Sharon Coleman by Gracie Malley. Click for more photos.

I found myself shuffling from standing directly under a patio heat lamp to standing three feet away from it. I had scrawled the note, “My girlfriend is a lizard” in my notebook. This had seemed important. Like all mixtapes, there was something for everyone, and I found gems (Peter Bullen’s piece, “Unglued,” and Siamak Vossoughi’s “Secretly Secretly” were two of my favorites). As with every Quiet Lightning mixtape, copies of the beautiful sparkle + blink were distributed for free.

The show was curated by Kristen Kramer + Sarah Carpenter and held on June 3rd, 2014. Featuring:

Peter Bullen » Moneta Goldsmith » Xan Roberti » Sharon Coleman » Andrena Zawinski » Emma Winsor Wood » John-vincent Greco » Marcus Lund » Tomas Moniz » Siamak Vossoughi » Jen Sullivan Brych » Mr(s) Tisatula

read the show

Next up for Quiet Lightning:

• July 12 @ Oakstop, part of Beast Crawl | Submit by Wed Jun 11
• August 7 @ Contemporary Jewish Museum • Neighborhood Heroes

•

Christopher Patrick Steffen is a bartender in San Francisco. He wrote the short story collection Thank You for Supporting Our Dreams and the novel The End of All Things Planned For.