(Maureen Blennerhassett)

Have you seen the Bay Citizen app that mystically predicts which of the many Bay Area reading series’ could be right for you? Pretty cool, right? What other region can boast such a densely packed lit-rich environment?

With so many reading series’ to choose from, hosts and curators need to bring in the heavyweights to attract a decent audience. One way to automatically guarantee this: put Sam Sax on the bill.

This past month’s installment of Bitchez Brew at Viracocha was EPIC. With only four shows under its belt, Bitchez Brew is one of the infants in the San Francisco literary events nursery. Co-curators Paul Corman-Roberts and Valerie Chavez know how to fill the seats though. On March 20^th the premise was Slams and featured several of my favorite poets/ex-slam poets/non-slam poets/non-poets.

So you missed the last show. Watch the videos! The next one is coming up soon: April 23 at Kaleidoscope Free Speech Zone, with another killer lineup: Chi’wan Choi, Lilycat, Jennifer Capo, Julie Michelle, Miguel Robles, Paul Corman-Roberts, Valerie Chavez, and a debut musical performance by writers Timothy Crandle and Lauren Becker as Starling.

A few more reasons why Bitchez Brew could be your new favorite reading series:

1. Live music

2. Format includes several readers with brief intros. Time frame of performances is about 10 minutes.

3. Nic Alea rocks my world.

4. According to their blog : “We haven’t had our ‘Howl @ the Gallery 6’ moment just yet, nor do we necessarily need it…we simply want to make good on the promise of then and now…”

5. When the evening is called SLAM…

6. Lauren Wheeler says she is an ex-slam poet. I don’t care how she defines herself; I just want to hear more.

6. Bitchez Brew is titled in honor of Miles Davis’ mind-bending fusion album.

7. “Sad little bitch thoughts”

8. The audience engages the readers and the readers respond (re: not boring).

9. Have you HEARD an Alia Volz story?

10.  “She only calls me when she’s drunk.”