Saturday Night Special, A “Surreal” Open Mic

At Saturday Night Special, we have always valued diversity, inclusivity, fairness, and social justice. In the wake of recent events, it feels important to reaffirm this commitment.

When choosing the “surreal” theme for the final Saturday Night Special of 2016, there was no way of knowing how appropos it would turn out to be. According to Merriam Webster, “surreal” means “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream; also : unbelievable, fantastic.” Sound about right?

In a time when so many of us have been casting about for light, let’s gather together in the stuffed afterglow of the Thanksgiving holiday, to drink and share some words. This month, you are invited to bring us your surreal poems, your irrational rants, your unbelievable stories, or whatever you like.

As always, we’d love to hear your (three-minute) poems, stories, comedic sketches, songs, or dances on our optional theme (or any topic).

Our November features are: Hugh Behm Steinberg +TBA
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First come first served. Sign-up starts at 7pm and closes when it fills up or when the reading starts, so get there early if you want to read! (Note: Sometimes the list is full by 7:03pm)

Each reader will have 3 minutes maximum. For prose writers this is about one and a half double-spaced pages.

PLEASE NOTE: We are strict about the 3 minute max. When you reach your time limit at SNS, we turn on the disco lights! So, please plan ahead. Practice your piece out loud. Time yourself. Dance!

After the reading, stick around for karaoke starting at 10pm

Saturday, November 26th, 2016
7 – 9:30 pm

Nick’s Lounge (21+)
3218 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA
1 block south of Ashby BART
Between Fairview St & Martin Luther King Jr Way

FREE!
But bring CASH if you want to buy drinks (which you sort of have to, because there’s a 1-drink minimum!)

Hosted by Hollie Hardy

Please help out by liking our FB page, where you can also find more details and photos from past events:

https://www.facebook.com/Saturday-Night-Special-an-East-Bay-open-mic-112174188880786/

BIOS

Hugh Behm-Steinberg is the author of two books of poetry: Shy Green Fields (No Tell Books) and The Opposite of Work (JackLeg Press), as well as three Dusie chapbooks, Sorcery, Good Morning! and The Sound of Music. His prose can be found in Psychopomp, The East Bay Review, Joyland, Gravel, Sand, Vestal Review and Gigantic. His short story “Taylor Swift” won the 2015 Barthelme Prize from Gulf Coast. He is a member of the non-ranked faculty collective bargaining team at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where he edits the journal Eleven Eleven.