Visit LitMore for Nearby Readings

This past weekend it was almost impossible to get anyone to go anywhere outside of Charles Village, or even leave their rooms or the library for that matter. Perhaps that’s a sign that I’m friends with too many neuro majors, perhaps it’s just Hopkins, but anyhow, it led me to decide that the best way to get people to go to events with me would be to find something that would be as tame and short as possible.

Some time ago I had been looking for readings to attend in Baltimore, just to hear what non-Hopkins writers from the city sound like. I found several through Facebook that were happening not far from campus. One of these was a reading, part of the Federal Dust reading series, at LitMore in Hampden. I had no idea what the quality would be like, but I figured that since it was Friday night, I could drink the pain away if it ended up being too awful. I managed to bully my friend Simon into going with me as well. (At first I offered Pizza Studio as payment, but he was too nice to accept.)

LitMore hosts writers’ retreats, workshops and a number of readings every week. The building used to be an auto dealership so it’s quite odd looking.

“We’re going to be late,” Simon told me while we walked. “Are you sure you still want to go?”

“We’re going,” I said firmly. As we approached, we could see rows of folding chairs set up through the large windows of the former showroom of the dealership. There were a few people scattered here and there inside, but nothing appeared to be happening.

“I guess maybe we’re not late,” I said. “Let’s give it a few minutes.” And so we waited. There were Nattys you could get for a donation of a dollar, and Franzia. We each took a Natty.

People slowly trickled in over the course of the next 10 or 20 minutes. After awhile, the place was full, and we didn’t feel nearly so out of place, although we were almost certainly the youngest people there. The crowd was pretty typical for Station North or Hampden. A significant portion of the people were dressed fit to haunt Gilman Hall.

Eventually a man stood and announced that they would begin. He drew the first name from a cup after shaking it.

The first man, Michael Morse, read from a book he had recently published. He was alright. His poems sounded quite similar to what you often hear at Hopkins graduate readings, but that could have been the way that he read them, not the words.

Next was a woman who had been sitting directly in front of Simon and me, Niina Pollari according to the Facebook event page. She confessed to nervousness before starting to read, which was charming, and the reading itself was better than charming. I don’t know whether it was the subject — one poem was about pretending to be pregnant while drinking in public, another prominently featured blood ­— or her voice. She was rather better than most poets I’ve heard at readings. Either way, hands down wonderful. She also gave us all her phone number and told us to call her about anything between then and April 11, when her tour would end. I plan on calling her.

The third reader was a man. He was very quiet but read a long poem that had prostitutes in it, which was very nice. The last reader was a woman who tried very hard but wasn’t terrifically good. At the end, Simon and I took down the second poet’s number, contemplated buying her book but realized we had no money (a common problem), and left.

“I’m glad I went,” Simon said.

“Me too.”

If you’re interested in going to the next installment of the Federal Dust reading series, you can find the series on Facebook very easily. LitMore also has events both for writers and readers; I can’t speak for its quality all the time, but it’s worth checking out if you have some extra time on a weekend.