Sister Spit: The Next Generation (4/18/2007)

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 02:23:00 +0000

Columbia, Missouri

Some of you may have heard about the original Sister Spit tours in the mid- and late-1990’s. The tours were organized punk-rock band-style: a shoddy van with nights spent sleeping on floors of anarchist collectives and punk houses, but instead of music these tattoo-clad queer folks delivered words from their newly published books. Original Sister Spitters, Michelle Tea, Abi Liebegott & Eileen Myles join with five, young, twenty-something female writers, many anthologized in Michelle Tea’s edited volume, Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing, to share a new era of exciting writing in Sister Spit: The Next Generation.

The Rag Tag Cinema in Columbia, MO pays honor to its name: its insides are filled to the brim with mismatched comfy furniture for its patrons to watch movies on a large screen. For the Sister Spit tour, the space was filled to capacity with hott dykes, fags, transfolk, and other fans ready to take in the writings of these eight writers. Michelle Tea played the part of MC introducing each writer who read to the crowd from zines, books and folded up sheets of paper. As each writer delivered her work, she left the audience hanging in the hopes that we would buy her work to hear “the rest of the story.”

Nicole Georges, author of the zine eminvincible began the performance with a hilarious tale of moving after a tumultuous break-up with her girlfriend. Canadian writer, Robin Akimbo (pictured above), delivered her work next, a story about doing laundry in public and the negotiating that takes place when a creepy guy insists on talking to you. Rhiannon Argo and Tamara Llosa-Sandor presented their work next before some of the old skool “stars” hit the stage. Abi Liebegott read from her new novel The IHOP Papers, and the crowd laughed along hearing about the shenanigans of pissed off diner waitresses. Eileen Myles shot poems from her mouth in caffeinated blurts, while Michelle Tea read the hot teenage-girl-on-teenage-girl first kiss section of her newest novel, Rose of No Man’s Land. The night ended with slides and words from punk rock illustrator extraordinaire, Cristy Roads, who chose to read an excerpt from her new book, Indestructible.

I left the free show with a lighter wallet. Yes, I hit the merch booth with a vengeance. Don’t worry, if you live on the East Coast, you have almost a dozen more opportunities to catch these ladies live. And rumor has it that they are planning an October tour. Keep an eye out on their website (www.sisterspitnextgen.com) to see if they are coming to a college or community space near you.

Written by: Ailecia Ruscin, April 29th 2007