Gimme that Cookie: Crown Heights’ Renegade Reading Series

At what other reading series for emerging writers can you drink some wine, eat some homemade cookies, and participate in an open competition for a gansta-smut novel found on the street? The Renegade Reading Series at the LaunchPad creative space in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights every third Wednesday of the month seems to be the locale numero uno — as shown by their latest rendition last week.

1. “Heyyyy!” Co-hosts Erika Anderson and Rich Moy 2. Stop it right there, Miah Arnold

The reading series opens its mic to up-and-comers, along with the occasional established author. The March 13th reading featured new work from a poet, two essayists, a short fiction writer, and a few character excerpts from Miah Arnold’s Sweet Land of Bigamy. It was all fresh and expressive, like Carole Nicksin’s recollection of her time touring as a Care Bear, or Kelly Rush’s satirical essay on the financial system.

1. When method acting meets Care Bears 2. A sign 3. A blurry Andrew Cothren

In between the writer’s sets, there were awesomely bad readings from the prize novel, A Sticky Situation (which the author dedicated to her children), and some of co-host Erika Anderson’s original high school “love” poetry, which she calls self-humiliation as comedy. She apparently envisioned love to be a “delicate flower” back in those days. After the reading, the novel was given away to the first person to guess co-host Rich Moy’s age in a sweet drumline photo of him in high school. He was 17 and rocking every stitch of that band uniform.

The event was laid back, the readers were on point, and the wine and cookies were offered with love. Not bad for a night reading in the heart of BK.

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— Sean Campbell lives, writes, and occasionally updates his blog in Bed-Stuy