Gigantic Party

1. Babycastle’s arcade installation in the front room. 2. Another shot of the arcade! 3. Ann DeWitt, one of the editors of Gigantic, & Jerome Jakubiec, Gigantic’s photographer for the evening. Please note DeWitt’s awesome fringe dress.

Last night, the second-coolest lit mag in New York [ ; ) ], Gigantic, had a party to celebrate the release of their third issue. And when I say “party,” I don’t mean a few glasses of wine and some people standing around a bookstore. Instead, this was held in a warehouse-type deal at 285 Kent in North Williamsburg. There were bands, there was booze, there were DJs, there were even video games and a little bit of reading.

1. Settin up the stage, bro. 2. Peter Jurmu, who edits for Redivider and is working on his MFA at Emerson, & Keran Murray, who is a writer and a student at NYU.

I got there around 8:30, because I am a faithful journalist. Even at that early hour, the room was pretty full of listeners, looking at the new issue of Gigantic and drinking drinks. My friend and photographer for the night, Jana, and I got busy talking to people. A short while later, the readings began. The readers were Chloe Cooper Jones, John Dermot Woods, Lauren Spohrer, & Joshua Cohen, and each read a brief story (or stories) that was short, amusing, and enjoyable.

1. Dylan Angell, a wearer of many hats including Cowboy, Musician, and Illegitimate Writer, & Melissa Frost, who is a zine publisher. 2. Mary, a fiction writer, & Yohei, a professor of English Literature.

Afterward, the crowd (which had grown considerably) got ready to get down. Midnight Artist performed first, followed by NewVillager. Later in the night, The Kings County Society for Fitness, Science, and Musical Merriment DJed (composed of James Yeh and Lincoln Michel, who are both editors at Gigantic), promised a dance party until 4:30 am. A dance party made up of lit people sounded interesting, to say the least, but I cut out early because I had to go accept Jesus into my heart (just to be safe!).

–Julia Jackson is working on her MFA in fiction at Brooklyn College, and is a regular contributor for Electric Dish.

1. John Dermot Woods, reading, with his drawing behind him. 2. Readers Chloe Cooper Jones & Joshua Cohen.

1. Liz Tingue, who got her MFA from Columbia and is working on a novel about the first co-ed class of a boarding school in the 1990s, & Dylan Eckman, who works with men’s wear. 2. Vincent & Eric Lister, who is in the band NewVillager, which played at the party last night. 3. A close-up of Nick Kuszyk’s gigantic mural, which is called “Self Portrait as Max Fenton Mountain Blob.”