Chavisa Woods' The Albino Album release party - part 2

So the readings were done, but we weren't ready to cut the cake - not yet anyway.

The celebration for the release of Chavisa Woods' The Albino Album was about to begin after Steve Dalachinsky read a lovely poem he composed in honor of the event.

The first part of the celebration was a pagan ritual whose aim was to ensure the success of the book The bartender, whose name I did not catch, is a priest of his faith. After preparing the ritual devices, including a special knife and blessed water, he enlisted people around him to don animal masks and and carry leafy branches to the stage where he marked out a sacred area in chalk, lit candles and intoned the holy words to evoke the gods he celebrates in support of Chavisa and her novel.


If you go all the way to the bottom, you can watch the rather bad video I made of part of this ritual.

Update: Seven Stories Press used some of my material - with my permission, of course - on their website. You can see it here.

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I captured much of it in photos and some in a jittery video. I am NOT a videographer, so if you watch, please keep this in mind.

Chavisa Woods' The Albino Album release party

Chavisa Woods holding a copy of The Albino Album

Just over a month ago there was a book release party and reading at Dixon Place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, to celebrate the publication of Chavisa Woods' second book, The Albino Album. Trumpets and huzzahs, please, because from what I've been told, the book deserves it. I haven't read it yet because I gave the copy I bought to my daughter.

It was an amazing group of people who gathered for the the event. They crossed between a couple of worlds: Queer NY and a branch of literary NY called the Unbearables, people associated with A Gathering of the Tribes and Steve Cannon, and of course, Chavisa's friends and family.

Here are photos of the readers and performers and some of the celebrants. I wish I knew the names of all the people I photographed. If you know and recognize some that I haven't tagged, I'd be happy to add their name.

Jim Feast - Master of Ceremonies

The book is published by Seven Stories Press available at fine independent bookstores such as Posman Books and the St. Marks Bookshop in NYC.

It is an exciting novel, and though at best I am only a friendly acquaintance of Chavisa's, I was happy to be part of the event.

The final part of the event was a pagan ritual to bless the book and Chavisa with luck and prosperity. I'll get those up soon.

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Ron Kolm

Dorothy Friedman

Steve Cannon and Chavisa Woods

Steve Dalachinsky

Abandoned Railroad - Buffalo NY March 2013

When I was a student in Buffalo, NY, I lived a few blocks from this location. There were several rail lines crossing and intersecting. There was lots of debris: heaps of rail ties, piles of gravel, other worn out equipment that held the track to the ties, and trash, but no brush, no young trees, and it felt like you could see forever. Mile-long freight trains passed through at night, rumbling and clicking on the tracks, one passing under, two passing over in opposite directions. It was hypnotic.

Now, there's this.

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