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.

Permalink: http://kayester.blogspot.com/2013/03/chavisa-woods-albino-album-release.htm

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.