Dear Citizen,
The last year has been a busy one for the Gothic Funk Nation.
- We’ve seen two changes in venue (to Andersonville’s “Hopleaf”) for our Tuesday Funk reading series as it’s gotten bigger and better, and now averages about fifty attendees per reading. The last installment featured Marlon Carey, J-L Deher-Lesaint, Kristin Lueke, Arlene Malinowski, and Megan Stielstra.
- The creation and launch of our arts journal, The Paramanu Pentaquark (Issue #3 in production) has been featured in publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Centerstage Chicago, and Papua New Guinea Gossip, and has published dozens of musicians, writers, and artists from Hawaii to Manchester.
- A change in venue for the National Address reading circle / workshop to the Barista in Wicker Park. Several artists have brought their novels-, songs-, poems-, and ideas-in-progress to these welcoming and constructive sessions.
- We’ve thrown a variety of successful parties, from an absinthy magazine launch last February, to our lakeside Mutiny on the Bounty last August, to the more recent mystery of the Kaleidoscope (complete with midnight cemetery damps).
- While there’s been heavy involvement by longtime members, we’ve seen some new faces as well. Dion Mindykowski made the long trek from Michigan to read at the journal launch, Maggie Kast, William Shunn and others have become regular and eagerly anticipated readers at Tuesday Funk, and Richard Whaling and Elizabeth Moylan have upped their involvement, giving us a much needed adrenaline boost just as we’ve lost several active members to parenthood and the magnetism of foreign capitals.
Because we’ve been more busy of late, and because many leaders in this group have been going through major life changes (from having a child to purchasing a house) we’re taking a look at what can stay the same and what has to change. We ultimately decided to form a steering committee of five members who will:
– ensure that Gothic Funk projects are in communication with each other
– so far as is desirable, set agendas for the Nation as a whole and articulate this
– coordinate efforts to throw parties and cross-promote across different projects
– keep open lines of communication between participants and attendees
– explore and pursue a rigorous understanding of the words “gothic funk” in a contemporary context
I am happy to announce that we have finished assembling this committee as follows:
CONNOR COYNE, representative from The Paramanu Pentaquark arts journal
SKYLAR MORAN, representative from National Address reading circle
ELIZABETH MOYLAN, member-at-large
AMBER STAAB, member-at-large
REINHARDT SUAREZ, representative from Tuesday Funk reading series
We will send you updates from time to time about the choices we make and developments in the Nation, and will also be resuming monthly Announcement emails starting this February.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me at: connor@gothicfunk.org
Best wishes,
Connor Coyne
and
The Gothic Funk Nation Steering Committee
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