Event coordinator George Tysh introduces the evening’s readers.

Saturday, February 15th was the first spring installment of Evidence: New Writing in the Metro, a reading series which seeks to “reflect an impressive range of experimental writing in Southeast Michigan.” The evening’s pairing of writers was art critic, fiction writer and poet Lynn Crawford, with prose poet and EMU teacher Rob Halpern.

Lynn Crawford, mid-reading.

Crawford led off the evening’s activities, reading selections from her forthcoming novel Shankus & Kitto, a narrative that demonstrates, among other things, Crawford’s experiments in capturing the male voice. The opening salvos of the reading were evocative of Hemingway—arguably a classically “male” author—in their concise, clipped conveyance of detailed information (and indeed, some of Crawford’s previous work has drawn very directly from Hemingway). Augmenting this no-frills structure is a cascade of descriptors that is all Crawford’s own; each subject is embroidered with modifiers—people are granted descriptive adjectives, or neighborhoods described by their component businesses—usually in a rhythmic three-part cadence. This created a deeply engaged ambiance, punctuated only by laughter in response to Crawford’s playful phrasing and juxtaposition.

In a break between readings.

Following this lighthearted expression of human drama was Rob Halpern, whose quick-fire reading of new work covered a range of intense and intimate subject matter. Following the release of his work Music for Porn, Halpern found himself enmeshed in autopsy reports from Guantanamo Bay inmates, which formed the source material for this new body of work. Establishing a motif of sexual engagement with the subjects of these autopsies, Halpern’s reading was studded with harsh juxtapositions of suicide, viscera and bodily emissions. A challenging repertoire, softened somewhat by Halpern’s charming banter between pieces and strong engagement with his subject matter.

Rob Halpern, with dramatic subject matter and presentation.

Turbulent and exciting evidence, indeed! We can look forward to more from this reading series, with the next event to take place March 22nd. The evening will feature the presentation of two papers, by Vince Carducci and Michael Stone-Richards, respectively, both from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. The presentation will be moderated by Glen Mannisto, also of CCS.