crawling on Valencia

Tired but a little bit giddy from a very enjoyable evening at the Lit Crawl on Valencia in the Mission. This is an annual event that caps off the end of Lit Quake's week-plus of literary events in San Francisco. The Lit Crawl is a marathon of poetry and prose: three hour-long phases, ten simultaneous venues during each phase, four to six readers at each venue.

I don't usually go in for the Lit Quake thing — it's all a bit Official Literary Scene — but my friend Hoa (not to be confused with that other poetess Hoa Nguyen) was reading in the second phase and I wanted to show my support. She put on a great performance, taking the podium with confidence and giant can of Sapporo. She connected with the audience so well, in fact, that when she and I and a couple other friends headed off to the next venue, we had managed to attract a couple hangers-on. Very fun meeting new people, barhopping, getting home at midnight.