Sue Katz: Consenting Adult

REVIEW: “Seven Guitars” by August Wilson in Boston

Boston area people: If you want a superb theatre experience, see if you can score tickets to “Seven Guitars” by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, appearing at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall.

All the best elements are here: spot-on direction by Maurice Emmanuel Parent, seven remarkable actors, perhaps the finest 20th Century playwright August Wilson, and an intimate community theatre in which every seat is a good seat.

One of Wilson’s ten “Century Cycle” plays set in subsequent decades, “Seven Guitars” starts with the funeral of Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton and then looks back at what led to this budding musician’s death. All the action takes place in the backyard of a house in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where both August Wilson and I (two years later) were born.

This production perfectly catches every nuance and complication in Wilson’s incomparable writing. Hurry to experience this reasonably affordable, accessible night out (there’s an elevator and plenty of free nearby parking); this show ends March 5th.

100 words on my 75th birthday & a nude photo

No, I don’t look back. I look forward, a bit frantically, squinting as the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter. Based on my parents’ deaths, I give myself until 85. I have so much to do: books to finish and write, wrongs to right, asses to kick, capitalism to defeat, dances to lead, and health to hold steady -- all hard to do as mortality closes in on me. Plus, I need hugs with friends in far countries. You tell me: Have I changed much since I was 22, sitting in a window frame, tripping on acid?

                                                                                               

"The Orphans Club"

My short story THE ORPHANS CLUB is published today in "A Plate of Pandemic: creativity in a time of crisis." You can read it here.
https://plateofpandemic.com/the-orphans-club/

 

 

Forgot to tell you about the Queer Cabaret tonight/tomorrow!

Oops, I completely forgot to blog about my inclusion in a stunningly talented line-up for the Queer Cabarets, produced by Peter DiMuro. What a great way to celebrate Pride and of course everyone is welcome.

This will be a fabulous Queer Cabaret - singing, dancing, drag queens, comedians - and me (!). I perform on Friday June 17 and Saturday June 18 (6:00 and again 8:30 both nights). It's not too late for you to get tickets for the Central Square Theater.

The shows will feature  area and national LGBTQ+ community members, ages 20’s to 70’s and from all points on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Expect wonderful performances - can we say high-heeled pole-dancing meets Cole Porter? - along with the funny and often poignant reflections on gay to queer lives over the span of 100 years.

Here’s the direct link for getting tickets:

https://ci.ovationtix.com/2462/production/1126320

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas Boyfriend

This short story was the result of an exercise this morning which allowed 10 minutes to write a story in response to the PROMPTS below. It's loosely based on an experience I had in the 70s.

 

 

• Depression
• Window
• Better

My dad was scarcely speaking to me because he had forbidden me to go out with Jonesy, who was a Gentile, as anyone could see from the cross he wore around his neck. My mother had saved the day by insisting that stopping me from seeing him would only end in me sneaking around and not telling them much.

I was in seventh heaven, such a handsome blond boyfriend, and that afternoon I sat by the window watching for Jonesy to arrive. I was sure he was going to invite me to his house for Christmas dinner. He hadn’t stopped talking about it. All his cousins, even the ones from other cities, would be there. It would be wild. It would be delicious. He’d get great presents.

Finally he arrived, almost two hours late. I had fallen into a depression, afraid that he wasn’t going to come at all, but little did I know he was bringing bad news along with a pretty, wrapped box.

“Sorry,” he said, “you’re not invited. My parents said it wouldn’t be right to have a Jew at the table during Christmas. That it would piss off Santa and that Jesus would never have allowed it.”

“But, but, Jesus himself was Jewish!” I said.

Jonesy’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell kind of thing is that to say?! Why are you insulting our Lord?”

“No, really, Jonesy, it’s true.”

He grabbed back the colorful box – I hadn’t even had time to open it – and asked me, “So tell me, why did you people kill Christ, anyway?” He didn’t wait for an answer, just stomped out, shouting, "Never mind. Merry Christmas!”

 

The Lipstick Assault in Serene Manor,

I am SO thrilled to see my short story The Lipstick Assault in Serene Manor, about being an old dyke in a nursing home, published in the September issue of the fantabulous Gertrude Press!!

Click to read and feel free to pass it on.

 

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston: A review in 100 words

This extraordinary collection of 21 short stories, including eight of Zora Neale Hurston’s “lost” tales, highlights the genius that cemented Hurston’s place among the top artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston’s command of vernacular adds oomph to her vivid portraits of mean men, gutsy women, and fraught families, which she could sketch in a sentence. Jealousy and love are strong components of her emotional palette, not the least in the heart-wrenching “Under the Bridge.” The multiplicity of relationships in this volume exist without the slightest nod to the “white gaze” – the literary concept Toni Morrison later defined and avidly rejected.

My Pandemic Calm in Exactly 50 Words

This piece was published on the Boston Book Festival website in a section about being at home during the pandemic. This link leads you to the 10 chosen stories. Here's mine:

My Pandemic Calm in Exactly 50 Words

My underlying condition keeps me inside, overlooking Spy Pond from my seventh story window. I am calm, used to living alone in a room, used to being alone as a writer. I’ve been content, prepared for the long haul, until I saw the mouse. Now every shadow is an enemy.

 

 

Book Review: YOU’VE GOT THE TIME: How to Write and Publish That Book in You by Ken Wachsberger

YOU’VE GOT THE TIME:
How to Write and Publish That Book in You
by Ken Wachsberger

Ken Wachsberger is a prolific writer, a sharp-eyed editor, an encouraging book cheerleader, a popular public speaker, and a union activist. His projects have been creatively varied – and now he has produced a book to help you make your writing dreams come true: YOU’VE GOT THE TIME: How to Write and Publish That Book in You.

Wachsberger wants to share the knowledge he has gained about writing and publishing books with the world. If you’re looking to write a book and don’t know where to start; or if you’ve already produced books and would like to have a book buddy for the next one; or if you’ve got the book written but need to know the ABCs of getting it out – then this book is for you.

From constructing a writing environment that encourages your creativity to learning how to use titles and subtitles to your advantage, Wachsberger has the 411 on the nuts and bolts of publication and promotion. His writing is accessible and his opinions are informed and reliable. YOU’VE GOT THE TIME is structured so that you can dip into it as needed – although you will probably want to do a full read-through early in the game.

Full disclosure: Ken and I met through a writers’ union. Years later we jumped hand-in-hand into the world of self- and indie-publishing and most recently he edited my latest book A Raisin in My Cleavage: short & shorter stories. We really bonded over his profoundly important initiative, amassing a digital collection of “alternative” publications ranging from underground counter-culture rags to anti-war and anti-racist magazines to the women’s movement and gay liberation journals, including a number I wrote for in the 70s.

With this book he continues to “serve the people,” as we used to say. I know of no other single resource that not only offers you practical writing and publishing advice, but also includes stress relief, deciphering contracts, making money, and – every writer knows this is important – a chapter on “The Joy of Deleting.”

You can buy the book on Amazon Kindle for just $0.99 and the softcover for $15 today!

Words I Hate: Job Creator

Words I Hate: Job Creator

For years I have railed against particularly deceptive, misleading, euphemistic words and so I’m going to start an occasional series of blogs dealing with these words.

JOB CREATOR
Tom Steyer, the multi-billionaire vanity candidate for president who built his wealth as a hedge fund manager, has assaulted us with a barrage of TV and radio ads. He brags: “I started a tiny investment business and, over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars.” His argument is that he is a superior capitalist pig to tRump. With no governmental experience whatsoever, he brags that as a “job creator,” he is capable of running the world. His campaign has spent $17 million on ads so far.

What does it mean to be a job creator? McDonalds and Walmart and other minimum wage companies – they’re all job creators. They’re also union haters, do not pay a living wage to their employees, and in most cases offer no benefits. I don’t know how many or what type of jobs this Steyer “created” – these hedge funders usually just buy, ransack, and then sell companies. But what he really means is that he managed to exploit the labor of enough people to make him so rich that he can attempt to spend his way into the position of president of the USA. As a “job creator” he wants to create that one additional job – for himself.