Salon Julep has been postponed due to technical difficulties.
Gothic Funk Press would like to apologies for this disappointing turn of events, and will let you know as soon as we have resolved the issues and rescheduled the event!
In the meantime, guest mixologist Irène Hodes has recorded her presentation on the mint julep, which is a refreshing drink with a few simple ingredients and a compelling history. Watch Irène’s presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrgjV3oakSI&fbclid
The Gothic Funk Press is very pleased to announce the second installment of our new digital reading series, Salon Julep. This event will take place on Thursday, August 27th, 2020 at 8 PM EDT.
Inspired by a long-ago summer night of spirited storytelling, Salon Sangria will feature a guest mixologist and three guest readers.
Our reading will begin when our mixologist shows you how to make a delicious libation (of course, you are welcome to enjoy any food or drink you wish during the event.) Please check back soon for an ingredient list and notes for our themed drink. Then, potable in hand, you can kick back and enjoy some of the wonderful literary voices working in Flint, Michigan and beyond.
Salon Sangria can be streamed via Gothic Funk Press on YouTube.
Our August readers will be LaTashia Carter-Perry, Gemma Cooper-Novack, and Jan Worth-Nelson. Our guest mixologist will be Irène Hodes. Our host will be Gothic Funk Press Director Connor Coyne.
Please direct questions to connor@connorcoyne.com.
GUEST READERS
LaTashia Carter-Perry is the author of the Kids Like Mine series of books and the creator of the 4 Kids Like Mine brand, both aimed at empowering black and brown children to value and love themselves as they are through positive self-images.
Perry’s work has been featured in People magazine, and two of her books—Hair Like Mine and Skin Like Mine—have been translated into French. Perry has also been invited to Washington D.C. to discuss her work with the Congressional Black Caucus.
A graduate of Flint Southwestern Academy, Perry is a wife and mom of five. She says her hope is to leave each and every person she encounters “with the tools needed to love themselves as they were created; unconditionally and unapologetically.”
Perry’s books can be purchased here.
Gemma Cooper-Novack’s debut poetry collection We Might As Well Be Underwater, a finalist for the Central New York Book Award, was published by Unsolicited Press in 2017. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in more than twenty journals, including Glass, Midway Journal, and Lambda’s Poetry Spotlight, and been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net Awards. Published chapbooks include Too Much Like a Landscape (Warren Tales, 2015) and “Bedside Manner” (The Head and the Hand, 2020). Gemma’s plays have been produced in Chicago, Boston, and New York. She was a runner-up for the 2016 James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and has been awarded artist’s residencies from Catalonia to Virginia and a grant from the Barbara Deming Fund. Gemma is a doctoral candidate in Literacy Education at Syracuse University.
Gemma’s books can be purchased here and here.
For her entire adult life, Jan Worth-Nelson has been devoted to the power, beauty and possibility of the word. From her years as a reporter, Peace Corps volunteer, writing teacher at the UM – Flint, to the last six years as editor of Flint’s venerable East Village Magazine, Worth-Nelson has reveled in language and its connections to sustaining a compassionate, robust, democratic society. Her poems, short stories and essays have been widely published, with recent work appearing in Belt Magazine, Gravel, Nice Cage, Hypertext, and Happy Anyway: a Flint Anthology. Her 2017 poem “The Hilarious Funeral in LA” which appeared in Exposition Review, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Before the pandemic hit, she clings to two recent affirming and memorable events: the Flint Festival of Writers and, last summer, a tumble into the Flint River, where her kayak upended and she “survived,” along with her poet friend Sarah Carson, soggy and humbled, just after seeing a parade of blue herons and a bald eagle. It was worth it, since everything in this world is material, the writer’s goldmine. She lives in a beloved 1930s Flint house with her husband Ted.
Worth-Nelson’s books can be purchased here.
GUEST MIXOLOGIST
Irène Hodes, your proud virtual mixologist, has been many things. This current incarnation sees her as director of two film festivals and cultural events at the Sonoma County, California, Jewish Community Center. She spent over ten years in the wine industry, making, selling, and educating people about wine, as well as working in winery management. In the core of her being, she is a writer, artist, comedian, cook, traveler, wordsmith, and crossword puzzle enthusiast. During the pandemic she writes and edits a daily film and culture newsletter and is creating a virtual international film festival, (and drinks a lot of very fancy wine, craft beer, and artisanal spirits – it’s just what we do in Sonoma County).
INGREDIENT LIST AND NOTES
Ingredients
4 to 5 mint sprigs (leaves only)
2 sugar cubes (or 1/2 ounce simple syrup)
2 1/2 ounces bourbon whiskey
Garnish: mint sprig
*crushed ice* (actually almost a requirement)
Notes
Pewter or silver cup is traditional for good reason, but a highball will work if you don’t have a metal vessel.
Pour your favorite bourbon – it’s not the time to throw just anything in (like the sangria), as it’s the only liquid in the whole cocktail.
And there are methods of crushing ice that do not require electronic devices… so come right with your frustrations intact! Therapy is only a muddler away.