Rock the Verbs

Amber Tamblyn (daughter of Russ, for all you Twin Peaks fans), is best known for starring in Joan of Arcadia (now cancelled) or perhaps for the film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Tamblyn is also a poet, with the collection Free Stallion to her credit and appearances in The New York Quarterly and The Last American Valentine. Young actresses crafting poetry instead of making the club scene is progress we can believe in, people. And while it's easy to think her celebrity aided her publication, it's also cynical. Have you read her work? "Not asking for eternity in the lunchboxes of future children but/face me/when you're fucking me./No more imagining./I deserve to watch your lips stumble," Tamblyn writes in Face Me, and it's clear she's pulling few, if any, punches on the page. No sad half-rhymes about tigers or the moon here, but the raw beat poetics of a writer who's willing to expose herself in the name of communication. Tamblyn and fellow poet Derrick Brown are storming the country on a reading/performance tour, which stops in St. Louis at 8 p.m. at a location known as the Secret Poetry Loft (1531 Washington Avenue). You need to call #669 to be buzzed in, and you need to bring $6 and your own drinks. And don't be a dick: Come for the poetry, not to be seen. For more information, visit www.rebelasylum.com.
Sat., March 7, 2009