Smart Gals

Smart Gals and Creepy LA creator David Markland, invite you to our first ever, haunted Speakeasy. From live ghost stories told by local impresarios including Will Campbell, Michael Imlay & Joe Oesterle, to the tantalizing tunes of Odious Ari & the
Syphilitic Syncopaths, the thrills and skills of Spectre, and original a...rtwork by Sarah Heller, AIA, the Speakeasy promises stimulating conversation and stylish company.

See you there, if you dare…

Password:
“I fear to remember, but I dare not forget.”

Admission is a mere fifteen dollars at the door.

Details abound at http://www.smartgals.org/

Brave enough to be part of the inner circle? Sign up to volunteer!
Just make your intentions clear to christine@smartgals.org.





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We labor to support ourselves. We labor to earn leisure. We labor for things we believe in, striving toward an esteemed goal. As Labor Day approaches, Smart Gals and Future Studio invite you to come work with us. Side by side, we’ll stitch together Smart Gals’ ever-expanding Reading Preserve, a temporary sanctuary de...dicated to the simple pleasure of the printed page, designed by visual artist Edith Abeyta. Constructed from found fabric and repurposed books, the Reading Preserve is a handcrafted, flexible installation featuring quotes from our audience’s favorite books and random bits of text. The Reading Preserve will return to its annual home at the West Hollywood Book Fair in October, but rather than present it to you, we invite you to participate in its creation. Our process is manifold. Guests can help us sew, weave a paper ground cover, type literary passages onto fabric or simply read aloud from a cherished book. Borrowing a page from 19th century Cuba, reading aloud to workers in the tradition of “el lector” reminds us that stimulating the mind while the body labors can be subversive and sublime. The cost of admission is low. Simply bring a book you’re ready to part with and barter it for another. Leftover volumes will be folded into Future Studio’s Abandoned Phone Booth Lending Library. Should the evening appeal to your social senses, please drop by between 7:00pm and 10:00pm to swap a book and see the work in its various stages of completion. Come October, harvest the fruits of our labor when we can rest and read silently together in the sanctuary of The Reading Preserve.Read More

Celebrate days of sunshine and ease at Smart Gals’ Summer Speakeasy, Sunday July 26!

Win a homemade cake in our good, old-fashioned Cake Walk, set to the live sounds of The Petrojvic Blasting Company. Plan unusual pop-culture outings with southern California based author Chris Epting, and take home a brand new piece of ...art commissioned by graphic designer Allision Moryl.

Cakes are coming from Cake Divas, Big Man Bakes and we'll even have a guest-starring "pie" in the cake lineup courtesy of Frankie and Tiny's!

Details abound at http://www.smartgals.org/ .

It wouldn’t be summer without you…so come mix, mingle, swoon, shine Sunday July 26.
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…Spread the Word

L.A.’s intentionally lowbrow, literally underground literary salon returns! Now running
as a seasonal series, Smart Gals’ Speakeasy celebrates National Poetry Month with its
fourth annual Dead Poets Slam. Year one, the Suicide Poets stood down the Natural
Death Poets by but a few points. Year two, the Men ...took on the Women. Year three
pitted East Coast against West Coast. And now, Smart Gals’ Spring Speakeasy presents a
fresh challenge, ripe for a country with new leadership: Citizens vs. Expatriates.
Many and mythic are the artists, writers, and otherwise sensitive types who have fled
these United States to seek creative support and more responsive international audiences.
Recall Langston Hughes’ Parisian sojourns, Hemingway’s romance with Spain. Smart
Gals will pit die-hard American denizens against those who chose to disembark. Our
criteria? The poet in question must live abroad for no less than four years, the length of
one presidential term. Can poet-of-the-plains Carl Sandburg defeat Eurocentric Gertrude
Stein? When dead poets enter the slam ring, there is no sure victor.

Hosted by Noël Alumit (Letters to Montgomery Clift, Talking to the Moon), the Dead
Poets Slam levels the creative playing field by forcing seasoned performers to throw
down anonymously. The words speak for themselves and our panel of “celebrity” judges
including Caley O'Dwyer Feagin, Clifford
Johnson, and Sandra Zane of Global Literary Management (swayed by a vocal
audience) determines the winner. Featuring performances by cutthroat Kathleen Coyne,
dashing David Balkan, elusive Lana Buss, no-holds-barred Terri Harrah, meter-savvy
David O’Shea, silver-tongued Lori Yeghiayan, and local live poets Brendan
Constantine, S.A. Griffin and Imani Tolliver the Dead Poets Slam never disappoints.

Live music is a must. The Red Maids will open and close the night with their gently
heart-breaking, victrola-inspired songs. http://www.myspace.com/redmaids

Guests will take home a commemorative artwork from a selection of “dead” Bookmarks
from Smart Gals’ archive.

Pleasing, nonalcoholic refreshments and savory comestibles will be provided. Should you
desire a more spirited beverage, by all means bring it along but do stash it discreetly in a
brown paper bag.

Password:
“A poem should be equal to: Not true.”

Why socialize on a Sunday? Because mingling is good for your mental health.

***

Admission: $15.00

Information and passwords available at 323.302.2257 or www.smartgals.orgRead More