Fresno Famous

Open mic

Javawava across from Fresno High has an open mic on Wednesdays at 7pmish. Singers, players, spoken word all get time there. Small place, fills up nicely with a great crowd.

Valley Literary Listserv

Just in case folks may not know, Poets & Writers Magazine set up a YahooGroups Valley Literary Listserv where tons of poetry and other literary related events are posted on a near-daily basis. It's a great place to find out about what's happening, or to post questions. There are about 70 members. Many of them are from Fresno, but there are folks from Bakersfield to Sacramento as well. Here's how to get on the list. Simply go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/valleylitlist/

and sign up. If you don't already have a YahooGroups account, you'll need to set one up. It's a really simple process.

The listserve name is:

valleylitlist@yahoogroups.com

Once you're signed up, you would simply send your posts to that address.

If you think that you or others would be interested in participating, please help us to spread the word. It's a great chance for us to pull together and support each others' efforts. Join in the discussion!

Any questions, just ask.

~C

http://www.cindywathen.com

Co-author of REMEMBERING CESAR: THE LEGACY OF CESAR CHAVEZ
The first book to be endorsed by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation

Available through Amazon, your local bookseller, or direct from the publisher at Quill Driver Book

Another Idea... which, that and a quarter, will get you... um...

There are a lot of places also up in your neck of the woods (depending upon where your exact neck is a neckin,)

--That are small start up businesses (I happened to be riding home from the gf's church the other sunday, and saw 'Lucy's Lair,' (Edlove did a write up on it, I think,) Ethiopian chow, was spoken of pretty favorably there for a bit...

--It's definitely up in the heart of the NE, (and) may be a nice outpost by which to start something up.
(like once a month, and sync it up with ArtHop el Norte) the one that is on the opposite Thursday of the regular ArtHop,)
-From there you can put up notes (if they have bulliten boards) in Borders and Barnes and Noble (as well as other places where literary types are likely to be sittin, dog-earing the magazines,)
-which may generate some buzz that way.

Strangely enough, -I recall a million years ago, when Borders was just openning up back in NJ,
-they had a lot of live performances and poetry reads, open to anyone. (lotsa suburban angst and cubicle/minivan/coming out of the closet as 'really liking dark straight black coffee, no longer shaving the legs, and now reading Ayn Rand type stuff...)
(...yes, there were Nirvana CD's sold that night... yeppir.)

-Does Borders still do that sort of thing out here???

(am thinking of more of a ukranian sort of deep, sub zero with strong crosswinds 'ooot-vey,' (muttered with heavy accent over coffee mixed with pine-tar, while chewing on a piece of kielbasa, eating a tomato, and staring off at a frozen horizon, leaning on the hood of a large, now silent former soviet tundra truck... dah...)

oh...

And thanks for the heads up about cafe corazon, as well as the compliment.

It's not the section

Good point OOTV (hehe, say it loud and it sounds awesome "oot vee")

It's not that I don't enjoy my neighborhood, I love it. Close to work, close to other... places...? No, to be honest I just don't enjoy riverpark tat much. Although, I have oticed a decrease in the amount of scantily clad 14 year olds there, as well as a decrease in the a mount of sleazy guys that are trying to pick up on them... This is a good sign! If riverpark keeps evolving like that, I may just end up liking then darn place!

(now what they need is a place for live music... maybe replace the grass that no one is allowed on?)

they've already got a monthly thing going...

CafeCorazon

At risk of sounding like a shareholder in the place (I'm not, though by the degree of pastry flakes in the cockpit of the jetta, you'd think they bribe me with croissants.)
Liz is an astonishing woman in the kitchen... (well, she's astonishing anyways, (what, you thought it was the caffiene that keeps Leo grinning so much?)

CafeCorazon has a monthly open mike night, is open late (midnightish) Friday and Saturday Nights, --and so far their poetry/spoken word/whatever nights have gone quite well.

Excellent food, (brkfst/lnch/sandwiches/pastries) (soups and quiche for brkfst and lunch etc.)
--and stunning coffee.

The atmosphere is elegant and quite cozy, is a natch for small venue (spokenword/accoustic mild elect.) performances, and (again,) is basically plug-n-play in terms of venue ready.

-They're down on the Fulton Mall (gasp-horrors, the monsters (that don't exist,) will gobble up the local villagers (who are strangely absent as well.) -call them at the 'Fulton Cafe/Fulton Mall' number.

They've got good business going on business days, but things get a bit quieter after folks book back to their humble (and not so humble) abodes, --though, again, their open mic nights have been well attended, and their ArtHop nights also bring in a nice crowd, (I think they're open M-thru-Th till Eight, Fri-Sat till Midnight, and Sundays till late afternoon...

PS:
Regarding the 'ashamed to live near Riverpark,'

Don't be.

-Fresno is Fresno is Fresno.
The sooner folks around here stop yapping and grousing about living in one section or another (and demanding some sort of cultic allegiance for one neighborhood, or (in the case of Riverpark,) AGAINST another, the place will grow up beyond the seventh grade, and people will be a lot less (needlessly) guilt ridden and just plain enjoy the town.)
--This is not to say that folks can't LOVE their section that they live in, (that's great,) -but doing such with contrast (against) another section is just moronic and backward...

(And TellTale, you seem hardly moronic and backward ;)
-specially with flower pedals, poetry, and candles being used to romance the missus... (sly dog, you.)