CCLaP Weekender: September 12, 2014

CCLaP Weekender

From the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

September 12, 2014

New fiction by Oliver Zarandi Photography by Wolfwendy Chicago literary events calendar

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THIS WEEK’S CHICAG

For all events, visit [cclapce

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 12pm Tavis Smiley

Union League Club / 64 W. Jackson / Free ulcc.org The popular PBS host discusses his new book, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year.

6:30pm America Hart and Scott Blackwood

City Lit Books / 2523 N. Kedzie / Free citylitbooks.com The authors read from their work.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 10am Claudia Martinez, Crystal Chan and Natasha Tarpley

Everybody's Coffee / 935 W. Wilson / Free bookcellarinc.com The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators presents this panel discussion. For more information see the website at the Book Cellar, the store providing the books for sale that day.

5pm Crazy Horse's Girlfriend Release Party

City Lit Books / 2523 N. Kedzie / Free citylitbooks.com Join Erika T. Wurth for the release party of her debut novel, Crazy Horse's Girlfriend. Also featuring performances from Lindsay Hunter, Samantha Irby and Jac Jemc.

6pm American Nature Release Party

Challengers Comics / 1845 N. Western / Free challengerscomics.com Join Greg, Fake, Dave Landsberger and Marc Koprinarov for the release party of their anthology comic, American Nature. Free liquor will also be on hand.

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GO LITERARY EVENTS

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7pm Quraysh Ali Lansana Release Party

Logan Center for the Arts / 915 E. 60th / Free arts.uchicago.edu Join Quraysh Ali Lansana for the release of his newest book of poetry, coinciding with his 50th birthday. Also featuring Angela Jackson, Elise Paschen, avery r. young, In the Spirit, Team REBIRTH, and DJ Ayana Contreras. Co-sponsored by the Guild Complex.

7pm Writing Matters: Betsy Woodman

Ernest Hemingway Museum / 200 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park / $10 booktable.net This month the regular reading series features Betsy Woodman, discussing her new India-set novel Emeralds Included. Also featuring Indian finger food. $10 reservation fee.

7pm Dollhouse Reading Series

2265 W. Leland #1 / Free thedollhousereads.tumblr.com This month's show features Daniel Borzutzky, Patrick Culliton, Nicole Wilson and Becca Klaver.

10pm Open Mic

Delphic Arts Center / 5340 W. Lawrence / $10 facebook.com/delphicarts A monthly late-night open mic for poetry, music, comedy and more.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 3:30pm Roald Dahl's Birthday Party

Women & Children First / 5233 N. Clark / Free

womenandchildrenfirst.com Celebrate author Roald Dahl's birthday, and the 50th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with free cake, face painting, storytelling and more. Hosted by popular children's entertainer Miss Mack.

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6pm Where To? A Hack Memoir Release Party

Rainbo Club / 1150 N. Damen / Free curbsidesplendor.com Join Curbside Splendor for the release party of Dmitry Samarov's Where To? A Hack Memoir.

7pm Serving the Sentence

Towbar / 1500 W. Jarvis / $5 storyclubchicago.com A reading series where all writers begin their pieces with the exact same sentence. Hosted by Kendra Stevens and Maggie Jenkins as a part of Story Club Chicago. The $5 cover is donated to a different charity each month.

7pm Uptown Poetry Slam

The Green Mill / 4802 N. Broadway / $7, 21+ slampapi.com International birthplace of the poetry slam. Hosted by Marc Smith.

7pm Asylum

Le Fleur de Lis / 301 E. 43rd / $10

lefleurdelischicago.com A weekly poetry showcase with live accompaniment by the band Verzatile.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 7pm

Essay Fiesta!

The Book Cellar / 4736 N. Lincoln / Free essayfiesta.com This month's show, hosted by Karen Shimmin and Willy Nast, features personal essays by Andrew Marikis, Stephanie Chavara, Christine Simokaitis, Paul Whitehouse and Kate Harding.

8:30pm Open Mic

Kafein Espresso Bar / 1621 Chicago Ave., Evanston kafeincoffee.com Open mic with hosts Chris and Kirill.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 6pm Brigid Pasulka

Harold Washington Public Library / 400 S. State / Free chipublib.org The author reads from her new book, The Sun And Other Stars.

7pm Write Club

The Hideout / 1354 W. Wabansia / $10, 21+ writeclubrules.com The popular "literary competition" this month features Emily Rose, J.W. Basilo, Chris Schoen, Whit Nelson, Sean Cooley and Ian Belknap. $10 cover, 21 and over only.

7:30pm Homolatte

Tweet Let's Eat / 5020 N. Sheridan / Free homolatte.com This month's show features Chris Koz and Katie Hibben. Hosted by Scott Free. Enter through Big Chicks at the same address.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 5:30pm Douglas Kearney and Ruth Ellen Kocher

Columbia College's Stage Two / 618 S. Michigan, 2nd Floor / Free colum.edu The poets read from their newest books, Patter and Ending in Planes.

7pm Poets Club of Chicago Takeover Edition

The Book Cellar / 4736 N. Lincoln / Free bookcellarinc.com The store's regular "Local Author Night" is taken over by the Poets Club of Chicago, to celebrate their 78th anniversary anthology, Skylines. Featuring performances from Jan Ball, Susan Cherry, Maureen Flannery, Pamela Miller, Charlie Newman, Jenene Ravesloot, Tom Roby IV, and Beth Staas.

7:30pm Story Lab

Black Rock / 3614 N. Damen / Free storylabchicago.com This month's show features Emily Brouilette, Tyler Clark, Penny Fields, Johnnie Grozenski, Justin Sikes and Elise Taylor.

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7:30pm Palabra Pura: Calling Home

Poetry Foundation / 61 W. Superior / Free poetryfoundation.org The performance artist features her newest piece. Also featuring performances from Ana Castillo, Paul Martinez Pompa and Cristina Correa.

7:30pm Toni McNaron

Women & Children First / 5233 N. Clark / Free

womenandchildrenfirst.com The author reads from her newest book, Into the Paradox: Feminist Politics, Conservative Spirit.

9pm In One Ear

Heartland Cafe / 7000 N. Glenwood / $3, 18+ facebook.com/pages/In-One-Ear Chicago's 3rd longest-running open-mic show, hosted by Pete Wolf and Billy Tuggle.

To submit your own literary event, or to correct the information on anything you see here, please drop us a line at cclapcenter@gmail.com.

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Featuring

Paulette Livers plus six open-mic features

The CCLaP Showcase A new reading series and open mic

Tuesday, September 23rd, 6:30 pm City Lit Books | 2523 N. Kedzie cclapcenter.com/events

To sign up in advance for an open mic slot, write cclapcenter@gmail.com September 12, 2014 | 7

ORIGINAL FICTION

I found a list of things in Walker’s cupboard he said he wouldn’t do until his son was found alive and well.

He wrote: talk, smile, fuck.

Walker’s son had been taken. Walker was delirious. He said: my son is a beef patty. I said stop it. I slapped Walker.

He shut up.

He said where is my son.

I said, beats me.

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Photo: “paper” by Martin Deutsch [flickr.com/teflon]. Used under the terms of his Creative Commons license.

OAKS

BY OLIVER ZARANDI September 12, 2014 | 9

His wife wasn’t sad about this because she died during childbirth. That was eighteen years ago. Her vagina bled a lot, Walker said.

He could be quite unfeeling, sometimes.

He showed me a picture of her once. She had these big red lips and curly hair. Her face didn’t look human. There was no togetherness to the features.

I thought she looked like a Mister Potato Head. Her one eye was higher than the other.

I didn’t tell Walker this because he told me she’d bled to death.

It made me ill to look at the picture, so I told him to burn it and he did.

All pictures of women are banned here. He burnt it and apologised. Rules are rules.

Walker raised Louis alone here at The Oaks. It’s a place that houses single fathers with only male children.

I just clean the gardens and apartments. It pays well enough. I live with my wife and her mother. Her mother pisses herself a lot and I change her nappies every day. But my family, they’re far away from The Oaks. The Oaks is my church time. Time to get away from the family unit.

Sometimes I wish I’d focused at school instead of drawing dicks in the margin.

The Oaks. It’s at the top of this winding road, steep enough to be called a hill. The path to the house is a long one, dotted with signs saying, ‘Keep off the grass,’ and ‘Let Fathers be Mothers,’ and ‘Together We Are Not A Tragedy.’

The building itself—it’s nothing special. It’s painted a medical white. The front is simple, art deco and, on the inside, the hallways attempt to recreate the American home.

There are no shops nearby. There’s no anything nearby. It’s as if the house was cut out from the city and glued into the countryside. It doesn’t belong. It floats.

Women are not allowed in here. The president of the Father Society was Glenn Tully Styron. He told me that women could upset the whole equilibrium of The Oaks.

Styron is fat and covered in polyps. He’s afraid of women.

They all are.

Walker raised Louis without a mother but did, with the help of The Oaks, make sure that Louis had at least 25 other fathers. Every weekend the fathers would have a Father & Son barbecue.

The Sons would chat, miserably. They’d perform pranks without any heart. The fathers wept but some said they still had hope for this thing we call life.

I remember one of the fathers had a belly that looked like a pustule that was begging to be stabbed.

All the men here are united by tragedy. Walker’s neighbour, Albert, his wife died at a piano factory. Albert didn’t give me any more details than that.

I have to clean the bedrooms here too. Styron pays me extra for this.

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Albert’s wicker basket is always filled with tissues.

He’ll cry a bucket if it wasn’t for the church service Styron gives every evening that reassures the fathers that life is worth living.

Instead of Gideon bibles, each apartment is filled with naughty VHS tapes. They’re readily available. They’re educational, Walker said. Walker told me these videos were of women. Their faces were covered with plastic bags, used as objects. I’m pretty sure they were corpses.

One of the women is thrown down a lubed-corridor like a bowling ball.

She strikes 10 women who are sellotape together like bowling pins. He told me this is to remind us that life without women isn’t so bad.

I told Walker I’d die without women. He told me that’s a pretty lie.

He could talk your head off, Walker.

But he just clammed up. Stopped speaking to everybody.

Styron didn’t want the police involved. Said they would only bring more bad press.

A week passed and there was no word from Louis. He wasn’t the kind of kid who would go missing. He’d never left The Oaks before.

He was 18.

I remember asking Louis if he ever thought about women.

He said no, but he was interested in some crazy things.

He told me he’d use the internet to research celebrity deaths. He said he was interested in serial killers. He said his favourite was Eddie Leonski who strangled women to hear their voices go high pitched.

I said that was unhealthy.

But nobody expected Louis to send a letter to Walker. On the 216th day he’d been missing, a letter turned up in Walker’s letterbox. Walker ripped open the letter. It was written in pencil. None of the letters were joined up, like a child’s writing. Walker read the letter to me.

Instead of Gideon bibles, each apartment is filled with naughty VHS tapes. They’re readily available.

They’re educational, Walker said. Walker told me these videos were of women. Their faces were covered with plastic bags, used as objects. I’m pretty sure they were corpses.

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Dear Dad, Fuck you. I am alive and not well. I’ve just realised I have a cock. It fits in my hand. I measured it against somebody’s head last night.

Cool. Dad why didn’t you tell me about the World? I don’t love you Dad. But maybe I am in love with you? Who knows. I am far from home. I got a job in a bowling alley. Because of that pornography tape. Influenced me. I am really bad at my job. I might get fired. I had sex too. I had to learn the hard way about sex. I met a girl. She was old enough. She’s pregnant now. She’s full of me. I’m going to be a Father now. I think I hate women. I think life is difficult. I think Cheeto dust on my fingers is better than the Cheeto itself. I am alone in the world. I never want to be inside a woman again. Only two times a man should be inside a woman: birth and to procreate, once. Every man deserves the chance to be a father. If you want to find me, you won’t. I don’t want to be found. I sleep in a car. Tell everybody at The Oaks they’re jerks. You’re all in danger.

Yours (mine now), Louis I think we all understood Louis wasn’t coming back. Nobody could understand the last line, though:

You’re all in danger.

Did that include me? Was I in danger?

I am just a gardener and cleaner, I told Walker. Why should I be included with all you fathers? I trim grass and boil wash towels. My life isn’t supposed to, you know, be endangered.

Time passed. It always does, unfortunately.

Walker helped me water the plants. He started giving lectures on weekends too. About being a father-without-a-son and the vulnerability of each and every father here at The Oaks. Were we man enough to look after ourselves?

Had we failed?

I sat in on these lectures. Interesting stuff. Walker, a hell of a talker. He’d stand there at the pulpit, his eyes all sunken and face like a lemon skeleton, finger pointing. The congregation was basically just the fathers. But the numbers, they dwindled.

Had Walker gone mad? Probably.

None of the fathers really cared. They listened because they had nothing else to listen to.

But all the while, sitting there in those lectures, I felt like somebody was watching us. Watching the fathers at work. Watching me, the Cleaner of the Fathers.

We got a note one day. I found it in the mail room, sealed in a brown envelope and it said this: 12 | CCLaP Weekender

Next time you wake up, you’re all going to melt.

Styron filed it away with all the other threats.

Walker told me he was scared, so I stayed with him that night. When we woke up, nobody had melted.

Walker told me he wasn’t a good man. That he did things to Louis. I asked what kind of things. He just said things. I don’t know what things means I said. He said, well, have a think about things.

I had a think about things. I still didn’t get it.

And Styron asked me, how’s Walker. I said he’s okay, but he’s feeling sore about things because he did some things to Louis. Styron said that’s only natural—all fathers do things to their sons.

I said, isn’t that a bit general.

He said no. All fathers do things to their sons at The Oaks.

I think I get it now.

Walker stopped doing his lectures. Instead, this one weekend, he turned up to the Father & Son barbecue. I was helping to cook the sausages. Obviously, he was without a son. But he was dressed like a child. I can’t explain it, but his beard was gone. He looked like he’d completely waxed himself. And he didn’t talk to the Fathers. He only spoke to the sons.

The sons treated him just like a child, which is exactly what they were.

One son, his name was Willy, he shot a water pistol in Walker’s eye.

Walker cried and pissed himself by the pool. He fell to the floor. One of the fathers, I think it was Bob–big fat asshole came running over and cradled Walker.

There, there, Bob said. Walker nestled his head in Bob’s armpit. I think he said: I’m scared, daddy.

Bob kissed Walker on the neck. And then the other fathers came over and offered to hold Walker.

Yes. Styron called me over and asked me to clear out Walker’s room immediately. I asked where Walker was going to stay. Styron said he was going to move in with Bob and his sixteen sons in the Palace Suite.

Walker was a son now. He started wetting the bed. The fathers gave him a bell and pad. Treated him.

I didn’t see him a lot anymore. Styron gave me time off. I spent more time at home. I changed nappies a lot.

The Oaks still received letters from Louis. Idle threats, Styron said.

Nobody cared what Louis said. He was out there in the world. He was so far gone that he’d send us excerpts from the United States foreign relations archives. He sent us words he’d learnt.

Words like pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. It’s a word that I like to say repeatedly. I looked up some images online about this word—an inherited condition that results in short stature, chubbiness, and stumpy fingers. Fingers September 12, 2014 | 13

that couldn’t hold a fountain pen all the way around.

I watched Walker from afar. He played with balloons and didn’t talk much anymore. Didn’t do anything anymore. Just played by himself. Those Father & Son barbecues, Walker’d just stare at the world outside. The cars moving, heads moving just above the fence.

When I asked Walker how he was, he said he was fine. I asked what he did last night and he said he was with the fathers. What did you do with the fathers, I asked. He turned away.

Things, he said. Happy things with my fathers. C

Oliver Zarandi is a writer. His recent publications include Hobart, Keep This Bag Away From Children and The Boiler. You can follow him on twitter at @zarandi.

This story was originally published in The Boiler Journal, Issue XII, Summer 2014.

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Wolfwendy

PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE September 12, 2014 | 15

Location: Berlin, Helsinki and Montreal Maria Windsch端ttel was born in 1986 in Dresden, Germany. She studied painting and drawing from 20062013 in the class of Werner B端ttner at Hochschule f端r bildende K端nste and Fine Arts in Aalto University/TaiK Helsinki. Since 2012 she has been living and working in Berlin, Helsinki and currently Montreal.

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wolfwendy.com flickr.com/wolfwendy

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CCLaP Publishing

An official painter for the Lithuanian Communist Party, Martynas Kudirka enjoys a pleasant, unremarkable life with a beautiful wife and all the privileges that come with being a party member. Yet in the summer of 1989, his ordinary world suddenly turns upside down. Political revolt is breaking out across Eastern Europe, and Martynas comes home to find his wife dead on the kitchen floor with a knife in her back. Realizing the police will not investigate, he sets out to find his wife’s killer. Instead, he stumbles upon her secret life. Martynas finds himself drawn into the middle of an independence movement, on a quest to find confidential documents that could free a nation. Cold War betrayals echo down through the years as author Bronwyn Mauldin takes the reader along a modern-day path of discovery to find out Martynas’ true identity. Fans of historical fiction will travel back in time to 1989, the Baltic Way protest and Lithuania’s “singing revolution,” experiencing a nation’s determination for freedom and how far they would fight to regain it.

Download for free at cclapcenter.com/lovesongs

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The CCLaP Weekender is published in electronic form only, every Friday for free download at the CCLaP website [cclapcenter.com]. Copyright 2014, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. All rights revert back to artists upon publication. Editorin-chief: Jason Pettus. Story Editor: Behn Riahi. Layout Editor: Wyatt Roediger-Robinette. Calendar Editors: Anna Thiakos and Taylor Carlile. To submit your work for possible feature, or to add a calendar item, contact us at cclapcenter@gmail.com.

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