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The lines have a lot of me in them. I don’t have a good memory but I do remember those wood and wicker kitchen chairs. Or the hanging lights that painted a monster on my ceiling. The painting sang to the rhythm of my father’s footsteps. I dreamt about it all. I remember this one pair of pajamas, too, and the boredom. I was going to paint my pasts in between the stripes

but my professor told me to stop and look. It used to make me sad that I can’t bottle up smells, but that doesn’t make me sad anymore. Probably because I still get a waft every so often. I found paint and other things like that to be good for past tenses.

Friday 2.14 Indy Valentine’s Day Concert Finlandia Co-op, 116 Waterman St. 8:30 PM

Singles, smoochers, swingers: Ring out your Valentine’s Day at our famous pledge drive dance. Honeycomb, Charm, and Stamen and the Pistols will be playing songs that round all the bases of love from lust to loss. In seriousness: The Indy would not be in your hands right now if it weren’t for the readers who support our work. Give us a little cash and we’ll give you a great show.

Saturday 2.15 Fetish Fair Fleamarket Crowne Plaza Hotel, 801 Greenwich Ave, Warwick Goes all weekend

Either you will engage in commodity fetishism in the marketplace or in the fetish festivities at this weekend-long fleamarket hosted by the New England Leather Alliance. That’s to say: there’s no way out, so choose the less horrible option. Sorry kiddos, this event is 18+.

Sunday 2.16 Police Unity Tour Fundraiser: Drag Brunch The Black Sheep Providence, 397 Westminster St. 10:30AM

In honor of something called “police unity,” drag performers will be hosting brunch at a gastropub, $35 per person. Every part of the preceding sentence is really depressing—skip it and go to Fair Chance Licensing Canvassing instead.

Fair Chance Licensing Canvassing Nonviolence Institute, 265 Oxford St. 12PM - 3PM

Join the Formerly Incarcerated Union of RI and the Fair Chance Licensing Coalition in their fight to ensure work opportunities for people recently released from jail or with criminal records. The Coalition is working specifically to pass a bill that would reduce barriers to entry to career paths with occupational license—like plumbing, hair dressing, and social work—to people involved ensnared in the courts system. Help them gather signatures to demonstrate constituent support to legislators.

lovebird L I S T

2.14 - 2.20

Monday 2.17 Baby Yoda All Ages Paint Event Casey’s Fun Faces (4171 North Main St., Fall River) 5:30 - 7:30PM

The canvas you will paint! Unclear it is whether this is an earnest event along the lines of “make your own Olivander’s wand” or if it’s more on the level of nyancat merchandise. Unclear it is, too, how much leeway you’ll have here—whether you’ll be able to paint Yoda holding something silly, or whatever.

Tuesday 2.18 Candidate Forum: Ward 1 City Council Special Election The Pavilion at Grace, 300 Westminster

Ok, this oughta be good: Incumbent Councilman Seth Yurdin beat out DSA-endorsed Justice Gaines for the Ward 1 seat last fall and resigned a year and a half later (why, this List Writer has to wonder, did he run for re-election in the first place, edging out a more radical candidate, just to resign soon after?). Now, in the special election to fill the seat, there’s no one exciting running. You may have seen signs all over the East Side for John Concalves, a Fox Point native who was involved in political campaigns in Minnesota for some years but has most recently been sitting on East Side neighborhood boards since coming back to the city. He’s up against grim pickings: Nick Cicchitelli, a real estate developer, and Anthony Santurri, who owns the Coliseum night club. The forum will be moderated by BoGlo darling Dan McGowan.

Thursday 2.20 Stefano Bloch Book Talk Faunce House, Brown University, 75 Waterman St.

Stefano Bloch, notorious graffiti writer turned cultural geographer, will be returning to Brown where he was a postdoc until 2017 to talk about his new book, Going All City. Out now from UChicago Press, the book describes Bloch’s life as it intersected with cultural phenomena of 90s LA, from graffiti subculture to the heroin epidemic. If you’re lucky, he’ll tag University Hall to show you that graffiti’s roots are in transgression, not expression.