The Origins of Tongue Lashing

Welcome to Tongue Lashing's new blog/website/internet thingy. Here we'll be posting news, information, writing and announcements related to Tongue Lashing and other queer lit events like it. If you have any submissions or announcements you'd like us to plug for you, let us know! E-mail Matt at johnson.matthew.k@gmail.com.

So, a little history on Tongue Lashing - back in 2008, writer Charlie Vazquez was hosting Freaks Read at Nowhere Bar in the East Village, a series that later became his wildly popular "Panic!" reading series. I read stories there a couple of times, and talked with Nowhere management about starting a literary event of my own. Charlie's event usually consisted of anywhere from four to six invited writers, all reading work on a similar theme: for my event, I wanted to revive something that was a little more chaotic and unpredictable, but which had unfortunately been slowly going extinct in NYC.

I'd been going to open mikes since I was a Freshman in high school, when I first wandered on stage at readings run by the Wordstew Poetry Society in Honolulu, Hawaii, to lambast the audience with my vulgar, profane poetry that I thought meant I was deep. But the freedom of the open mike, and also the danger, that once I wrote my name down on that paper I was committed, appealed to me. When I came to New York, I expected to find open mikes being held in practically every bar and coffee shop, but found that I had missed the boat on most of them. Still, I found some great homes when I first arrived, like Jackie Sheeler's awesome Pink Pony West series that was held at the Cornelia Street Cafe, where I met so many amazing poets who would gladly look at my work and give me thoughts and edits to further sharpen my writing. (Pink Pony West still runs, now called Son of a Pony, still at Cornelia, still at 6 pm on Fridays - check it out!) It's really a great experience as a writer to brave a crowd and present your work, because oftentimes, they'll give you back even more than you can throw at them. So I wanted to bring it back, even in a small way.

We held the first Tongue Lashing in March 2010, and since then we've had a growing number of new and established readers who have jumped on our stage (and taken advantage of the free drink!) to share some sweet stories and sexy poetry, some heartbreaking essays and some hot rhymes... We're looking forward to an even more exciting 2011.

If you have any questions or want to get any more information about Tongue Lashing, e-mail Matt. Or better yet, come down to Phoenix on the first Thursday of every month; check out the reading, and if you're feeling brave, jump on stage and read some of your own work. We're really supportive, and we love new readers. You'll have fun!

Because that's the thing about a Tongue Lashing: you're putting yourself out there, you're turning your words into a weapon, a whip, a heat-seeking missile... But when you fire it off, when your tongue cracks words and images in halves and quarters and back again, you'll have us begging for more.