Tonight was Lit Crawl in San Francisco’s Mission. Self attended a reading of Saint Mary’s College alumna, one of whom was the fabulous Rashaan Alexis Meneses.
Rashaan read the story that was recently in New Letters, a story that happened to be set in Bonnyrigg, near Hawthornden! (Rashaan should send a copy to Hamish).
But, before the reading, we met up at local fave Puerto Allegre (546 Valencia St) for some yummy sopes and guacamole, where self met poet Raina J. Leon and got her to sign a copy of her book, Boogeyman Dawn:
Raina J. Leon signing a copy of her book, Boogeyman Dawn, at Puerto Alegre on Valencia St.
This picture of Rashaan reading was unfortunately a little blurred, but you can still get a sense of her energy:
The Fabulous Rashaan, reading at Bay Blend Coffee & Tea, 1905 Mission Street, San Francisco
She happened to take a seat facing the sidewalk, so that as the reading progressed, she found herself watching a building directly across the street. There was a FOR LEASE sign on the front. The ground floor had this rather fabulous home furnishings store (with real-looking white sheep), very “chi-chi” for the Mission.
As it grew dark, the rooms of each floor of the building lighted up. And self has always, always been fascinated by windows.
She remembers staring out the kitchen window of her brother-in-law’s apartment in New York City, just staring at parallel rows of windows, and seeing people doing different things: talking on the phone, reading the newspaper. Each little square a story.
Mission Street, Across from Bay Blend Coffee & Tea
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
