3rd Annual Rainbow Book Fair

The Fair, which moved back to the LGBT Center in NYC this year, was well attended. My table, shared with Roxanne (Poets Wear Prada Press), was in a side room because I arrived too late to get a table in the main hall. Still, I managed to sell five copies each of Seven Studies for a Self Portrait and Equal to the Earth. It was a good idea to give a discounted Fair price, and to discount further the purchase of two books. Two copies of Eric Norris's fiction Terence were also sold.

I read for the Poets' Salon, curated by Nathaniel Siegel and Regie Cabico, and for Rachel Kramer Bussel. The first was better attended (at least during my time slot), but the second had a better room where you could actually read without a mike and be heard. WL and Eric came to hear me read. GH came just after my reading and so missed it. I was happy, however, with all their show of support. 

*

After the Fair, I attended the opening reception of Valerie Mendelson's group show at Westbeth. Themed "grid/off grid," most of the paintings were figurative city scenes though a few depicted borderlands such as mill ponds or deployed an abstract style. VM's work stood out for its engagement with natural landscapes. I particularly liked "Lilacs." The leaves and flowers cover almost the entire painting as they do the wall behind them. For all their naturalism, their composition has the force of abstraction.