On the second Tuesday of every month authors gather at 7PM at Urban ReThink, (625 East Central Boulevard), for a literary prose throw down called There Will Be Words. The event is hosted by J. Bradley and judged by three unsuspecting audience members picked at random. Most of the people who pack the audience for There will be Words are authors who are themselves competing. It is an event that I am now addicted to, since listening to stories told live seems far more interesting to me than watching reruns on TV or watching movies where computer effects are the star attraction.
On this evening, I sketched James Fleming, who read a highly entertaining and funny story called, God Damn Bears. It was an excerpt from a memoir called Too Much Sunshine, Memories of a Boyhood in the Age of Regan. You should listen, it really is hilarious. Warning however, it wasn’t very politically correct. It is a strange story in which fear becomes legend in a small rural town. Bears, get a bad wrap.
Authors spared head to head in heated literary heats until at the end of the evening, a victor was announced. I didn’t really follow the scoring, anyone who listens in, wins. As the light outside faded the stories gained heft and weight. If I remember right, J. Bradley won that night. I don’t see the point in judging. It is simply enough to expose the creative culture that continually bubbles to the surface here in Orlando.