LGBT Thowback :: Freaky Lit
FREAKS READ showcases gay literature, erotica in East Village
by Scott Stiffler
EDGE Contributor
Thursday Aug 28, 2008
Just as the city’s gays were starting to clean up their act, along comes a bold and unapologetic happening that puts specific elements of gay life behind the mic and back on the front burner.
Working in the tradition of literary salons set in literate saloons, FREAKS READ is a new monthly event whose gay bar location and 21-plus policy guarantees exposure to the sort of provocative adult content on which urbane LGBTs used to thrive.
Founder and host Charlie Vazquez books the unconventional talent.
“We call it FREAKS READ because we started the reading as part of Freak Week, a week of events leading up to Pride,” he said.
In the true spirit of Pride and all things freaky, Vazquez sorts through the submitted material to ensure the poetry and fiction on display is filled with enough sex, gore and out there concepts to provide LGBTs with an antidote to the encroaching world of baby carriages, Jamba Juice franchises and other soul-crushing hallmarks of urban hetero-assimilation…[read the rest]