Saturday, March 23, 2024
Vacation day 5 of 9. In The Old 77. Breakfast in our room: cereal with milk, water to drink. I also ate one sumo orange. Patrick and I walked to Hotel Monteleone. At the Saints and Sinners Festival we attended Writers Read with Sven Davisson, Jubi Arriola-Headley, David Bergman, Andrew Holleran, Steven Reigns, Phil Tarley, and Gary Zebrun. Afterwards we visited the Congo Square Rhythms Festival. We enjoyed the drumming and dancing and happened upon Ms. Linda's food booth. She was selling yakamein and mac and cheese. We had never had yakamein before. We shared one order of shrimp and beef yakamein which we both found too salty and too blackpeppery but nonetheless delicious. We walked to American Townhouse which was open but empty and where we enjoyed a Southern fried catfish sandwich and side kale Caesar salad. Unsweetened iced tea for Patrick, Topo Chico for me. The order delivery took longer than expected. We returned to Hotel Monteleone for a literary discussion: Crafting Kinship: Bio/Logical Family In LGBTQ+ Literature. ("Join us for an inspiring LGBTQIA literary panel as we delve into the complex and beautiful concepts of family, both chosen and assigned. Celebrating diverse voices and experiences, our esteemed panelists will explore how LGBTQIA individuals redefine traditional notions of family, forging deep connections with chosen communities. Through thought-provoking discussions and poignant readings, we'll explore the power of love, resilience and bonds created by Queer community in literature.") Panelists: Matthew Clark Davison, Monique Jenkinson, Gar McVey-Russell, and Rose Norman. Moderator: K.M. Soehnlein. Next, another literary discussion: Writing Beyond Realism. ("Non-realistic fiction has long been popular with LGBTQ+ writers—science fiction, horror, surrealism, and other speculative styles. Does speculative fiction hold more of an appeal for LGBTQ+ writers than for others? If so, why? What does speculative fiction allow us to do in our writing that realism doesn’t? Does speculative fiction present us with any limitations? This panel will discuss these and other questions.") Panelists: Virginia Black, Jewelle Gomez, Felice Picano, and David R. Slayton. Moderator: Daniel M. Jaffe. Patrick and I left the festival, strolling through the French Quarter then resting in Jackson Square. We dined at Dian Xin 2: crab and crawfish soup dumplings, basil popcorn chicken, panfried mini baos, har gow, hot buckwheat tea. Service was fair. Food was tasty. I didn't like something about the flavor of the grease used to cook the popcorn chicken but couldn't specify exactly what was wrong. P liked that dish. The xiao loong bao were too large and are best eaten after a few minutes. If you eat them too early the floor breaks and the soup leaks. The panfried mini baos delivery took so much longer than expected we presumed they forgot about the order and were planning to request a modified check moments before they arrived. We stayed and ate them. We returned to Hotel Monteleone. Patrick arrived early to meet event host Amie while I windowshopped nearby. Patrick participated in the SAS Fiction Contest Reading. (Join this year's contest winner Charlie J. Stephens "For the Birds," our runners-up Ariadne Blayde "The End of the World" and Alfred P. Doblin "Holy Communion," along with finalists Edward Cahill, Marco Carocari, Chyx, Jay Michaelson, and Patrick Earl Ryan for an evening of cocktails and readings from the Saints and Sinners 2024: New Fiction from the Festival hosted by Co-editor Amie M. Evans with comments from our finalist judge Trebor Healey. Audience members receive a copy of the new anthology created from our 2024 Short Fiction Contest. Sponsored by the John Burton Harter Foundation.) Afterwards at Sucré Patrick and I shared a dessert called Sucré Fumé. No drink. We walked to Rouse's for provisions: cereal, milk, bottled water. Back to The Old 77 and to bed.