This Thursday, January 21st, at Big Bear Cafe in NW Washington, DC is the incredible reading series that happens the third Thursday of every month, Cheryl’s Gone, run by my friends and Mason alums, Wade Fletcher and Joe Hall. If you haven’t been to one of these and you live in the DC area, you don’t know where it’s at.

Big Bear is a deliciously dark (wooded) and simultaneously light (lots of windows) cafe on the corner of First and R, and its lovely staff helps to make this reading series pleasurable. There is always beer and wine available for a suggested donation, which helps to feed future readings and offers a bit of a stipend for the featured readers and musicians of the evening.

Joe and Wade always bring in an eclectic range writers and musicians to the scene, introducing us to the literary and musical styling available to us – often these featured people are from the DC area, but occasional visitors from outside the belt come to visit. The cafe lights go down and the reader or musician is left with a light from a soft lamp and we’re drawn in for the evening. At the break conversations are robust and engaging, and afterward a mix of presenters and listeners often go for drinks in the area. If you’re a writer, it’s a chance to meet established and emerging talent in an intimate atmosphere. I know I’ve never been disappointed.

Thursday night features: poet Chris Nealon, essayist Mike Scalise, poet Gerald Maa, and a musical performance by The Fall Catalogue.

I’ll be there, you should be too.