Poet Bridget Lowe found inspiration for her book At the Autopsy of Vaslav Nijinsky in the lives of two artists who had to leave the United States to find fame, namely dancer Isadora Duncan and actor Sean Young. (Duncan was shunned in America, but then went on to success in Russia. Almost a century later, Young was also shunned by American critics, but eventually found favor in a Russian television miniseries … about Duncan.)
Curated and hosted by Kristin Kostick and Shafer Hall, this installment of the Mongoose Versus Cobra Reading Series spotlights Lowe’s At the Autopsy and other writings by the Kansas City-based poet. Lowe says listeners can expect “to hear from voices that are congruently trying to figure out … what their story is — you know, in terms of the pop-psychology language of one’s ‘story,’ or the notion that we choose the circumstances of our lives…They keep wondering, ‘How did this happen to me?’” Lowe’s reading is purposely unplanned. “I make the set list the day of the reading, and themes are specific to the day,” Lowe says. “I hope to give a reading that feels like listening to a strong album, eight to ten songs, textured and with movement.”
8 p.m. Mongoose Versus Cobra, 1011 McGowen. For information, call 713‑650‑6872 or visit mongooseversuscobra.com. Free.
Mon., Jan. 13, 8 p.m., 2014
This article appears in Jan 9-15, 2014.