Litcrawl comes to Valencia Street tonight at 6 p.m., attracting some 10,000 people for a three-hour frenzy of literary readings — on poetry, Buddhism, medical marijuana, tech, and, of course, sex. Good Vibrations is hosting the aptly named “SanFranSex,” while lit lovers can enjoy “Dirty Laundry: Loads of Prose Presents Sex, Lies, and Lost Socks” at Mission Laundromat.
Not to be outdone, other neighborhood establishments are joining the fray. Mission Comics & Art will be holding an event to discuss, what else, comics; Borderlands Cafe will be discovering “new worlds,” which we anticipate will have a sci-fi tinge; Dave Eggers’s “Pirate Supply Store” non-profit 826 Valencia will be showcasing some of the young writers who work with the writing organization; and even Mission Police Station will be hosting a reading on “action fiction,” a novel approach to community outreach.
Feeling sultry? Silicon Valley romance writers will offer a sample of their work at Muddy’s Coffee House on Valencia and 24th, which could either mean tech workers turned novelists or the intrigues of romantic relationships in tech firms — both crowd pleasers, no doubt.
And that’s just a sample of what’s going on tonight. For full details, check out the map of the event here, which features the dozens of cafes, restaurants, bookstores, galleries, and other venues the 11th annual festival has scheduled for tonight. “Get drunk on words!” the event organizers say, or just get regular drunk at one of the many bars hosting tonight’s readings.
The event is free to attend. From their page:
The 11th annual Lit Crawl will span over three hours in the Mission District’s Valencia Street corridor, featuring an astonishing 82 literary readings and events, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comedy and more, in bookstores, bars, galleries, restaurants, stores, cafés, community spaces, a bookmobile, a vibrator store, and a police station.
One of the most anticipated literary nights of the year, San Francisco’s Lit Crawl attracts close to 10,000 people, and is the world’s largest such event. In 2008 Lit Crawl NYC launched in Manhattan, also an immediate hit. Austin was next, swarming for the first time in 2011. In 2012, we birthed two more Lit Crawls, one in Brooklyn, another in Seattle. In 2013, we expanded to Los Angeles, Iowa City, and London, and in 2014, a Lit Crawl was launched in Helsinki. This year we welcome Lit Crawl Portland.
Get drunk on words!