Skulls & Stairs: Brittany Menjivar, Omar Bárcena, Lily Lady, & Jack Skelley

Skulls & Stairs comes back for its 2024 season of readings in the staircase at the historic Original Venice City Hall Building, aka, BB headquarters. Featuring poets dwelling on the occult with punk and rebel attitudes, the first installment of the year features poetry in English and Spanish by borderlands poet Omar Bárcena, author of Poemas desde el otro lado (Valparaiso); and New York - L.A. sensation Lily Lady, author of quickie (Dream Boy Book Club) and NDA (Far West Press) will feature alongside Jack Skelley, reading from his upcoming book Myth Lab: Theories of Plastic Love, and Car Crash Collective's co-founder & parasocialite, Brittany Menjivar.

An audiovisual experience of Omar Bárcena's alias, Arquitecto Defecto, will be playing in The Wanda Coleman Theater before and after the performances.

Doors Open: 7:00 PM. I Readings: 7:30 PM.

Omar Bárcerna or Arquitecto Defecto, grew up straddling the border that divides two Californias. His first collection of poetry Poemas desde el otro lado, was published in Spain by Valparaíso Ediciones, and was a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee for Flying Ketchup Press which featured him in their trilingual anthology The Very Edge Poems.

Jack Skelley is author of Myth Lab: Theories of Plastic Love (Far West Press), The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker (Semiotext(e)). He also authored Interstellar Theme Park (BlazeVOX books), Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson (Fred & Barney Press), and Monsters (Little Caesar Press). Jack is songwriter/guitarist for psychedelic surf band Lawndale. He lives in Los Angeles.

Lily Lady is a pseudonym for the author of quickie and NDA. Lily is based in the Geneva Free Port, alongside other precious works of art.

Brittany Menjivar is the author of Parasocialite (Dream Boy Book Club). She was born in the DMV; she now dreams and schemes in the City of Angels. She is co-founder of Car Crash Collective, a poetry and prose reading series partially incited by a near-fatal car accident she suffered. She has also worked as a scare actor, an improv instructor and a video vixen.

This event is Free & In-Person at Beyond Baroque. Masks are encouraged while inside our center.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, fellow attendees, or performers.

Because this is a free event seating is limited. Please arrive early.

Host or Publisher Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center