The Devil Cruises Pacific Coast Highway: Katherine Williams + Guests

Beyond Baroque welcomes poet Katherine Williams to Los Angeles in celebration of her debut collection, The Devil Cruises Pacific Coast Highway (Kelsay Book). The program will feature readings and musical peformances by poet Brendan Constantine, musician and publisher Matthew Mars, and composer Eliot Douglass, with MC of the evening, Philip Littell. Book signings to follow the performances.

"Throughout The Devil Cruises Pacific Coast Highway, an interesting and engaging distance emerges, because the poet insists on not surrendering to strictly personal gestures, instead finding a way to include us all in the drama of these poems. Katherine Williams is equally comfortable and proficient in strict metrical forms-her English sonnets are among the best of these poems-as well as in a jazzily modulated free verse that moves down the page like a chant, and experimental poems that challenge the poet and the reader to put form and content together most intimately, the way they're supposed to be. Woven into the tapestry of these poems is a bright thread of irony, illustrating the way the poet never takes herself too seriously, and humor that comes in the form of a hard lesson. Throughout this collection is such a richness of diction, it's as if the poet is in love with and celebrates the many offices of language in every poem. Surprising figures of speech come and go with the practiced ease of a master."

-Bruce Weigl, Song of Napalm

Doors Open: 7:30 PM I Readings: 8:00 PM

Katherine Williams is a White Southerner who grew up in the Navy and lived in Charleston SC as a young adult, then spent twenty years in Los Angeles, and returned to SC twenty years ago. She’s a Pushcart and Best of the Web nominee with poems in Spillway, South Carolina Review, Projector, Measure, Diagram, and elsewhere. She began writing in 1991, published three chapbooks, and studied poetry with Richard Garcia’s Long Table Poets for twenty years. Her first poetry collection, The Devil Cruises Pacific Coast Highway, has just been published by Kelsay Books. Williams has been a research technician at UCLA Medical Center, Hollings Marine Laboratories, and the Medical Univ. of SC; an Apple-certified technician; a college chemistry tutor; and a graphic artist and web developer. As a board member of The Poetry Society of SC, she created the Warrior Poets Series, presenting veteran-poets at the Charleston VA Medical Center, and as founding chair of James Island Arts Council, she created Poetry at McLeod, in which illustrious Black poets interpret the plantation experience—from enslavement, to ascendancy in all walks of American life.

Philip Littell has lived in Los Angeles since 1976, where his first career as an actor led him to work in Shakespeare, avant-garde plays, cabaret, rock bands, and performance art.

Today he is a legendary performer, writer, and director who works in classical and experimental theater, cabaret, performance art, opera, and film. From his beginnings as a mute in The Weba Show, he developed into a singer-songwriter with his own bands, made musical theater works and moved into the opera field, creating librettos for The Dangerous Liaisons (Conrad Susa) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Andre Previn) for The San Francisco Opera. His latest, Girl With A Pearl Earring (Stefan Wirth), for Zurich Opera is was presented in 2022. He is a member of the Gawdafful National Theater, a Los Angeles based art and theater company devoted to creative risk and experimentation. He is the father of modern psychology.

Eliot Douglass is a pianist and composer. From working with Cirque du Soleil and recording music for astronauts on numerous space shuttle missions to vocal coaching Jack Nicholson, he has worked and performed in many avenues over the years. On a personal note, he’ll do just about anything for a dozen raw oysters.

Matthew Mars founded the Sacred Beverage Press, with Amelie Frank, publishing and editing the acclaimed literary journal Blue Satellite as well as books by Ellyn Maybe, the Carma Bums, francEyE, and Erica Erdman, among others. A poet himself, extensively published and anthologized, his four chapbooks include God the motion picture (Dance of the Iguana Press). He is the former frontman of alternative pop bands The Clear and Superman Loses the Girl. He has had two solo shows of his photography at Beyond Baroque and his current work can be seen at matthewmarsphotography.com.

Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. He is the author of five collections of verse and his work has appeared in many standards, including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, and Poem-A-Day. He currently teaches at the Windward School and with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since 2017, he has been developing workshops for writers living with aphasia and traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

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.

Please arrive early.

Host or Publisher Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center