Greetings everyone!
I want to invite you to Reader’s Theatre on Hrmtc Underground voice chat on the Third Thursday in August: Thursday, August 17th at 7pm Pacific.
We’re going to share unrehearsed and un-staged readings of bawdy, erotic and obscene poetry and more by Aleister Crowley, his contemporaries and others. Consider material you’d like to share and bring those as well, especially if you’ve work in mind by someone otherwise thought to be upright and proper and completely above such raucous and nasty rhymes!
Okay, that was the short elevator pitch version. Here’s the longer explanation:
What I have in mind is a low key gathering where people share un-staged and unrehearsed readings of stories, poetry and dramatic works with each other.
The guests of the library are direct inheritors of a rather rich creative culture, both in general and specific. Not only was Aleister Crowley noted for his creative works, but the wider body of poetic and dramatic works from the broad world of contemporaries and those inspired by Aleister Crowley, including many members of the Golden Dawn, offer an amazing array of wonderful culture and artistic heritage we often don’t explore.
Specifically, many people are at least aware that Aleister Crowley was a poet, but few are familiar with the extent of his poetic and dramatic work, both under his own name and under pseudonyms. There’s some few well-known poetic works like the Hymn of Pan and a couple others, but the scope of his poetic output is often unfamiliar. Crowley also wrote quite a number of dramatic works, though most people have only heard of the Rites of Eleusis and perhaps The Ship.
Please consider bringing a couple selected works to share, either digitally on a device, to save paper, or, if you needs must, that you’ve printed out. A few suggestions of places to start looking include:
Aleister Crowley’s Leah Sublime
Aleister Crowley’s White Stains
The Songs of Bilitis by Pierre Louÿs
If you aren’t sure where else to look for selections, there are a number of books which have materials by Aleister Crowley that may be useful in finding something to share with others at a Reader’s Theatre. If you don’t have them yourself, or you want versions you can easily search through and print out, gander in these locations as possible initial rabbit holes into what all is available:
Aleister Crowley’s
Collected Works
The Equinox
The International
Also, you might try using the site search to find material about some keyword that interests you. Site search at the Hermetic Library can be found in the upper right corner of most pages, or simply start at the site search portal for texts at the Hermetic Library.
Recognizing that public speaking and performance are often cited as one of the greatest fears for most people, this will be a safe and supportive environment to explore and expand that personal edge while we share readings from the broad corpus of works mentioned above.
This event will take place on Hrmtc Underground’s voice chat for Hermetic Library. So head on over and create an account, if you haven’t already, so you’re all set up for the night of the event.
This is a public event; open to all. There is a suggested contribution of $1.00 to help keep the library going, and consider becoming an ongoing Patron of the work of the library.