Bay Area Icarus was revived last summer, and we are officially full of surging, irreverent life.   We held our first event on Valentine's Day--Mad Love.  We had an open mic, a skilled MC, a cabaret of musicians and poets, and the evening skyrocketed to a close with the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

See below for a play by play!  Photos and video coming soon.

The event was held at El Rio in the Mission.  Over a hundred people showed up to the awesome back patio venue and we raised over five hundred dollars, which we will likely use to send someone to the Icarus contingent to the US Social Forum, though we are still deciding and will continue to talk about it in the coming meetings, so if you're in the area and thinking about joining, come to a meeting!  (details below)

Here are some show highlights:

Karlyn, unsurprisingly, was an awesome MC, adding warmth and humor and being a true showman!

We had many lovely people on the open mic--those who signed up, and all the Sally Forths.  :)

Dene Shelton knocked us all flat with lyrical, emotional, brave, and well-wrought prose

Khalil Sullivan rocked us all sideways with a daring performance backed up with powerhouse songs

Liz Wineheart...who's she?  ha.  em....I can't speak to that, really.  I had fun!!! :)  Really awesome to do those poems for this specific crowd.  Felt like the pieces found their home at last.  I'd also like to talk about how the second poem's delivery really changed as I rehearsed and performed it and became a mad pride anthem for me, when before it was much more angsty. I think Icarus has something to do with that.... :)

Nomy Lamm wowed us all with a hauntingly beautiful voice and evocative songwriting

Janese and her band dazzled us with gorgeous voices and impressive musical skills

Ashley boldly extracted some brilliant poetic gems (and also kicked ass as an organizer/voice of Icarus!)

and finally....

the BLO

Brass Liberation Orchestra.

Two words:

Street.   Party.

Okay I'll give you more than two words if you weren't there...this roughly-a-dozen piece band (with clarinets, sax, drums and trumpets, trombones, sousaphones...not strictly brass), shook us out of our seats, out the bar, and yes, onto the street.

It was an amazing way to end an otherwise amazing show.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO WORKED ON THIS EVENT AND HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE!!!! 

I for one am super grateful it not only came together, but came together so friggin beautifully.  

We will have our regular meeting

this Sunday February 21 at

CIIS, on Mission Street in San Francisco between 10th and 11th, Room 218

430-630 PM

...where I imagine we'll start thinking about what exactly we want to do with our moneys!  Plus support, as ever.

MAD LOVE

liz