Audio Coming to a bar near you --- performance literature! (story audio) Sam Osterhout reads his story, "Soap" Photos Geoff Herbach reads Geoff Herbach Sam Osterhout View full slideshow (5 images) Resources Lit 6 Project Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Coming to a bar near you --- performance literature!
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
June 23, 2004

Lit 6 member Geoff Herbach specializes in incredibly brief, fictitious suicide notes. He says the group is not doing standup comedy, but trying to do work with real literary heft. (Image Courtesy Lit 6 Project)

Literary readings are sometimes perceived as somber, stuffy affairs, mainly attended by people in love with their own high IQs. In the Twin Cities, a group of writers called the Lit 6 Project is trying to broaden the audience for literature by injecting elements of performance, entertainment and unpredictability into the reading.

Minneapolis, Minn. — The 400 Bar is a rock club in Minneapolis. People expect to see guitarists, bass players, and singers mounting an assault on their ears, not writers standing alone at the microphone reading from manuscripts. But if the group Lit 6 has its way, that will change.

Lit 6 member Geoff Herbach takes the stage.

"This is 'Suicide letter #15, to the manager of the White Castle in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.'"

	Lurking in the stacks

Herbach specializes in incredibly brief, fictitious suicide notes. In this one, the writer thanks the White Castle manager for his store's wonderful service. He also singles out two teenage workers, one black, the other white, for cheerfully making him and his son feel welcome.

"It almost made me believe that race and class barriers in this country might one day be destroyed entirely. It was lovely to hear them laugh, like listening to celestial music, really. I ate 13 sliders, had a great time with my kid, and went to bed satisfied that night. I've often had a good time at your store. Keep up the good work. Sincerely, T. Rember."

"P.S., any coupons should be forwarded to my wife and children at 4724 Penn Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as I've killed myself since writing this letter. Thank you."

Lit 6 was born out of boredom, or perhaps perceived boredom. A couple years ago, founder Sam Osterhout was at a local reading and he had a revelation. Nobody, including him, was paying attention.

	Geoff Herbach

"I also realized that everyone at the reading that day, they were all the same people that were at every reading. And all of us were writers," Osterhout says. "Kind of quickly, it hit me that the readings in the Twin Cities were created to support writers. And what we wanted to do with the Lit 6 was support an audience."

To generate an audience, Lit 6 members say you need great writers who can captivate a crowd, and the quickest way to do that is by being funny. Dark, sometimes politically incorrect humor is a hallmark of Lit 6 writing. Geoff Herbach says to be a member of Lit 6, your writing has to have some literary heft. You can't just do a standup routine.

"We're not doing monologues. We want people to be actually doing literary work," Herbach says. "But the second part and the most important part, is you have to be able to perform. We don't want people to look at the work we're doing as necessarily a gateway into reading our short stories in a magazine or something. We want them to be there for the event, for the sake of the event."

The Lit 6 Project prefers to jump around as much as it can. It's staged readings at art galleries, bookstores and bars. Members practice flash fiction. A show consists of five or six of them reading an original short story, each about five to seven minutes long.

	Sam Osterhout

David Swirnoff is co-owner of Rag and Bone Books in Minneapolis, one of the first business venues to take a chance on Lit 6. Swirnoff says he was attracted to the idea of the group, even if in the beginning, the actual performance fell short.

"They've honed it," he says. "They started out, and they had several people, and a couple of them were real good, and some of them weren't, and it went on too long and they've refined it. They've narrowed it down, and it's quick-hitting and the people they have are very funny."

Stephanie Wilbur takes the mike and begins reading her story, "Something About Blaine in the Springtime."

"Those Canadian geese -- they mate for life, you know. If one of them leaves, the other one will just cry and cry."

	Lit 6 Project

Lit 6 members are trying to expand the definition of what can happen at a literary event. The fact they've appeared several times at the 400 Bar proves they've already been successful.

400 owner Tom Sullivan says it wasn't a big risk to book the group, especially after he learned Lit 6 provided free beer to its audiences.

"They give away malt liquor at a bookstore, so I figure they could probably sell malt liquor at a bar."

All kidding aside, Sullivan says he, too, was taken by the spirit of the group, which he says reminded him of the bands that made him excited about music.

"You know a lot of times, stuff that's billed as punk rock isn't punk rock. What these guys do is as close to punk rock as a lot of things. I mean they come in and try to challenge what can be done in different places, and they're a lot of fun."

Like many rock bands, Lit 6 has an e-mail list to notify fans when shows are coming up. Members admit they've had difficulty attracting one group of people who won't come because they think it's a reading, and another because it's not enough of a reading. But they say their audience is growing and becoming more diverse.

Janet Manguson of Minneapolis has seen them twice. Manguson says other groups that put on literary readings could learn from Lit 6's approach.

"I think the other message is, line up some folks who are maybe not part of the literary upper crust and give them a chance to be heard, because they may really have something that people like," she says.

Groups like Lit 6 have been popping up around the country lately. Members say it's evidence that people hunger for a meatier form of entertainment than what American culture provides.

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