Poetry Brothel LA: Blood & Brain Masquerade

This past Friday (Oct. 21) I was so excited to be able to attend The Poetry Brothel’s Blood & Brain Masquerade in LA, a dinner show that consisted of poetry and a bit of burlesque dancing and live music at El Cid on Sunset, a flamenco club and historic events venue in Silverlake. The event also includes time after the show to get various personal readings from the show’s lineup of performance poets or the “poetry whores” of the evening, two of whom were familiar faces to me in the local poetry scene and many lovely strangers whose poetry I got the privilege of listening to.

I bought a ticket for general admission for $50, but the prices for tickets/tables were as follows:

General Admission - $50

Reserved Tables - $220

Pay What You Can

By the time I purchased a general admission ticket, the Reserved Table and Pay What You Can options were already sold out.

Cocktail hour

The venue opened at 6:30PM for cocktails and conversation. El Cid has a FULL BAR (which is super cool in my opinion). Before the show (which started at 7pm) I was wandering around the outside patio where private poetry reading tents, typewriter poetry, tarot reading tables, and various vendors were set up for people to check out. I actually ended up getting a personal tarot reading from a lovely tarot reader named Willis (Instagram: @_willishao_), it was really cool because his cards were telling me exactly what I wrote in my notebook earlier that day, so it was like the stars were aligned for that moment which was really cute and eerie.

Another thing that I thought was really fun and interesting was that guests got to interact with the poets for a bit of flirty and seductive conversation before the show, which I thought was really cute because I was under the impression that they would be backstage during this time so I was able to catch up with a couple of poets I knew before their performance which was a cool surprise.

I also really loved how the featured burlesque dancer of the night, Skylar (Instagram: @thatskylargirl), made a mysterious appearance and gave us a small taste of her dancing out on the patio just before the show, which honestly was such a pleasant surprise and such a great segue into the start of the dinner show.

The dinner show

Once 7pm came around, we were then asked to get seated for the show!

Seating

Since I paid for general admission ($50) I was unable to get a front row seat, but it was not bad. I was told by wait staff that whichever spots didn’t have a reserved marker were available for anyone to just take a seat and that the front row tables and seats closest to the stage were reserved (the tickets that were $220) but I honestly felt I still got a really good view from where I was at.

The show opened with fun bits of conversation between the host of the evening Ach Suzette (Instagram: @bespokepoets) and Madam Tallula (Instagram: @madamtallula), both of whom were so funny and entertaining to listen to and watch.

As for the poetic lineup, or the “poetry whores” of the night were:

Valerie Darling (as herself; Instagram: @softcorekitsch)

Renata Zhigulina as Jean-Paul (Instagram: @renataguera)

Brian Sonia-Wallace as Vallachinsk (Instagram: @rentpoet)

Frankie Tan as Moonlight (Instagram: @frankiesayspause)

Cierra Martin as Jane (Instagram: @d.vuh)

Daniel Lovato as Pastiche Queen

Christian Perfas as Wit (a friend of mine! check out his Instagram: @soulstuf and his website)

Princeton Bolton as Jamarius X (Instagram: @mr.piiib)

Chris Siders as Icarus Jame (Great performance poet I got acquainted with recently in the local poetry scene, check out his Instagram: @thechrissiders and his website)

Vesta Gloria (as herself; Instagram: @vesta.vaingloria)

Koko as Peachpuff (Instagram: @kokopeachpuff)

Derick Brown (special guest poet and founder of Write Bloody Publishing!)

All the poets performed 5 minute sets of poetry. I personally was expecting 15 minute sets (which was probably a misplaced expectation I had after being a poetry slam attendee) but nonetheless, 5 minute sets were more than ample time to get a taste of each poet’s style and aesthetic. I personally really enjoyed Moonlight’s poetry a lot and I actually purchased a personal reading from her afterwards! I also really enjoyed Toichka as well! Both of whom were poets I never heard from before.

The show also had a featured dance performance from the burlesque dancer Skylar! I fortunately was able to get a bit of video from her seductive performance, I am personally not huge on dancing but I do like burlesque dancing and she was a really great burlesque dancer!

Personal poetry readings and tokens

Once the show was over, we were all encouraged to purchase tokens which were used for various “poetic experiences” and were:

Private Readings - 1 token

Typewriter Poems - 3 tokens

Private reading or prescription with Dr Ach Suzette - 2 tokens)

Poetry oracle reading with The Madam - 3 tokens

The costs of the tokens were:

$10 for each token

$25 for three tokens

$40 for five tokens

$75 for ten tokens

They also had a A La Carte menu which consisted of a sexy poetic “whisper” for $1 and a “bang” (all the poets reading at once) for $100. Somebody during the evening actually bought a bang! Which was really cool to see actually.

Alongside the token treasure display was a book display from all the featured poets from the night. I think the display was really lovely and I was definitely interested in bringing a book home with me, but I also really wanted to do the personal reading experiences so definitely take note of that if you plan on attending a Poetry Brothel event!

I honestly really enjoyed getting the personal poetry readings. I basically told each poet I got a reading from to read a poem that was sensual, romantic, and a piece they were proud that they wrote.

The next day, I was messaging Christian and I told him that I was surprised by the 5 minute sets, but he told me that it’s basically that way so that audience members can have plenty of time to get as many personal poetry readings as possible which definitely was understandable since some poets you had to wait for a poetry reading since they were very busy! I really loved how you can make specific requests about which kind of poem you want to hear, it really makes the experience that much more unique. (Christian actually has just released a book with World Stage Press, check it out here).

I honestly had a really great time and I think it was well worth the $50, the only thing I regret was not bringing extra spending money for books and more readings! I went in not knowing exactly what to expect, so don’t make the same mistake I did and make sure to bring a decent amount of money for drinks, dinner, and some goodies.

I also really think and feel that if you have a friend that may not be into poetry, but is into dancing, to ask them to tag along to this event because the dancers were really great and I wish I got more videos of that.

If you want to learn more about The Poetry Brothel, check out their website here and give them a follow on Instagram: @poetrybrothel.