Ruby McConnell, preside of the Oregon Writers Colony, and I were hard at work for more than a year to bring something new and fresh to the Eugene literary community.1 We were equal parts disenfranchised with social media and AI and our inability to trust what’s real and to follow what we want, not be at the mercy tech oligarchs and their algorithms. We were confronted with the uselessness of social media. You put out a post and … nothing. The only thing, we agreed, that we can trust was being in person. Genuine face-to-face community. It’s slow platform building at its finest.
What would that look like? Leveraging my experience with the podcast, and with a long-term goal of making Eugene as attractive as Portland for literary events, we figured quarterly live, in-person, in-conversation events that I would also record would be a refreshing jolt.
For our first event, a soft opening at Gratitude Brewing, we had about fifteen people. People bought beers, coffee, tea, food and genuinely leaned in to hear Chandlor Henderson talk about the arc of his career to date (Pod TK). After the event, I was approached by just about everyone you see in the above photograph about how much they loved the conversation and how cool, overall, the concept was. (And, of course, I received a few book pitches.)
In an age of social media and digital interfacing, people are starving for the in-person experience, the ethereal, fleeting in-the-moment moments. What grounds you more in the present than something that is here one moment and gone the next? That’s why concerts, sporting events, and plays are so special: This will never happen again. You need to be there.
There’s an element of chaos and hiccups you can never predict.2 I was terrified about the audio experience, but once I put on my cans, I locked into Chandlor for 45 minutes. I invested close to $600 in the gear you see (minus the speakers; I had to borrow those, so I’ll need to pony up another $600+ for something similar.) And we’ll dial in the audio a bit better. Thing is, we had to jump before we were ready and roll with it, improve, and make it better.
Our next event is April 13, 1 p.m. at Gratitude with Leah Sottile for her new book3 Blazing Eye Sees All (pre-order). We’ll have a bookseller on site and Leah will sign and meet readers after she and I jam about the things we always jam about on the podcast.
This was, truly, the ultimate rage against the algorithm.
- Which is a unique blend of competitive and fractious. ↩︎
- The audio experience was predictably imperfect. My recording came out decent, but the the power to the speakers was a bit thin. We had to jump before we were ready. ↩︎
- Leah and I are going head-to-head for The Oregon Book Award this year. This will be a fun podcast opener with her. ↩︎
