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| Sketch by Bridget S. Galway |
You're Still Alive! Live from Somerville: The Saturday Morning Bagel Bards
By Doug Holder
Often we greet our members of the Bagel
Bards group (that meets at the Au Bon Pain in Davis Square,
Somerville ) with the refrain, “You're still alive!” This group
of writers, playwrights and poets take nothing for granted. But this
reflects on the group's informal nature, and the gallows humor that
we have refined into a high art.
It is a bit like being in a play or a
Marx Brothers movie. I sit back and enjoy the humor and drama that unfolds every Saturday morning. Yes—we
discuss our writing, but is more than that. We have a member who
regales us with stories of union corruption, corporate greed, and his
clandestine forays into Afghanistan. Two of our millennial members
often stop by to fill us in about their jobs, their navigation of
the world, and their writing. Some of our member sit back and take it
all in-- while others compete for center stage to make their pitch,
plea, joke, gripe, only to be drowned out by other hungry voices.
In some regards it is a madcap
dysfunctional family. Many of our members are accomplished writers,
and they bring a wealth of experience and talent to the group. No one
takes themselves too seriously, and if they do,they will be brought
down to the earth quite quickly.
Some times you need to take a deep
breath to try to get a hold of the topics our public intellectuals
bring to the plate. We can start out with a discussion of Botticelli
and it could easily morph into a heated conversation about Donald
Trump, or the meaning of meaning.
Most importantly we are a Saturday
morning band of friends. We have a spot to discuss the writer's life,
present our own work on occasion, and revel in our own
eccentricities. We linger, we schmooze, we pontificate.. . And when
it comes to the time for our last cup of coffee , and we leave for
all points—we can expect to be back next week greeted by the Greek
Chorus, “You're still alive!”
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