ENTERTAINMENT

This month’s writers/readers were Anuja Varghese, Catharine Leggett, Kelly Pedro and Tony North, all sharing their works of fantastic fiction for a really warm group of folks. All the authors read splendidly, and it was really inspiring to hear the words flowing from the writers themselves Special congratulations and shout out to Anuja Varghese who, with this event, launched the book tour for her new work: Chrysalis (House of Anansi) If you haven’t checked out The Riverside Reading Series, it’s a great fit for people who are creative, curious or community minded, or all three! They’ve got a website with all their upcoming events, including some outdoor Summertime happenings at the Walter Williams Amphitheatre in Lions’ Park I’m already looking forward to more literary rendezvous with The Riverside Reading Series, a perfect way to spend an afternoon. In the evening, the hum of the Dog-Eared Café shifted to a radiant roar with the launch of Big Cityyy Arts’ The Varietyyy Show, which is a new, fun event for nurturing, supporting and showcasing various local talents Full disclosure, this is and was my show, so it was totally amazing and perfect and iconic and slaytastic…

Jokes aside, it was really thrilling to be able to give a stage to five local performers who all do different things We had: Gothika Jones, a drag Queen, Roxie Lee, a cabaret singer, Jon Swanson, a drag King and singer/musician duo The Bailey Kidz. All acts were coached by myself in various performance aspects and had costume support from Prinx Lydia (who is my co-producer and co-facilitator for all things Big Cityyy Arts)

It was really cool to be able to feature these artists, a lot of them debuting brand new performances – and they were all brilliant, not to mention the audience was absolutely amazing! So fun, so fresh and very supportive of these rising and bright burning stars, we always have the best guests in attendance at our events at the Dog-Eared Café.

The Dog-Eared doesn’t hold evening events every night but they do have regular events on Fridays and Saturdays, plus pop-up events other nights of the week. Their programme includes trivia, open music jam, 90’s night, life drawing, Paint & Pour events and more It’s perfect way to spend an evening and to also support local and small at the same time!

The Varietyyy show launch cast, featuring Rubyyy Jones, contributing entertainment columnist! The Varietyyy Show featured an array of local talent debuting brand new performances during last Saturday’s event at the Dog-Eared Café.