Spoken Word Artist-Poet-Writer-Filmmaker
(and Now Mom) Beth Lisick
© 2005 by Parents' Press
By Dixie Jordan
Name: Beth Lisick.
Latest accomplishment:
Her third
book, Everybody into the Pool: True Tales, is being published
July 5 by Regan Books, a HarperCollins imprint.
Family: Husband Eli Crews, a
contra bass player and recording engineer; and their son Gus,
3, who starts preschool in Berkeley this fall.
Roots: Grew up in Saratoga with
two older brothers in the house where her parents "Midwest
Catholics, conservative, but in a good way" still
live. Majored in American studies at UC Santa Cruz, graduating
in 1991.
Occupation:
The arts,
in many forms. Spoken word artist, humorist, storyteller, poet,
photographer, filmmaker, long-time arts/nightlife columnist
for sfgate.com, and founder of the Porchlight Storytelling Series
at San Francisco's Café du Nord. Has toured with her own
band, the Beth Lisick Ordeal, and as the only straight member
of a lesbian performance group. Her second book, This Too
Can Be Yours, won the 2002 Firecracker Alternative Book Award.
S.F. Metro named her as one of its "99 People to
Watch in '99."
We talk in the
living room of her 1912 South Berkeley house, where Beth sits
cross-legged and barefoot under an elaborate plaster ceiling
medallion, drinking ginger tea.
Q. The words
that come to mind are "Renaissance woman."
Beth:
I've just followed whatever I'm interested in. I'm barely making
a living. I've got $75 in the bank.
Q. Tell me
about your new book.
Beth:
This is my first book with a big New York press. It's a collection
of first-person humorous stories about my life, from a little
kid up to having a baby. They're calling it a memoir.
Q. A memoir?
Beth:
About how a suburban everygirl became such a cheerleader for
the arts. I really was traditional. I was a homecoming princess
my freshman year. I didn't drink a beer until I was 21. But my
parents felt like, "You can do anything, as long as you
don't hurt anyone." I think I've evolved into who I was
meant to be naturally.
Q. How did
you start writing?
Beth:
I was at a bar, having a beer with a friend, and it was open
mic night. I was always a secret writer about funny things in
my life. I thought this was a great venue, so I kept writing
and going back to read every week. Jennifer Joseph from Manic
D Press heard me one night at Paradise Lounge. She said to gather
my stories into a book (Monkey Girl, Manic D Press).
Q. And then...?
Beth:
My second book was a collection of short fiction, because I didn't
like people knowing so much about my life. I found out I was
pregnant while I was writing it. I thought that was perfect
I could go on tour after the baby was born. It gave me momentum.
Q. And Everybody
into the Pool?
Beth:
I realized I really like first-person writing, and I could kind
of decide what to reveal. I was reading at Litquake [an annual
literary festival in San Francisco], and a New York agent heard
me.
Q. That was
lucky.
Beth:
I had my first poem published in Best American Poetry 1997.
James Tate, the poet, went to a spoken word performance because
he wanted to see what poetry looks like on stage, and he heard
it. The next year, he was the guest editor, and he included it.
Q. How did
having a baby change your life?
Beth:
Time is the biggest issue, next to money. Our schedules are insane.
It's tag-team parenting one of us wants to be with Gus
all the time. When Gus first started talking, he couldn't believe
it when he had both of us around at the same time!
Q. What kind
of parent are you?
Beth:
I don't read books about it, I just do it. Having such traditional
parents really helped me with Gus, I think. They are so cute,
and my brothers and I were happy-go-lucky suburban kids. So Gus
is a very traditional child. He wears the clothes he gets as
hand-me-downs and things my parents buy for him. And he taught
me what he needed: 7:30 bathtime, 8:30 bedtime, lots of books.
Q. What's
Gus like?
Beth:
He's a character. He's very formal. He wants to wear long sleeves
and long pants, and he doesn't like sandals. He's also very emotional
his tantrums are unlike anything else I've ever seen.
Q. Are you
going to write about being a mother?
Beth:
I'm not sure what my take is on it yet. And I didn't want to
get pegged as some sort of alterna-mom.
Q. What's
next?
Beth:
There's the book tour to Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Seattle, Austin,
places where there are people I've known forever. I'm setting
up all the shows myself. HarperCollins told me they had a $10,000
tour budget, so they could send me to four cities. With my punk
rock aesthetic, I told them I could tour 30 cities for that amount.
In the fall, I have shows in New York and Chicago. And I have
a new column idea I'm going to pitch to sfgate.com.
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