Every third Wednesday for the past five years, a bilingual group of Mexico City writers gathers in the Condesa neighborhood’s American Legion to share what they’ve been working on, or a favorite passage from another’s pen.
The grouping is diverse in age, gender, nationality. People read passages from books they’ve published and others, from notebooks that may never be seen by another person. Anyone can take the floor, as long as they sign up on a sheet of paper passed around the room
“Every month has different people, a different vibe,” the night’s co-founder Jack Little told The News. “Sometimes there’s a lot of Spanish speakers, sometimes a lot of English. The idea is that people come and feel comfortable to read their poetry.”
Little hit upon the idea for the evening with Luis Coto, a Puerto Rican-New Yorker ex-Marine, who in addition to being a photographer and poet, serves as the commander of the Legion post, which is something like the club president for the veterans’ social club.
The two met while promoting other projects. “I asked Luis if he would be interested in playing cricket and he said no,” said Little. “He asked me if I was interested in looking at his photos and I said no. Then we realized we were both interested in poetry.”
The American Legion was founded in 1920, which makes it one of the oldest in the world. Its members support a primary school, a school for the blind and an orphanage for girls without family.
Visitors will find photos of the veterans with students and residents of these groups on the club’s walls, alongside military paraphernalia that can often provide a funny contrast to the house music nights and other parties that the management books to bring fresh blood (and pesos) into the club.
“It’s become a cool cultural center, strangely,” Little said.
Although that may be true, the vets that form the Legion’s core can still be spied playing dominos on any given day. A few are regulars at the poetry nights — which are emceed by Coto — where they’ll bring their own stanzas or simply sit and listen to the readers.
Regardless of their combat status, many Mexico City residents stop by for the club’s cheeseburgers, rumored to be among the best in the city.
That kind of United States connection might make it seems like an odd place to host Coto and Little’s monthly reading, but despite the surroundings, they often turn out to be nationally diverse affairs.
Sometimes the events will feature a writer who reads some recently published work — poets Colin Carberry (who is Irish-Canadian) and Agnes Marton (a Hungarian scribe who is currently traveling in the Arctic) among them — but usually its a democratic affair that goes from about 7:45 to 9:15 p.m., with attendees hanging out after to share a drink and the local lit scene gossip.
“I don’t know if i could say theres a typical kind of person who comes to the readings,” said Little, who also runs the six-year old Ofi Press, a web magazine that has produced 67 editions and which is currently planning a series of books by young Mexican poets including Ingrid Valencia and Rossy Evelin Lima, translated into English.
Perhaps there’s no typical attendee, but there is a typical sentiment shared by readers at the end of the night — satisfaction of exchanging words with a group that really loves them.
THE NEWS