The Gothic Funk Press is very pleased that we have scheduled the fifth installment of our digital salon series, Salon Shandy. This event will take place on Wednesday, April 6th, 2022 at 8 PM EDT.
Inspired by a long-ago summer night of spirited storytelling, Salon Shandy will feature our resident mixologist and three guest readers.
Our reading will begin when our mixologist shows you how to make a delicious libation (of course, you are welcome to enjoy any food or drink you wish during the event.) Please check the bottom of this document for a list of ingredients before the event. Then, potable in hand, you can kick back and enjoy some of the wonderful literary voices working in Flint, Michigan and beyond.
Salon Shandy can be streamed via Gothic Funk Press on YouTube.
Our April readers will be Elisabeth Blair, Aaron Foley, and Kelsey Ronan. Our resident mixologist is Irène Hodes. Our host will be Gothic Funk Press Director Connor Coyne.
Please direct questions to connor@connorcoyne.com.
GUEST READERS
Elisabeth Blair is a poet, editor, and workshop leader with an extensive background in music and the visual arts. She has been artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Wildacres, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and ACRE. Her publications include forthcoming full-length collection because God loves the wasp (Unsolicited Press, August 2022), two chapbooks (We He She/It from Dancing Girl Press, 2016; and without saying from Ethel Press, 2020) and poems in a variety of journals, including Harpur Palate (forthcoming), Feminist Studies, cream city review, and Juked.
Aaron Foley‘s reporting and writing on Detroit, blackness and queerne
Kelsey Ronan grew up in Flint, Michigan. Her work has appeared in Lit Hub, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She lives in Detroit and teaches for InsideOut Literary Arts. Chevy in the Hole is her first novel.
RESIDENT MIXOLOGIST
Irène Hodes, your proud virtual mixologist, has been many things. This current incarnation sees her as director of two film festivals and cultural events at the Sonoma County, California, Jewish Community Center. She spent over ten years in the wine industry, making, selling, and educating people about wine, as well as working in winery management. In the core of her being, she is a writer, artist, comedian, cook, traveler, wordsmith, and crossword puzzle enthusiast. During the pandemic she writes and edits a daily film and culture newsletter and is creating a virtual international film festival, (and drinks a lot of very fancy wine, craft beer, and artisanal spirits – it’s just what we do in Sonoma County).
Basic Shandy:
Ingredients
– 1/2 (12-ounce) can or bottle beer
– 6 ounces lemonade (ready made or homemade)
– lemon slice (optional)
A light lager or wheat beer are perfect, and I would recommend not using a dark beer.
If obtaining lemonade is difficult (I don’t regularly drink it) some people may have a lemon/lime soda at the ready (Sprite or similar). It’s a different result but mighty tasty! Think of it as a “pub-shandy!”
Ingredients
– 4 ounces soda water, or sparkling mineral water
– 4 ounces lemonade
– 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon aromatic bitters, or to taste
– 1 slice lemon, for garnish
Alcohol free and popular in South Africa.
Ingredients
– 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 2 1/2 cups water, divided
Put the sugar and 1/2 cup of the water in a small saucepan. Heat to a simmer and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool. This creates a simple syrup. Combine with lemon juice and the remainder of the water.
Mix the citrus flavors: Use 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup of other citrus juice, such as Meyer lemon, orange, lime, or grapefruit juice.
Or, try “pioneer lemonade” with 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. More lemon, more flavor: Cut off or grate the zest (the thin bright yellow outer part of the peel) of the lemon and add the zest to the sugar and water while you make the syrup. Let the zest sit in the syrup while it cools. This will infuse the syrup with lemon flavor. Strain the syrup before mixing with the lemon juice.
Other ideas – infuse other fruits (berries), fresh ginger, or herbs into the simple syrup process!