Jerry Quickley, one of two headliners at this second annual event, is a performance poet–and a natural-born comedian. But his Live From the Front covers the dark subject of Iraq and our presence there. Quickley was in Baghdad as a correspondent for Pacifica Radio in LA when the war began, and in the piece he adopts a flat voice to read chilling descriptions of bombs exploding and windows shattering and a dog trying to hide. But much of the narrative, interspersed with spates of poetry, is funny (“In Iraq my hair was a threat–I got offered a free haircut at least once a day”). Though sometimes Quickley’s talk about his life in America seems beside the point, overall this is an entertaining, instructive look at a trip few have made. The other headliner, Rha Goddess, performs a much more theatrical work, Low. Carefully staged, with recorded voice-overs, this monologue by a woman prone to rage and depression can be overwrought, but everyday anecdotes help rope you in.
