A Sad Flower in the Sand
Saturday, October 18 | 4-5:30pm
Location: Slash (1150 25th St, Building B, San Francisco)
Free event
Join us for an afternoon of poetry reading and harp music on the occasion of Like a City, Slash’s fall exhibition curated by Sophie Appel. Bay Area-based writers Sophia Dahlin and D’mani Thomas join Los Angeles-based artist David Horvitz, whose work is featured in Like a City, to share poems that touch on topics including geographical intimacy, the impact of surveillance on Black queers, and non-bioessentialist understandings of lesbianism. Leng Bian contributes a harp performance inspired by Folk music and everyday sounds.
Sophia Dahlin is a poet in the East Bay. Her first collection, Natch, was released in 2020 by City Lights Books. Her second book, Glove Money, is forthcoming from Nightboat. She leads generative poetry workshops and teaches youth creative writing. With Jacob Kahn, she edits a small chapbook press called Eyelet, and with seven other poets, she curates a weekly reading series at Tamarack, Oakland.
David Horvitz was born in Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works. His multidisciplinary practice explores systems of language, time, and networks, often questioning the distances—geographical, temporal, and interpersonal—that separate people and places. Using images, text, and objects, his works move autonomously through various contexts, frequently entering the intimate and everyday.
D’mani Thomas (he \ they) is a writer, and creative from Oakland, California (Ohlone territory). Their work currently explores surveillance, intimacy, and the insidious ways Black queers have been impacted by both. His work can be found in Muzzle Magazine, The Shade Journal, Oroboro Lit Journal, KALW 91.7 FM, The Auburn Avenue, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, Grown-up Elementary, is now available through Black Lawrence Press. Outside of poetry, catch them studying horror movies, dancing, and eating too many fries.
Leng Bian is a harp player, composer, songwriter & producer from San Francisco, California. She began playing the harp at age 4 after witnessing one being played for the first time and describing the experience as “love at first sight.” Her work is primarily inspired by Folk music and the implicit rhythm of “everyday” sounds, such as cutting flowers to put into a vase. With conscious playfulness, her music invokes both tension and levity for her listeners.