I met Janice Erlbaum during the early 90's spoken word explosion, when we were part of a gang of five, the infamous Pussy Poets. She inspired me then, and she inspires me now.
Read her new book, GIRLBOMB, A HALFWAY HOMELESS MEMOIR. It's her story of running away from home as a teenager and into a Catholic shelter, then a group home, then back with difficult Mom, then...well, I won't tell you how it ends, only that it packs a punch and made me cry on the 5 train. The book's a meditation on what "home" is, and the psychological state of "homelessness," this hunger to belong in a place, to feel safe, to feel like you have some control over what happens there. These are deeply important needs that Erlbaum does not take for granted. It's poetic, full of beautiful urban patois, and brings the 80's back into full color, for those of us sober enough to remember. Fast paced, pick it up tonight and you'll finish it this weekend.
For those of you in the Boston area, she'll be reading in Cambridge March 15. If you can make it, she's hilarious in person.
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