Sister Spit. Photo by Charlsie Dewey________
Women and Children First, 5233 N. Clark, was packed on April 21 for the much-anticipated return of Sister Spit. Almost 10 years after the original line-up began crossing the country in a dilapidated van full of occupants wondering where exactly they were going to sleep if they did manage to reach their destination, Sister Spit: The Next Generation piled into a much more reliable van and embarked on a new journey across a landscape significantly changed since the tour's founding days in the mid-90s.
Michelle Tea—writer, performer and Sister Spit co-founder—told Windy City Times, 'I edited the anthology Baby Remember My Name and I got really excited. I wanted to go on a tour for the book and bring as many of the girls from the book as I could, and then all these things happened at the same time.'
Tea said she had been getting many questions about Sister Spit: 'I was really surprised people were still thinking about it.' With Eileen Myles' new book ( Sorry, Trees ) and Tea's most recent novel ( Rose of No Man's Land ) , Tea found herself in the midst of trying to put together several tours when the idea for Sister Spit: The Next Generation occurred to her.
'I was like this tour is Sister Spit, the same energy, a bunch of people who are just starting out and then me, Eileen and Ali have done it before. It felt right. I called it the Next Generation so people understood it was really different also, a new version of that same energy.'
Tea said the 2007 tour is different in so many ways, but one of the biggest changes is management. 'It feels a lot more stable,' Tea said.
Tea was joined by Sister Spit veterans Ali Liebegott and Eileen Myles and five up and coming writers from the anthology Baby Remember My Name: New Queer Girl Writings, Rhiannon Argo, Tamara Llosa-Sandor, Cristy C. Road, Nicole J. Georges and Robin Akimbo.
Equipped with entertaining slides and charming personalities, the newest members of Sister Spit hit all the right spots.
From Nicole J. Georges on-air encounter with right-wing radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger to one-time Wicker Park resident Rhiannon Argo's tale of breaking up and eviction, the audience was treated to a night of bright new talent and dead-on depictions of twentysomething life.
Tea said she will be hitting the road once again in October: 'There is an anthology I edited called It's So You, and it's about fashion and feminism, so I am going to do a book tour and bring a bunch of people from that book.'