Friday, December 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM
2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles
The Poetic Research Bureau presents the launch of Padam Padam: Collected Poems of Kevin Killian, edited by Evan Kennedy and Jason Morris. Featuring readings by Dodie Bellamy, Tom Comitta, Hedi El Kholti, Aaron Kunin, Joseph Mosconi, Bradford Nordeen, Wendy C. Ortiz, Page Person, Jeanetta Rich, Jack Skelley, Frances Stark, Kayla Tange and Chris Zeischegg. ~ Kevin Killian—the puckish poet, playwright, novelist, scholar, and impresario of the Bay Area arts community—channeled the charisma of the pop stars. Pulled from his legendary corpus, and long out of print, the work collected here is the record of Killian’s life as a radical littérateur. In Argento Series, Killian conjures the horror, suspense, and cinematic imagery of director Dario Argento as he documents the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. In Action Kylie, he revels in queer identity and the universal love of fandom. In Tweaky Village and Tony Greene Era, Killian elevates artists and friends to legendary status within his personal pantheon. And Elements, Killian’s wink at the periodic table, makes its U.S. debut. The collection features an introduction by Kay Gabriel, who writes of Killian’s “fabulous, permissive body of work, charming, filthy and smarmy at turns, with its retchable milk enemas and its devilish twists.”