Writer of the Month: Samuel Nelson/Excerpt from "Pissing at the Women’s March"
Late March snowstorms didn't put a damper on our third event of The Inner Loop Season IV, which, as always, was a rollicking evening of thoughtful, poignant, and often hilarious local writers. This month's Writer of the Month, Samuel Nelson, embodied all three of those descriptors with his exceptional essay on the male experience at the Women's March. Samuel's opening piece captivated the audience with prose that is observant and humorous while it critiques social injustice. Read an excerpt below, then visit Sam's page on Medium for the full essay.
About Samuel Nelson:
Samuel Nelson is a teacher and writer in Washington, D.C. although his impulsive restlessness has impelled him to live, teach, and write in many cities more recently Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Puebla, Mexico. He's originally from Richmond, VA. He has published short form fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in a smattering of small journals and publications, including Country Roads Magazine, Fiction Southeast, District Lines, and NOLA Defender.
You can read more about Samuel in Northern Virginia's Passenger magazine. Each month, the talented folks at Passenger interview our Writers of the Month about the challenges of balancing professional and creative lives. So after you read this month's selection, scoot on over to Passenger's The Writer's Life to read Samuel's interview.
from Pissing at the Women's March
Samuel Nelson
There’s a march to the march. That’s how big this crowd is. And a lot of people need to use the bathroom. And a lot of people don’t need to use it yet, but they to want to use it before they enter the huge throng of pink pussy hats on 7th and beyond, where there’s little hope of finding an open bowl to piss in. So they stop here. There’s a line to get into the Starbucks on the corner. And another line at the other Starbucks on the other corner. No, and no.
And then there’s the port-a-potties. The lowly and sedentary green shit-ovens. There seems like a hundred of them at Indiana and 7th alone. Gene’s Johns. And they’re locked. Not just here. All over the Mall and downtown. Locked. It feels like Trump did this. Like he said to Gene after the inaugural parade, hey, lock that shit up, make those Losers hold it in. Make those loser ladies in vagina hats wait at Starbucks. So people wait. Some marchers stop and give them stickers to wear: #Vagilantes, #NotMyPresident, Pussies Against Trump...
You can finish the very short essay here on medium.