The fantasy genre first found its voice in the mead halls, gathering places where traveling scops told tales of heroes, monsters, and adventures in distant lands.
Today, the tradition of live storytelling continues every fourth Wednesday when fantastic fiction lovers gather for Fantastic Fiction at the KGB Bar, at 85 East Fourth Street in New York City.
It’s a terrific series, and one worth supporting.
Last month, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel launched a Kickstarter campaign to underwrite the continuation of the series, and today, with eleven days left, the campaign has passed the $5000 mark – underwriting the continuation of Fantastic Fiction at the KGB for the next three years. It’s an impressive accomplishment, but Ellen and Matt would love to raise $7000 by the campaign’s end. That amount will fund the program’s next four years while also covering the cut taken by Kickstarter and Amazon for helping run the campaign.
If you love good fiction, and if you believe as I do that the art of live storytelling still has a place in today’s world, please take a moment to support this remarkable series. Pledges can be as low as $1, and some amazing prizes start at just the $15 level. But hurry. The campaign ends on July 26.
For more information, please click here to see the campaign’s press release. Or, if I’ve already convinced you, simply click here and go straight to the KGB Kickstarter page. At both links, you can learn more about the future of Fantastic Fiction at the KGB and peruse some of the amazing gifts that can be yours for supporting its continuation.
But of course the real reward will be in knowing that you played your part in supporting live storytelling in the 21st century.
The Beowulf poet would be proud.
Image Credits:
Screen cap of the KGB Sign from the Fantastic Fiction at KGB Fundraiser video.
Fantastic Fiction hosts Matthew Kressel and Ellen Datlow from the Fantastic Fiction at the KGB Fundraiser page.
“Beowulf replies haughtily to Unferth” by John Henry F. Bacon (1910).
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