It’s a classic setup. Two champions of the literary arts, both originally from north of the Mason-Dixon Line, walk into a bar in Church Hill, where they meet and leave with their own idea for a reading series.
Ty Phelps, a high school English teacher, and Jack Sadicario, a clinical psychologist, are now into their second year of hosting free readings in one of the more unlikely spaces the Fan has to offer — Nest Realty office — across the street from The Cask Cafe. Their “Flying South: a literary series” takes place there roughly once a month in the office’s front room (follow them @flying_south_series to find out the schedule).
Lately, Richmond seems to be adding to its vibrant literary community with many new series including: “Author RVA” at the Institute for Contemporary Art; “Wild at Heart” and “Parallel Listening” at Gallery5; Avery Fogarty’s rotating, interdisciplinary performances at the Greenhouse Gallery; recently launched print publication, The Oregon Hill Review, and now in its fourth year, the Richmond Poetry Fest hosted by the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. As a former writer-in-residence at VisArts, Phelps says the nonprofit has worked to consolidate a lot of the art happening around town.
Both Phelps and Sadicario landed in Richmond for graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University; she also co-edits the Philadelphia-based magazine and small press, bedfellows; and he recently finished a novel. The idea for the “Flying South” series was hatched two years ago at Patrick Henry’s Pub, the beloved basement watering hole where you’re as likely to strike-up a conversation about contemporary poetry as you are, say, pop punk pedantry. It was Halloween and they had just attended a backyard party in the neighborhood; Phelps was the drummer for the cover band, Jojo and the Kick Its, and Sadicario was a friend of Jordan McDonald, née Jojo. It’s also when they met future patron Jess Houser, who would later host “Flying South.”
Talking with Ty and Jack, their bond is most evident when they finish each other’s sentences, or even talk over each other in a way that suggests their synchronicity and mutual excitement. Like when Sadicario whispers, “Are we mentioning ‘Twigs and Shit?’” which was Phelps’ original, half-serious name for the series. She notes that the series is a way to connect to something when she’s going through her own writing droughts: “I love organizing and hearing other people. It’s selfishly very supportive of my writing.”
The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
Style Weekly: Is it just me or is there a recent uptick in events geared toward readers and writers in Richmond?
Phelps: Yeah, definitely. I’ve gotten to meet a lot more people doing all this different stuff because it’s starting to cross-fertilize. It’s cool.
Sadicario: I think, post pandemic, people are really interested in being with other people who are writing. It’s a source of inspiration … People want to get out of the house and want to be with other people. They want to feel connected to other people, especially in the sociopolitical environment.
Phelps: One of the things we do that Jack was emphatic about at first, was taking breaks in between each reader. People get up and chatter, so “Flying South” has a real social component. People are talking to each other, making new friends, seeing people they haven’t seen in a while. It’s neat.
How intentional is it to host a combination of local and visiting or nationally known authors?
Phelps: It’s basically like, ‘Who will the dates work for?’ Sometimes everyone’s from out of town, then other times it’s all locals. But it’s been primarily Richmond people [so far].
Sadicario: There’s more diversity in genre.
Phelps: Our very first reader read a really hefty short story excerpt.
Sadicario: We’ve had a comic book writer read. We’ve heard memoirs, we’ve heard short stories. We’ve heard excerpts from novels, poetry. Some more general creative nonfiction stuff. It’s been–
Phelps: Kind of all over. And all different topics, forms. We’re a very formal operation here!
Sadicario: One thing I appreciate about being in this space, and not like a bar or a coffee shop, is that you don’t have the pressure of sales or owing something to somebody.
Phelps: Also everyone in this space is here for the reading.
Sadicario: People are here, they’re present. It’s intentional.
Phelps: We tell people, ‘Hey, it’s in a realty office.’ And everyone’s like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ And frankly, that’s what my reaction would be.
Sadicario: But Nest hosts community events outside of this reading, so there is some precedent for it. And Jess and all the other folks here have been really supportive. It’s an instance of how you can weave yourself into a community and we’re very grateful for her.
Phelps: If you don’t have a venue, turn something into a venue.
Sadicario: Well, that’s our shared punk ethos.
Phelps: Sure, there’s that, we’re gonna do it ourselves; a little bit of DIY elements. I can’t DIY things in the physical world. ’cause I’m just bad at tools and stuff.
Sadicario: I’m okay.
Phelps: Yeah, but I can DIY events.
Sadicario: You can pull people together.
[What else has] emerged as unique to the event?
Phelps: We play Willie Nelson before, after and during breaks. Also I learned how to do some letterpress when I was the writer-in-residence at VisArts. So we do letterpress prints and give one to every reader and then —
Sadicario: We make them take pictures with it.
Phelps: We usually have three readers, sometimes two. And we give people up to 20 minutes, which is longer than some reading series … This is our logo.
Who designed it?
Phelps: We kind of did it together … We went to VisArts [while I was in residence] and we looked through the letterpress drawers to find fonts we liked. Then we looked for all the bird stamps that they have, and we wound up with these three.
Sadicario: These were the birds we liked. There were other birds —
Phelps: We wanted birds that looked similar. So that you could imagine a flock, because “Flying South” right? You think geese and the V. And then these were the only three facing the same direction … I was originally imagining there would be like five to eight birds, and there just weren’t, and I didn’t know how to get more birds.
Sadicario: A lot with this series has fallen into place because I think we communicate quite well with each other. We have a shared idea of what we want this to look like. And much like that, we have three birds on there and we basically, max, only have three readers.
Now that you’re established with a logo and theme song, how would you like to see the series progress?
Phelps: For now, I mostly want to keep the enthusiasm around it going. It’s great when there’s a full room. I think that’s a nice experience for the readers.
Sadicario: And it’s a nice experience for us.
What does your bucket list of future guests/readers look like?
Phelps: I was emceeing the lunchtime poetry reading for James River Writers, so I was introducing these folks. Two of them were affiliated with UVA and I just love their books. Amber McBride writes more like YA-type stuff. Sometimes whole novels in verse. I think one of her books was a National Book Award finalist [Editor’s note: her debut young adult novel “Me (Moth)” was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the 2022 Coretta Scott King Book Awards’ John Steptoe New Talent Award]. And then, Kiki Petrosino, whose book “White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia” is one of my favorite poetry books I’ve ever read.
So if we got to the point where we can hit up them — I haven’t quite summoned the gumption to cold email —
Sadicario: My co-editors, Alina Pleskova and Rachel Milligan. There’s been a lot of talk about them coming down.
Phelps: I want to meet these people!
Sadicario: I can’t go one interview without mentioning my creative others, but we’re getting one of my bucket list people, who’s a friend of a friend of mine, whose book is coming out from Radiator Press — Gina Myers is coming down. I could see us doing some kind of anthology too, maybe of readers that we’ve had?
Phelps: Yeah, like when we hit the two-year mark or something? Could be cool … I don’t know how to do any of that stuff.
Sadicario: I do.
Phelps: Well, I know you do. You would be doing more of the work for that.
Sadicario: I’m not volunteering anything … Don’t let my co-editors know. I got work to do.
The next installment of “Flying South: a literary series” will be held Thursday, Sept. 18 with readings by VCU MFA candidates Marie Potoczny, Camryn Claude and Trey Burnart Hall at Nest Realty, located at 221 S. Robinson St. Doors are at 7:30 with readings starting at 8 p.m. There will be complimentary refreshments with an opportunity to tip participants and donate to Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project and He She Ze and We.
