The Big One: Issue Two Launch Party
The Earl
Los Angeles
September 6, 2024
It seems the season of earthquakes is upon us. After a series of small tremors, a 4.4 on the Richter Scale shook the Eastside in August; just today, I was roused from my sleep by a mysterious rumbling. Now the Big One has come to town — although this time, it wasn’t the shifting of tectonic plates that created a disturbance but the emergence of a new literary magazine founded by born-and-raised California girls Gabrielle “Gabby” Sones and Johanna “Jo” Stone.
Beyond the shadow of the skyscrapers that signify the New York establishment, Los Angeles’s writing community is defined by a DIY spirit. The majority of literary life is centered around readings — possibly because putting together a publication takes more time, effort, and money than most people are willing to spend without being backed by an institution, and possibly because most Angelenos would rather go to a social event than curl up with a book (to borrow the proverbial personality test scenario).
Hence, the rise of Sones and Stone’s new lit mag is particularly exciting — we finally have some tangible proof that “the scene” is indeed typing text into word processors. Print media is only dead if we let it die — and judging by the turnout at The Big One’s issue two Launch Party, I’d wager that the mag has a long life ahead.
When I arrived at the Earl, a discreet venue near K‑Town that was larger than it seemed, the auditorium was already packed with people I could recognize by the backs of their heads. On the agenda were readings by Oliver Misraje, Grace McGrade, John Tottenham, Riska Seval, Jasminne Morataya, and Malone Urfalian, most of whom were multi-hyphenates in true L.A. fashion. The City of Angels itself was a common theme — although it manifested as the City of Demons in some selections, as with Autre editor-at-large Misraje’s piece on the Black Dahlia.
Playful metacommentary was also popular. Tottenham, a frequent presence on the local reading circuit due to his wry delivery, recited a poem with lines including “The less someone has to say, the more they say, and the more loudly they say it … I have nothing to say, other than this.” Urfalian began his story by reading texts from Sones and Stone aloud: “We need you to keep it under five to six minutes,” and “You can say four to five edgy things.”
After a sweet concluding address by Sones and Stone (featuring a particularly effusive shoutout to Axiom Print in Glendale), patrons flocked to a table in the corner to pick up their copies of the mag. The real show was on the page — the spreads paired beautifully arranged text with displays of L.A. elegance, kitsch, and desolation. An eye for aesthetics isn’t always guaranteed in the literary world; I’ve refrained from submitting to many a lit mag because of a poorly designed web page or unsightly social media graphics. The Big One affirms the beauty of the written word by framing it beautifully, reminding readers that poetry and prose are art forms in and of themselves.
Spilling out of the room, I roamed the Earl’s mazelike interior. In an adjacent hall, DJs Perfect Angel Protection Force and smilegoth spun club classics. Passing through, I bobbed my head to the beat — yet I followed the crowd to the patio, where guests held their copies of the mag close as they smoked and said their hellos. Conversations felt like they had been ripped from Hollywood Babylon—celebrity drama and the Manson murders were the topics du jour. If there’s one thing Angelenos love — especially when it comes to the Eastside art crowd — it’s telling stories.
