Last Thursday, LA-based literary series Casual Encounterz hosted its final New York reading this summer. Founded by writer and producer Sammy Loren, the program aims to revitalize the antiquated tradition of the open mic. Casual Encounterz, which has previously been staged outside of a butcher shop, in a grocery store parking lot, and on a king-sized bed at the Ritz-Carlton, said goodbye to the city at François Ghebaly—an art gallery tucked behind a liquor store on the Lower East Side.

Reading from iPhones and crumpled sheets of paper, Casual Encouterz’s featured writers included Hannah Lillith Assadi, Samuel Rutter, and Megan Nolan, among others. The authors shared sex scenes involving dildo-microphones, dispatches on nosy journalists, and detailed romantic fantasies starring Matt Damon. The crowd—spanning Dimes Square girls in low-rise skirts to goth-adjacent Bushwick artists to a few lost-looking corporate types—sipped boxed wine as they listened to these stories, slipping outside for cigarettes and conversations as readers handed off the spotlight. Document shares what we overheard at the literary world’s latest bicoastal forum.

“Trust me, I’m not trying to bag you.”

“How bad of a father can an investment banker be?”

“Some people flew in from LA, and they were like, ‘Hey everyone! I’m rich.’”

“How’s the wine?”

 

“I mean, it’s boxed wine, but the box has a little graphic design on it.”

“She lives on the Bushwick border.”

 

“It’s funny how everyone in Ridgewood says that.”