Few things go as well together as poetry and beer. Add a love story from local Artist Ted Washington and mix in one of Ocean Beach’s staple nightspots, and you have a recipe for a powerful, prose-filled evening sure to leave you wanting more.
On Monday, Feb. 26, Washington and members from his band, the performance ensemble Pruitt Igoe, will read from his new book “22.” Published by Puna Press, “22” is a love story told through a series of 22 poems. Washington will read excerpts at the Drunk Poets Society, a weekly poetry event at Winstons, 1921 Bacon St.
This is Washington’s third book with Puna Press, the publishing house he founded, but his first containing love poems inspired by real-life experiences. The book reads like a story, recounting the trappings of love “” experiences Washington said he would rather perform on stage than talk about.
“It’s a story about the beginnings of love, the heat of love, the falling out of love and the coming back to love. It’s a classic love story,” he explained.
Washington has won several awards for his work as a pen and ink artist, including accolades at shows such as the Soho International Art Competition and Best-of-Show at the 2002 La Quinta Arts Festival. He said his artwork has allowed him to travel to different places doing many shows and exhibitions but that his work with Pruitt Igoe lets people hear his voice and get his messages out to a larger audience.
According to Washington, Pruitt Igoe is a spoken word, opera and expositional music band. Washington writes and performs alongside mezzo-soprano Molly Wilmot, who currently sings with the San Diego Opera, and Jon Cordova, Matthew Kerr and Coco Cambell.
Originally from St. Louis, Mo., Washington moved to San Diego after a stint in Denver for a winter and Los Angeles for a summer. Eventually landing in San Diego, Washington decided to stay and has been living here for more than 20 years. It was his childhood memories of the St. Louis public housing complex, the Pruitt Igoe that inspired the band’s name. He said he remembers seeing the Pruitt as a magnificent, beautiful place when he was a child.
However, the complex has since spiraled downward into a crime-ridden slum and the epitome of everything that could have gone wrong in a society, Washington said.
“By the time I was older and they were getting ready to demolish [the Pruitt], it was the scariest place on Earth,” he said. “Not even the police would go in there.”
But it was that transformation that Washington has tried to capture with his band. The name also serves as a reminder about the issues that people still deal with today, such as poverty, lack of affordable housing and other social ills.
“You’ll see love poems, but then you’ll also see poems about war,” he said of the show’s range.
Prior to the performance at Winstons, Pruitt Igoe will head into the studio to record its next self-titled album. And following the show, Washington will join other poets and the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park in teaching poetry and art to elementary school students.

Winstons has hosted the Drunk Poets Society, which runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., for about a year and a half. The event caters to the spoken word poets, with sign-ups the night of the event between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Despite the suggestive name, the Drunk Poets Society attracts a crowd of professional and amateur poets who take their craft seriously, said Winstons manager Jesse Egan, noting that the poetry ranges from the serious to humorous.
The event was created by Ola Hadi, a bartender intrigued by the idea of a poetry night at the bar. From there, the idea just took on a life of its own and has even survived Monday Night Football, Egan said.
Hadi, who studied poetry at the University of California, Berkeley, is pleased with the turnout at the event, which includes poets who only read at Winstons.
“They read poetry that they don’t normally share because they don’t want to be judged by a lot of people,” Hadi said.
Amateurs, critics and professionals alike now comprise the small group of society regulars, making for a different scene than the average coffee-house reading, Hadi said.
For more information about Washington’s book and band, visit www.punapress.com or www.pruittigoe.com, respectively.
For more information, call (619) 222-6822.