Lydi Conklin & Naomi Westwater: A Musical Exploration of Art & Queerness

Titcomb's Bookshop is thrilled to present author Lydi Conklin and musician Naomi Westwater for an evening of celebrating queerness, indie music, and Conklin's debut novel, !

This event will take place on Saturday, June 14th at 6:30 PM at Sandwich Town Hall (130 Main Street, Sandwich, MA). The event will begin with a live performance by Naomi Westwater followed by a conversation with Lydi Conklin about their book. Conklin will have a Q&A and book signing before welcoming Westwater back to the stage for another performance.

Registration is required and space is limited. Registration can be completed on this page or by calling Titcomb's Bookshop at 508-888-2331. If you cannot attend but would like a signed copy of Conklin's book, please order here.

ABOUT SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE

A suspenseful, wildly engaging debut novel by the award-winning author of , following a musician spiraling in self-doubt and self-searching after a night—and a relationship—gone wrong.

Songs of No Provenance tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she's forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking—and her complicated history with a friend and mentee—while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member.

A propulsive character study of a flawed and fascinating artist, Songs of No Provenance explores issues of trans nonbinary identity, queer baiting and appropriation, kink, fame hunger, secrecy and survival, and the question of whether a work of art can exist separately from its artist.

ABOUT LYDI CONKLIN

Lydi Conklin has received a Stegner Fellowship, four Pushcart Prizes, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, a Creative Writing Fulbright in Poland, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Sewanee Writers Conference, Emory University, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, the James Merrill House, Lighthouse Works, and elsewhere.

Their fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, One Story, McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, and VQR. They have drawn cartoons for The New Yorker and Narrative Magazine, and graphic fiction for The Believer, Lenny Letter, and the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. They’ve served as the Helen Zell Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan and are now an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University. Their story collection, Rainbow Rainbow, was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award and The Story Prize.

ABOUT NAOMI WESTWATER

Naomi Westwater (they/she) is a queer, Black-multiracial singer-songwriter from Massachusetts. Their work combines folk-rock music, poetry, and spirituality. Their hope is that through ritual and storytelling they can aid nature in the end of capitalism and the return to community, creativity, and collective joy.

Naomi holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music and she is a part of The Club Passim Folk Collective, where she produces Re-Imagining Lilith Fair: a tribute to the feminist music scene of the 1990s with an intersection lens for today. Naomi was nominated for 4 Boston Music Awards, and featured in The Boston Globe, Under The Radar, WBUR, WGBH, and The Bluegrass Situation. They were selected as on of WBUR’s Makers in 2024 and is a 2024 artist in residence at Château d'Orquevaux in France.

Naomi is on faculty at Club Passim and Not Sorry Productions teaching songwriting, tarot, and poetry, and leads the Boston Chapter of We Make Noise where she produces We Make Noise Fest and We Make Noise Camp. She is also an event producer and has produced shows at The Apollo Theatre, The Beacon Theatre, The Bell House, and more. Currently, Naomi is producing a series called Reclaiming Folk: A Celebration of People of Color in Folk Music and has received over 10 grants to tour the series.

EVENT ADDRESS*

Sandwich Town Hall

130 Main Street

Sandwich, MA 02635

*Put this address directly into your GPS as Google Maps will give you the incorrect address for Sandwich Town Hall!

Also check out other Arts events in Sandwich, Literary Art events in Sandwich, Music events in Sandwich.