Wednesday, April 24, 7pm
Honey
205 E. Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
FREE and open to the public! Doors open at 6:30.
RSVP here to get on our list for free appetizers at the event!
Click Here to download a PDF poster for this event

Join us for a cabaret-like evening
celebrating one man’s victory over . . . his penis.

BENT BUT NOT BROKEN is the story of the body, the self, and the ways in which illness both traumatizes and transforms. It is also the first memoir about Peyronie’s Disease, a disfiguring but treatable penile condition that afflicts 5% of the male population. Don Cummings writes openly, fearlessly, and often hilariously about the emotional and collateral damage caused by his bent penis, and its effect on both his partner and his own sense of self and sexuality. As the author moves from despair to raging hope, he recounts a harrowing kidnapping by a handsome stranger, a convoluted career as an actor and playwright, and powerful anecdotes of his sexual history (think penis as Proust’s madeleine). A dark comedy with a happy ending, BENT BUT NOT BROKEN details the author’s single-minded quest to cure his illness, redeem his sexuality, and save his relationship.

At this special Twin Cities event, Cummings will be joined onstage by local actors Mo Perry and Craig Johnson and the Debbie Briggs Vintage Jazz Combo, featuring Briggs (vocals), Jeffrey Sugerman (upright bass), Sam Kjellberg (percussion), and Bernie Wollenberg (keys). Books will be for sale and other treats may be in store.  Because who says charm, music, levity, and drinks can’t accompany stories of sickness and health?

“To the world-class pantheon of memoirists like David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs and Jonathan Ames, let us now add Don Cummings, who has single-handedly invented a new genre: the phallic memoir. Like all great personal essayists, the author mines his private torments—and tormented privates—transforming them, with wit, grace and weirdness, into a riveting, original story of triumph and transcendence.”
—Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight

“Daring, funny, candid, tender, Bent But Not Broken reveals the paradoxical truth about manhood: our strength as men is our weakness, and vice versa. Don Cummings is a witty, insightful writer, and this book is a marvel.”
—John Sedgwick, author of In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Cummings’ essays have appeared in various literary journals including Post Road and Epiphany. He has performed his stories at venues around the country, including Comedy Central’s Sit ‘n Spin, HBO Workspace, and Brooklyn Reading Works. His plays have been produced on both coasts, performed by committed artists, curious interlopers, and Meryl Streep at The Public Theater. Don has appeared on television and in film, as well as on stage. A graduate of Tufts University and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, he lives in Los Angeles with his husband.