Five Things! Features Fractured Fables Friday Night

Morality can be hard to navigate. Hearing words like greed, inequality and hostility as descriptions of the processes of donating, health care, and partisanship can easily throw our ideals off course. These are the moments when it's appropriate to revisit Aesop; when Picasso's words ring true: "the essential in this time of moral poverty is to create enthusiasm," which is exactly what Austin's Five Things Reading Series plans to do. Happening this Friday, March 5 at United States Art Authority, five inspired writers will read newly rendered fables to help us get our morals back on track. Or at least embrace our deficiency.

Since September 2008, Amelia Gray and Stacy Muszynski -two of the wittiest writers you're sure to meet- have been hosting the literary spectacle that is Five Things, which is a collaboration of five different writers who have written original five-minute pieces according to one common theme. The pieces written for Friday's event will be based on the theme of Fractured Fables. Past themes include Dollar General, Five of the Seven Deadly Sins, and Halloween. Voted "Best Literary Salon 2.0" by The Austin Chronicle's Best of Austin list 2009, Five Things rounds out its assemblage with local music; this week melodies provided by The Gary. Each event is as original as the voices participating in them, provoking raucous laughter, illuminating minds and sharing thoughtful words in a evening not to be missed.