READINGS

UNLOCKING THE DIARY Sarah Brown, the founder of Cringe Night at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom in Park Slope, is convinced that “the world is made up of three groups: people who never kept diaries, people who kept diaries, and people who kept diaries but destroyed them.” Fortunately for the rest of us, some of those who kept diaries — and other written expressions of their teenage angst and blossoming creativity — have, for the past three-and-a-half years, voluntarily read the most hilarious, heartbreaking, and cringe-inducing ruminations of their youth at this monthly open-microphone night. Tonight, for one night only, Cringe Night comes to Manhattan. Ms. Brown and several other contributors channel the inner monologues of their teenage selves at a reading from the recently published “Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas” (Crown), a compilation of some of the most infamous moments in Freddy’s Backroom, at Housing Works Bookstore Café in SoHo. With really bad poetry, the-world-is-ending crises, and crush-stalking at the mall, one thing’s for certain: At this reading, the café’s happy-hour drink specials will move briskly. Perhaps the best way to recover from the trauma of remembering embarrassing moments, and to get back into the pleasurable business of being an adult, is by ordering carafe of sangria and a few small plates at ñ (33 Crosby St., between Broome and Grand streets, 212-219-8856), a narrow, candlelit Spanish tapas bar that is one of SoHo’s best-kept secrets. Sizzling slices of peppery chorizo, skewers of saucy chicken and scallions, and zesty gazpacho (served with a dish of mini-croutons and tiny cubes of watermelon on the side) will send those lurking memories back from whence they came: your past. Housing Works, 7 p.m., 126 Crosby St., between East Houston and Prince streets, 212-334-3324, free.

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