LiveTalksLA presents: Sean Penn, with Jane Smiley, at New Roads School – Santa Monica
LiveTalksLA presents a series of literary events (and podcasts) to meet and hear cultural and business leaders present and discuss their work. Tonight, actor and debut author Sean Penn discusses his novel, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff. He has been nominated five times for an Academy Award as Best Actor, and won the 2003 award for Mystic River and the 2009 award for Milk. He has also garnered awards for his directing and writing, and has written about political issues for various journals. This book is a darkly humorous novel, a revised and expanded work based on an audiobook he released in 2016.
Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Thousand Acres, and the author of The Last Hundred Years Trilogy, five works of nonfiction, and a series of YA books.
NOTE: LiveTalksLA readings are ticketed events. Tickets may be purchased at various prices, with or without a book purchase, and details are available at website link.
Where: New Roads School – Santa Monica, Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
Date: Monday the 2nd
Time: 8 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: http://livetalksla.org/events/sean-penn/
Theatre Biography American Zeus at Book Soup
American Zeus: The Life of Alexander Pantages, Theatre Mogul, by Taso G. Lagos, is the story of a thirteen –year-old boy who came to the U>S. in the 1880s, after contracting malaria in Panama. He opened his first motion picture theatre in 1902 and went on to build one of the most important independent theatre chains in the country.. He couldn’t read or write, but amassed a fortune. In 1929 he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 17 year-old dancer—a scandal that destroyed his empire and reduced him to a pariah. A year later, as he lay sick in a jailhouse infirmary, his case was overturned by the California Supreme Court.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Abbi Waxman Book Launch at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Please join us as author Abbi Waxman presents her book, Other People’s Houses, a hilarious and poignant novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything. At any given moment in other people’s houses, you can find…repressed hopes and dreams…moments of unexpected joy…someone making love on the floor to a man most definitely not her husband…
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com/abbi-waxman
Our Short History at Vroman’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Lauren Grodstein, discuss and sign Our Short History, an unforgettable story about parenthood, sacrifice, and life itself. This book …”breaks your heart, then miraculously pieces it back together so it’s bigger—and stronger…” says Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/lauren-grodstein-discusses-and-signs-our-short-history
Tuesday Night Café Season Opener at Aratani Courtyard
Please join us for our Season Opener of Tuesday Night Café, by Tuesday Night Project, founded by traci kato-kiriyama. This evening we feature: George Abe, Nam Le, Samica, Christina Wong, and a Special Collaboration.
Hosted by Johneric Concordia, with beats by DJ WaxStyles
Also available via podcast.
Where: Aratani Courtyard/Union Center for the Arts
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 120 John Aliso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.tuesdaynightproject.org/tnc-schedule
True Crime Tuesdays Book Club at the Last Bookstore
Please join us for our True Crime Tuesdays Book Club, with author and journalist James T. Bartlett. This month we are reading Absolute Madness: Serial Killer, Race, and a City Divided, author Catherine Peloner’s account of Joseph Christopher, who claimed to have murdered a staggering 18 people in 4 months.
NOTE: This is a ticket event. The book is included in the price of your ticket, which can be purchased at the website.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Amy Spaulding at Skylight Bookstore–YA Event
Please join us to hear Young Adult author Amy Spaulding read from her new YA novel The Summer of Jordi Perez: And the Best Burger in Los Angeles. This is a hilarious, nuanced LGBTQ+ YA novel about a teen trying to make waves in the fashion industry by running a plus-size fashion blog and rocking her dream internship—until she falls for her competition.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/amy-spalding-reads-her-new-young-adult-novel-summer-jordi-perez
Poetry Open Mic at Redondo Poets
Please join us for a reading by a poet TBA and for our weekly Open Mic.
Where: Coffee Cartel
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 180 S. Catalina Ave., Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Website: http://www.facebook.com/RedondoPoets
Black Sheep Boy with Martin Pousson at CSUN
Black Sheep Boy: Cajun Legends and Queer Fantasies, by Martin Pousson, is a book about Boo, a wild-hearted boy from the bayou land of Louisiana. Misfit, outcast, loner. Call him anything but a victim. In a series of tough stories he encounters gender outlaws, drag queen renegades, and a rogue’s gallery of characters. This book is a song of passion and a novel of defiance, and the winner of the 2017 PEN Center USA Award for Fiction.
Registration is FREE, but required and available at link at website.
Where: Oviatt Library, Ferman Presentation Room, Cal State Northridge
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330
Website: http://www.rarebirdbooks.com/rbevents/
GRRRL Collective Open Mic at Rainbow Juices
This is a platform for feminists, queers, gender outlaws, and allies to hear and be heard. Our theme: April Showers, or What We Learn When It Rains. Create however you create, but consider using this theme as a prompt. See site for more details.
Where: Rainbow Juices
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 246 E. 3rd St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/503532903374019/
Adam Winkler’s We The Corporations at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Adam Winkler, in conversation with Judge Marc Marmaro, discuss his book, We The Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, presented in conjunction with local chapters of the American Constitution Society. This book chronicles the astonishing story of one of the most successful, yet relatively unknown “civil rights achievements” in American history, i.e. of how business corporations have fought and gained nearly all the same rights as ordinary citizens. The author exposes the historical origins of Citizens United and Hobby Lobby.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com/adam-winkler
Kristin Wong at Vroman’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear author Kristin Wong discuss and sign her book, Get Money: Live the Life You Want, Not Just the Life You Can Afford. Personal finance expert Wong shows you the exact steps to getting more money in your pocket without letting it rule your life.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Leah Stewart, with Kathleen Robertson, at Book Soup
Please join us to hear author Leah Stewart, with actress Kathleen Robertson, discuss her book, What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw. This is about two young actors whose relationship struggles within the context of their newfound fame.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Difficult to Name Reading Series in L.A. at the Last Bookstore
The Difficult to Name Reading Series is a NYC-based reading and performance series founded and hosted by Ryan Sartor. Over 150 writers have read there since 2014.
Tonight’s reading features: Samantha Culp (writer for T: The New York Times Style Magazine), Brittani Nichols (creator of “Words with Girls”), Wendy C. Ortiz (author of Hollywood Notebook), Dana Schwartz (author of And We’re Off), Edward Voccola (writer for The Last Man on Earth), and KK Wooton (essays and fiction for the books Personals and They’re At It Again).
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
LiveTalksLA presents: An Evening with Louis Anderson at New Roads School – Santa Monica
LiveTalksLA presents a series of literary events (and podcasts) to meet and hear cultural and business leaders present and discuss their work. Tonight, actor and author Louis Anderson discuss his upcoming book, Hey Mom: Stories for My Mother, But You Can Read Them Too. He has been an actor and stand-up comedian for over 40 years, and won his most recent Emmy for his costarring role on Baskets. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Louie ruminates on his continued struggles with food, family, forgiveness—as well as the many things that have changed for the better.
NOTE: LiveTalksLA readings are ticketed events. Tickets may be purchased at various prices, with or without a book purchase, and details are available at website link.
Where: New Roads School – Santa Monica, Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 8 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: http://livetalksla.org/events/louie-anderson/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic at CSUN’s Oviatt Library
Please join us for Make Your Space Poetic, a Poetry Reading & Open Mic hosted by the Northridge Creative Writing Circle. See website link for Open Mic sign-up, as spaces and time are limited, from 3 pm – 3:20 pm.
Featured CSUN students and alumni will read from 3:20 pm – 4 pm, and Professor Dorothy Barresi will read and discuss her new book, What We Did While We Made More Guns, from 4 pm – 5 pm.
Where: Oviatt Library, 2nd Floor, West Wing, CSUN
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/2012698145718701/
Diana Saltoon-Briggs at Diesel Bookstore
Please join us to hear author Daina Saltoon-Briggs, read and discuss her book, Wife, Just Let Go: Zen, Alzheimer’s, and Love. This book is co-authored with Robert Briggs, and is an extraordinary love story. The first words in the title are the last words her husband wrote to Diana before he passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. As a writer, Robert was able to share insights into the aging process, and they joined together to try to bring this book to life, as well as the gifts that sustain and inspire those left behind
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: http://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/diana-saltoon-briggs-discusses-and-signs-wife-just-let-go
Carol Muske-Dukes at Vroman’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Carol Muske-Dukes discuss and sign her new poetry collection, Blue Rose. She weaves sophisticated intelligence, emotional resonance, and lyrical intensity into her work, and this collection navigates around the idea of the unattainable, and how little we really know about other and our world.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/carol-muske-dukes-discusses-and-signs-blue-rose
Duncan Hannah at Book Soup
Join us to hear author Duncan Hannah discuss and sign Twentieth-Century Boy: Notebooks of the Seventies. A celebrated New York City painter’s rollicking and vividly immediate account of his life amid the glamourous demimondes of a vital era, this book covers an almost mythical time of outrageously bad behavior, ambition and scary events.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Ange Mlinko Poetry Reading at the Hammer Museum
Ange Mlinko’s poetry possesses a “unique sense of humor and mystery” (New Yorker). Mlinko, who has been compared to Frank O’Hara, is the author of five books of poetry, and her poems are about urban life, about language and its failings, and the things we see and do not see. She is an associate professor at the University of Florida, a Guggenheim fellow, and was poetry editor of The Nation.
Hosted by UCLA professor of English emeritus Stephen Yenser
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2018/04/poetry-ange-mlinko/
Todd Purdum’s Something Wonderful at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Todd Pudum, in conversation with Dee Dee Myers, discuss his book, Something Wonderful, a portrait of the creative partnership that transformed musical theater, between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Their creative process and groundbreaking innovations pioneered a new art form and lay the template for future musical productions.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com/todd-purdum
Stories for People Who Hate Love Book Release at StoriesLA Books & Café
Please join us to hear LA author Franki Elliot (and friends) celebrate the release of her third book, Stories for People Who Hate Love. She is often referred to as a poet for people who hate poetry, and her work has been dubbed offensive and heartbreaking.
Aaron Bleyaert is an Emmy Award winning writer who will perform his viral short story “How to Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps.”
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman writer and the author of two poetry collections.
Matthew Sherling has published two books, and runs the literary magazine Gesture and co-hosts the podcast Who Do You Think You Are?
Ryan Fukuda is a third generation psychic, healer, teacher and filmmaker, and will be offering intuitive readings of suggested donations.
Where: Stories LA Books & Café
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: http://storiesla.com/blogs/events
Amanda Ackerman & Maya Weeks at Poetic Research Bureau
Please join us to hear poets Amanda Ackerman and Maya Weeks discuss and read their work.
Amanda Ackerman is a writer and teacher whose writing blurs the lines between poetry, narrative and prose. Her engagement with ecopoetics is informed by her longtime work as a flower essence practitioner. She is the author of The Book of Feral Flora (2015) as well as several chapbooks. With Dan Richert, she is working on a series of projects using biofeedback and multi-sensory techniques that allow plants to create poems.
Maya Weeks’ Panic Train is something between sleeping and not waking. Between living in a house and camping. The poem is traveling south at night. The light keeps changing / again and again.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 951 Chung King Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.poeticresearch.com
Julayne Lee Workshop at Poetry Lab
Please join us for our Visiting Author Workshop with Julayne Lee (Not My White Savior) titled, Healing through Writing the Unsaid. Silencing does not benefit the silenced. How does silence prevent us from being who we are really meant to be? Through a series of writing prompts, we will make space for our experiences that have been silenced and have held us back.
NOTE: This is a ticketed event so see website for details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 235 E. Broadway, Fl. 8th, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: http://www.facebook.com/ThePoetryLab/photos/gm.1712142782180048/2033286873353392/?type=3&theater
A Mic & Dim Lights
Come through for another wonderful night of poetry at A Mic and Dim Lights! We will have Egyptian Princess 8 featuring that night! Every month has brought out some new faces and we’re excited to share our stage with new comers! We also look forward to seeing our familiar loving crowd.
Can’t wait to see y’all!
Doors are at 8*** pm!
$5 Cash at the door
Parking street side
Where: dA Center for the Arts
Date: Thursday the 5th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 252 Main Street, suite #D, Pomona, California 91766
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/801276010081509/
Memory, Culture & Identity at CSUN’s Oviatt Library
Please join us for Memory, Culture, and Identity in El Salvador, with Carlos Henriquez Consalvi “Santiago”, a journalist who became involved in the opposition to the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. He established the Museum of Word and Image after the peace accords were signed, which holds the complete archive of the war in El Salvador, and was a member of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program Committee for Latin America from 2014-2017.
Where: Oviatt Library, CSUN
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events1610918178987575/
Tabitha Blankenbiller & Eats of Eden at Book Soup
Please join us to hear Tabitha Blankenbiller discuss and sign Eats of Eden, a trip into the memory, into the stomach, and into the heart of every woman. These essays of tasty bites, writing, coming-of-age, sex, self-esteem, and above all, overcoming personal odds to live your best life, complete with mouth-watering recipes, will change your relationship with food forever.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/tabitha-blankenbiller-discusses-and-signs-eats-eden
Anthony Ray Hinton & The Sun Does Shine at Vroman’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Anthony Ray Hinton discuss and sign his book, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, with an account of his wrongful conviction in 1985 for two counts of capital murder in Alabama. With the help of civil rights activist (and a forward by) Bryan Stevenson, this is a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Olivia Gatwood at the Last Bookstore
Please join us to hear poet Olivia Gatwood discuss and sign her collection, New American Best Friend, and enjoy an evening of performance, poetry, story-telling, and a small Q&A. Gatwood dazzles with her tribute to contemporary American womanhood in her debut book and deftly deconstructs traditional stereotypes, culminating in a series of odes to the body.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
PEN America Celebration at Skylight Bookstore
Please join us for an evening to celebrate PEN America’s unification with the former PEN Center USA in California, now united under the PEN America banner. Led by executive director Michelle Franke, this is a vital hub for carrying on established programs and expanding advocacy in defense of free expression worldwide and other new initiatives.
Join us for drinks, appetizers, toasts, and surprises!
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/eventcelebrating-pen-americas-unification
Katy Bohinc & James Meetz at Poetic Research Bureau
Please join us for an evening to hear writers Katy Bohinc and James Meetz read and discuss their work.
Katy Bohinc is a data scientist and marketer, and co-founder of The Ratio, a project to apply data science to astrology data. She helped direct Tender Buttons Press and edited an anthology of Tender Omnibus: The First Twenty-Five Years of Tender Button Press and Please Add This to Your List. She is the author of Dear Alain (2014) and Trinity Star Trinity (2017).
James Meetz is the author of three books of poetry, including Phantom Hour and Dayglo, which was selected by Terrance Hayes as winner of the 2010 Sawtooth Poetry Prize. He is editor, with Simon Pettet, of Other Flowers: Uncollected Poems by James Schuyler (2010). He teaches creative writing and film studies at Ashford University.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 7:30 pm – 11:30 pm
Address: 951 Chung King Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/2123161057905806/
Bain & Brandi Spaethe at Beyond Baroque
Please join us to hear two fearless poets, appearing as part of the Poetry Coalition’s national programming on the theme of Poetry and the Body.
Bain is a gender-liminal writer and performer whose poetry engages with the body as the site of truth, pleasure, betrayal, and shame. C.’s courage in sharing his own narrative, and expanding into imagined worlds, erases the duality of political and the personal. His work has been published widely and he is based in Brooklynn.
Brandi M. Spaethe’s poems have appeared widely, and her chapbook, To You Who Wants In, was released in December 2012. She is former program coordinator at the Poets & Writers’ California office and is current administrative assistant for the Lambda Literary Foundation. She also teaches at CSULA.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1190999851037187/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic at Rapp Saloon
Please join us to hear four wonderful poets, and participate in our Open Mic, at our First Friday of the Month reading, hosted by Cynthia Alessandra Briano.
Pam Ward is a native of Los Angeles and an award winning poet published widely in the U.S. and her dramatic poetic/performance “I Didn’t Survive Slavery for This” was showcased at Beyond Baroque in 2014. She has published two novels, and is currently writing a story about her aunt, a Black Dahlia suspect.
Teddy Macker is the author of the collection of poetry, This World, and his work appears in various journals and anthologies. A lecturer in creative writing at UCSB he lives with his family in Carpinteria, CA.
Bridgette Bianca is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. She has featured at The World Stage, the Southern California Poetry Festival, the 2017 Lit Crawl, the Table Lit, and the un::fade::able Reading Series.
Brenda Carsey is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Her first full-length studio album, Solitary Refinement, dropped in July 2017.
Cynthia Alessandra Briano is Director of Rapp Saloon Reading Series, founder of Love on Demand Global, which creates custom-designed poetry for charity, and is a College Counselor and Editorial Consultant. Her first collection of poetry, in progress, is titled The Moving Parts Dismantled.
Where: Rapp Saloon
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 8:30 pm – 11:3o pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1683919045034568/
Poetry Day in the Garden at Fourth Sundays Poetry, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
Please join us to hear A Garden of Verses: Poetry Day in the Garden by sharing literature and readings reflecting nature and the environment.
See detailed schedule regarding appearances by: Genevieve Kaplan, Frances McConnel, Georgette Unis, Dennis Spiker, Romaine Washington, Micah Chatterton, John Brantingham, Cindy Bousquet Harris, Karen Greenbaum-Maya or Lucia Galloway, Andrea Carter Brown, Kathy Leonard, Patricia Scruggs, Shali Nicholas, Lavina Blossom.
Hosted by Fourth Sundays Poetry at the Claremont Library.
Where: Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 10 am – 3 pm
Address: 1500 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Andrew Weiner at Vroman’s Bookstore–Kids Event
Please join us to hear Andrew Weiner present and sign his children’s book, Down by the River: A Family Fishing Story. One beautiful autumn day, Art sets out with his mother and grandfather for a fishing trip. Fishing days are his favorite, but he feels insecure about his own fishing skills, until he finds reassurance in Grandpa’s stories, and continues the tradition with his own grandchildren generations later.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/andrew-weiner-presents-and-signs-down-river
Black Writers Lecture with Hiram Sims at USC
Please join us for the presentation, Black Writers that Changed the World, hosted by Community Literature Initiative (CLI) and Professor Hiram Sims. Many are aware of these literary giants and their works, but the world impact of Black literature will be examined and their books will be available for purchase.
Where: SGM 124, USC Campus
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 3607 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1563775530407407/
San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Opening at Santa Catalina Library
Join us Saturday Afternoon Poetry for The Big Open Reading of The San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, hosted by birthday girl Jackie Chou and G.T. Foster. Every reader gets a prize!
Curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell
Where: Santa Catalina Library
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 999 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com
Jason Morphew & Joe Wenderoth at Book Soup
In his startling debut collection, Dead Boy, Jason Morphew creates a world more real than the reality we think we live, evoking landscapes at once recognizable and surreal. The quest to live without numbing oneself is a struggle at the heart of these intelligent and often wryly funny poems.
In his fifth collection, If I Don’t Breathe, How Do I Sleep, Joe Wenderoth resonates with his signature intellect and disturbing humor. He is at once an iconoclast and an aesthete.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Sarah Anderson & Comics at Skylight Bookstore
Please join us to hear Sarah Anderson discuss and sign her new collection of comics, Herding Cats. Her hilarious third collection continues to poke fun at herself and her insecurities, her cat obsession, and the inherent humor in the daily life of a young woman, who is also an introvert, a millennial, and an artist with a distinctive, quirky style.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/sarah-andersen-discusses-her-new-collection-comics-herding-cats
Angels Flight Literary West Reading at the Last Bookstore
Please join us to hear a National Poetry Month Reading hosted by Angels Flight Literary West, featuring: Erica Blumfiled, Shonda Buchanan, Jessica Ceballos y Campbell, Amine Iknadossian, Luivette Resto Nikki San Pedro, Mary Soneia, Aruni Wijesinghe.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/2568116300079496/
The Mingus School & Harmony Holiday at Poetic Research Bureau
Please join us for an evening to hear writers from The Mingus School with Harmony Holiday read and discuss their work.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 951 Chung King Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.poeticresearchbureau.com or http://lalitscene.entropymag.org/
Spell Cast Open Mic Expressions at Krst Unity Center
Please join us for Spell Cast Open Mic to hear artists Rob Poetry Morrow and Niki Billingslea read and discuss their work.
Where: Krst Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 7825 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90047
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/155980761885967/
826LA Kids Writing Event at the Hammer Museum–Kids Event
Please join us for our You Are a Superhero Writing Workshop for kids ages 8-14, led by Natalie Patterson, an artist who sees life through the lens of poetry. Come and make the connection between the heroes you admire and your own stories and experiences.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2018/04/826lahammer-you-are-a-superhero/
Poetry and Memory Event at the Skirball Cultural Center
Poetry and Memory presents the work of poets Carine Topal and Dorothy Barresi, with special guest John Densmore, of the Doors. Two stellar poets of the LA literary world and a legend of the rock and roll world come together for readings in our third annual celebration of National Poetry Month.
Suzanne Lummis will host the program. Meet the authors at a reception following the program. Books will be available for purchase.
NOTE: This is a ticketed event, so see website for details.
Where: Skirball Cultural Center
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: http://www.skirball.org/programs/words-and-ideas/poetry-and-memory
Farewell to 2nd Mondays Poetry Party at Fox Coffee House (DAY 1 of 2)
Please join us for our first of a final two days of Farewell to 2nd Mondays Poetry Party, hosted by G. Murray Thomas and Sarah Thursday. Our featured guests for Sunday afternoon, April 8th include: Nicole Connolly, Gil Hagen-Hill, Wynne Henry, Jonathan Martin Werner, October Blu, A. Kold Piece, Alan Passman, and Melissa Lussier.
We will also have an Open Mic in between our eight features!
Where: Fox Coffee House
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 437 W. Willow St., Long Beach, CA 90806
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1601170779930041 /
Arcadia Poetry Slam at Arcadia Performing Arts Center
Please join us to celebrate NATIONAL Poetry Month by supporting 30 talented high school students who each have five minutes to perform in front of L.A. Poetry Society’s professional jurors. Proceeds benefit Foothill Unity Center, so content bringing awareness to hunger, poverty and homelessness are welcome, but not necessary.. Prizewinners win Beats Solo wireless headphones.
NOTE; This is a ticketed event/fundraiser so check website for details on prices and submission guidelines/link.
Where: Foothill Unity Center
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 188 Campus Dr., Arcadia, CA 91007
Website: http://www.arcadiapaf.org/poetry
Poetry Reading at CUCC
Please join us the Friends of the Claremont Library to celebrate NATIONAL Poetry Month by hearing Claremont poets read and discuss their work. We are featuring Genevieve Kaplan and Kevin Riel, and refreshments will be provided.
Where: Guild Hall, Claremont United Church of Christ
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 233 Harrison Ave., Claremont, CA 91007
Website: http://lalitscene.entropymag.org/ or http://www.claremontlibrary.org/poetry-readings.html
Andrew Weiner at Diesel Bookstore–Kids Event
Please join us to hear Andrew Weiner present and sign his children’s book, Down by the River: A Family Fishing Story. One beautiful autumn day, Art sets out with his mother and grandfather for a fishing trip. Fishing days are his favorite, but he feels insecure about his own fishing skills, until he finds reassurance in Grandpa’s stories, and continues the tradition with his own grandchildren generations later.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: http://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/andrew-weiner-reads-and-signs-down-river
Bryan Stewart at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear author Bryan Stewart discuss and sign Hope Blooms: Organ Donation, the Rose Parade, and Our Journey to Save Lives. The author has a mission to inspire many more people to benefit and support the gift of life from organ donation.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Jennifer Pryor at Book Soup
Join us to hear author Jennifer Pryor discuss and sign Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences. The author is the daughter of the late comedian and actor Richard Pryor, and tells the story of his life, accomplishments and challenges, and how he changed the comic landscape, breaking all the rules of what a stand-up should do or say.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Otis College Reading at Skylight Bookstore
Join us to hear Otis College MFA students read their work, including:
Nicole Bradford is a poet whose work discusses ideas around societal fetishization, deconstruction, and policing of the black/brown female body.
Heather John Fogarty has worked as a writer and editor for two decades, including at Los Angeles Times magazine and at Bon Appetit. She recently completed her first novel, Safe House.
Newton Garner is an American poet.
Chenel King comes from a long line of storytellers and is obsessed with asking: why? She hopes to provide perspective and bend and break held knowledge.
Angelina Saenz is a poet whose work is on memory, mujeres, motherhood, and cultural/linguistic unfolding. A full-time public school teacher, she hosts the monthly reading series La Palabra.
Halley Sutton has had her short fiction published in Red Rose Review and Beyond Science Fiction, and her thesis/novel is titled The Lady Upstairs.
Brittany Ambree Williams is a queer writer and is currently writing a novel-length manuscript. She co-curates and hosts un::fade::able – the requiem of Sandra Bland.
Olivia Batker Pritzker explores relationships, storytelling and cautionary tales, and is at work on a collection of short fiction.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/otis-college-mfa-writing-students-read-their-work
Rattle Poetry Reading at Flintridge Bookstore
Join us for our every Second Sunday Rattle Poetry Reading, with:
Alejandro Escude’s first book of poems, My Earthbound Eye, won the 2012 Sacramento Poetry Center Award. He is a frequent contributor to Rattle and has been published widely.
Megan Falley’s two full-length collections of poetry are Redhead and the Slaughter King and After the Witch Hunt. Her “Ode to Red Lipstick” appears in Rattle #59.
Molly Fisk is the Poet Laureate of Nevada County and the author of two poetry collections and three books of radio commentary. Her poem “Violence Fractal” appeared in Rattle’s “Poets Respond” series in November.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada-Flintridge, CA 91011
Website: http://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2018/4/8/rattle-poetry-series
Susan Henderson’s The Flicker of Old Dreams at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Susan Henderson, in conversation with David Ulin, discuss her book, The Flicker of Old Dreams, a novel about a woman who has spent all of her 30 years in Petroleum, a small Western town supported by a powerful grain company. When she comes most alive is when working in her father’s mortuary, and this acclaimed debut has the quiet precision of Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com/susan-henderson
Josh Hickman Book Signing at Battery Books & Music
Join us for a reading and discussion by Josh Hickman, who presents Through Tick & Tinn: The True Story of the Greatest Unknown Comedy Team Ever Known, his new comic novel. Painstakingly researched and richly-textured, this book is a love letter to that beloved dying breed, the American comedy team.
Where: Battery Books & Music
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 26 S. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101
Los Angeles Literature 