NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
A Celebration of Chicano Culture with Dr. José Ángel Gutiérrez at El Camino College – In-Person Event
Dr. José Ángel Gutiérrez, a primary figure of the Chicano Movement and founder of the Raza Unida Party, will speak on identity and activism.
Dr. José Ángel Gutiérrez, the author of numerous books on Chicano culture, including The Eagle Has Eyes: The FBI Surveillance of Cesar E. Chavez of the United Farmworkers Union of America, 1965-1975 (2019), is a primary figure of the Chicano Movement and founder of the Raza Unida Party. He will speak on identity and activism in an afternoon presentation.
NOTE: See site for event details. Free and open to the public.
Where: El Camino College, Haag Recital Hall
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 1:15 pm – 2:45 pm
Address: 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90506
DIA: Children’s Book Day Celebration & The Barren Grounds via Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Tweens Event
Tweens ages 8 to 12 are invited to an online discussion of The Barren Grounds, by, a fantasy adventure inspired by the author’s Cree heritage. In the novel, Morgan and Eli, two indigenous teens in a foster home, find a magical opening to a snow-filled world full of talking animals who need their help. Read the book before the program, and then join in the discussion.
NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details. Contact jmurphy@lapl.org for the Zoom link.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online event
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: LAPL – Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/dia-tween-book-discussion
Teen Book Club Bonanza: Let’s Celebrate Poetry via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
Join LAPL for a celebration of poetry during National Poetry Month. We will pick a book to read via hoopla and discuss whether to select novels in verse or nonfiction poetry.
On April 18 we will share poetry activities; and on April 25th we will have our book discussion on the book(s) chosen.
NOTE: See site for event details and Zoom link.
Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: LAPL – Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-lets-celebrate-poetry
Philosophical Horror Book Club & 2 Selections at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Please join us at our Philosophical Horror Book Club to discuss two selections this month:
Nothing But Blackened Teeth, by Cassandra Khaw, is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists.
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.
Gone to See the River Man, by Kristopher Triana, is a story about super fans, groupies, and stalkers. These people will give anything for the idols they worship, be they rock stars, actor, or authors. Or even serial killers. Lori’s obsession is with Edmund Cox, who was convicted of butchering more than twenty women. She will do anything to get close to him, so when gives her a task, she accepts. She has no idea of the horror that awaits her.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-gathering-women-who-submit-anthology
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online Event
This free Monday Night Fiction Workshop led by Raquel Baker is a community writing workshop in which participants are asked to bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction to read, and to use for critique and discussion. Registration is required.
Raquel Baker earned a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is currently Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Studies and Transnational Literatures at CSU Channel Islands. She has published poetry and non-fiction, and done readings with the Ventura Poetry Project.
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-319806498847
Sajni Patel Book Launch & MY SISTER’S BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Author Sajni Patel, in conversation with Diana Ma, author of The Daughters of the Dynasty series,will present and discuss her new book, MY SISTER’S BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING, a rom-com romp set against a backdrop of a music competition and a riotous Indian wedding.
Zurika Damani is a naturally gifted violinist with a particular love for hip hop beats. But when you’re part of a big Indian family, everyone has expectations, and those certainly don’t include hip hop violin. After being rejected by Juilliard, Zuri’s last hope is a contest judged by a panel of top tier college scouts. The only problem? This coveted competition happens to take place during Zuri’s sister’s extravagant wedding week.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Bel Canto Bookstore – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/sajni-patel-for-my/register
Peter Dreier Presents: Baseball Rebels and Major League Rebels at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Author Peter Dreier will present and discuss his two new books: Baseball Rebels, and Major League Rebels.
Dreirer’s Baseball Rebels tells stories of mavericks, reformers, and radicals who shook up the baseball establishment and helped change America. These players, managers, sportswriters, activists, and even a few owners were influenced by, and in turn influenced, America’s broader political and social protest movements, including battles against racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Major League Rebels is a captivating history of the baseball reformers and revolutionaries who challenged their sport and society-and in turn helped change America. Athletes have often used their platform to respond to and protest injustices, from Muhammad Ali and Colin Kaepernick to Billie Jean King and Megan Rapinoe.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Monthly Book Club & Trick Mirror at Village Well Books & Coffee– In-Person Event
Join our Book Club meeting to discuss New York Times bestseller Trick Mirror, by Jia Tolentino.
This book is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with the author’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/16609
Sascha Rothchild, with Joel Stein, & Blood Sugar at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sascha Rothchild, in conversation with Joel Stein, will present and discuss her memoir, Blood Sugar.
“I could just kill you right now!” It’s something we’ve all thought at one time or another. But Ruby has actually acted this thought. Three times, to be exact.
Though she may be a murderer, Ruby is not a sociopath. She is an animal-loving therapist with a thriving practice. She’s felt empathy and sympathy. She’s had long-lasting friendships and relationships, and has a husband, Jason, whom she adores. But the homicide detectives at Miami Beach PD are not convinced of her happy marriage. When we meet Ruby, she is in a police interrogation room, being accused of Jason’s murder. Which, ironically, is one murder that she did not commit, though a scandal-obsessed public believes differently. As she undergoes questioning, Ruby’s mind races back to all the details of her life that led her to this exact moment, and to the three dead bodies in her wake. Because though she may not have killed her husband, Ruby certainly isn’t innocent.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sascha-rothchild-conversation-joel-stein-discusses-blood-sugar
Miranda Crowley Heller, with Mark Sarvas, & The Paper Palace at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Miranda Crowley Heller, in conversation with Mark Sarvas, discuss the release of her paperback version of her book, The Paper Palace.
This novel is a story of summer, secrets, love, and lies: in the course of a singular day on Cape Cod, one woman must make a life-changing decision that has been brewing for decades. “This house, this place, knows all my secrets.”
It is a perfect August morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”–the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, this book considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Karina Evans Book Launch, with Aisling Fowler, & Grow Up Tahlia Wilkins Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Middle Grade Event
Join our Book Launch with Karina Evens, in conversation with Aisling Fowler (FIreborn), to present and discuss her middle grade novel, Grow Up Tahlia Wilkins.
Twelve-year-old Tahlia Wilkins is ready to kick off the perfect summer, starting with an invitation to a pool party being thrown by the most popular kid in school. But when the Red Goddess of Panties, aka her first period, arrives twenty-four hours before the party, it messes up all her plans. To make matters worse, her mom is out of town, and there’s no way she’s going to ask her awkward dad for help! Tahlia always feared that growing up would be tough, but this is just not fair.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave,. Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/tahlia-wilkins#BookList
National Poetry Month Reading with Guest MC Mike “The Poet” Sonksen, & Guest Poets via Statement Magazine, CSULA – Online Zoom Event
In honor of National Poetry Month, Mike “The Poet” Sonksen will host invited guest poets for a reading:
Nikolai Garcia is the author of the chapbook Nuclear Shadows of Palm Trees. He is also Assistant editor for Dryland Literary Journal.
Hector Son of Hector lives in Oakland, CA. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, currently works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret.
Giovanni Singleton earned a BA from American University and an MFA from the New College of California. She is the author of the poetry collections AMERICAN LETTERS: works on paper (2017) and Ascension (2011), which won a California Book Award for Poetry.
Additional poets/readers include: Qing Siyuan, Tang Qizhou, Li Hai, Liu Tingyang, Wang Chuyi, Liu Xiaoyan, Su Xiao.
NOTE: See site or CSULA for event details.
Where: Statement Magazine & CSULA Dept, of English
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: CSULA – Online Zoom Event
Website: N/A
At Skylight: Kate Gale, with Kim Dower & Eloise Klein Healy, & The Lonliest Girl at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Kate Gale, author and co-founder and managing editor of Red Hen Press, in conversation with Kim Dower & Eloise Klein Healy, will discuss her new book, The Loneliest Girl.
Who was more alone than Medusa? Raped in Athena’s temple, transformed into a monster, and banished into a cave, Medusa may be the ultimate example of victim blaming. In The Loneliest Girl, Kate Gale creates a powerful alternative narrative for Medusa and for all women who have carried guilt and shame–for being a woman, for not being enough, for being a victim. She offers a narrative in which women are the makers of the world–in which women find their way out from the cave of the Cisthene and into a world where they determine their own destiny.
Kim Dower is the author most recently of I Wore This Dress For You Mom (Red Hen Press). She is the former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood (2016-2018) and has published four collections of poetry.
Eloise Klein Healy is the former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles (briefly in 2013). Following a brain injury in 2013 she had to recover and regain her skills and creativity, and Another Phase (Red Hen Press) is a collection of five-line poems that began as focusing exercise yet transformed into a remarkable channel for her creativity. All of these poems have that twist or meaningful point that is unique to her work.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-kate-gale-conversation-kim-dower-and-eloise-klein-healy/
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & Teresa Mei Chuc – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest poet Teresa Mei Chuc.
Teresa Mei Chuc is a Poet Laureate Emerita of Altadena, California (Editor-in-Chief) 2018-2020 and a member of the Pasadena Rose Poets, Teresa Mei Chuc is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018).
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Da Poetry Lounge Tuesday Open Mic & Slam Night @ Dynasty Typewriter – IG & Live Event
Open Mic Tuesdays at Da Poetry Lounge are back! Catch us live on IG Livestream. Tonight’s event will be Slam Night at Dynasty Typewriter,
See sites for details.
Where: IG Live & Dynasty Typewriter
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYvULkirZCx/ or https://www.instagram.com/p/CbX26Z5lrTD/
SOM Tuesdays Open Mic at Di Piazza’s Pizza, Long Beach – In-Person Event
SOM Open Mic Tuesdays at Di Piazza’s are back! Come and share music, comedy, and poetry with us.
Where: Di Piazza’s Pizza (Check to verify)
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90804
Coffee Time Book Club & Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Pages’ Coffee Time Book Club, which tends to read literary fiction and meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.
This month’s selection is the historical fiction novel, Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler.
This book is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.
From 1822 to the Civil War years, and as the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Date: Wednesday 20th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-5
Daniel Olivas & How to Date a Flying Mexican: New & Old Stories via LibroMobile Bookstore – Online IG Event
Join LibroMobile online to hear author Daniel Olivas present and discuss his new book, How to Date a Flying Mexican: New & Old Stories.
This book is a collection of stories derived from Chicano and Mexican culture but ranging through fascinating literary worlds of magical realism, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: LibroMobile Bookstore – Online IG Event
Date: Wednesday 20th
Time: 3 pm
Address: LibroMobile – Online (see site)
Vroman’s Live: Max Brallier & Last Kids on Earth at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Max Brallier will present The Last Kids on Earth: Quint and Dirk’s Hero Quest, which is about an epic adventure in the series.
Picking up after the events of The Last Kids on Earth and the Doomsday Race, adventure abounds as the best buddies encounter new monsters and embark on a postapocalyptic quest for the ages. You won’t want to miss this essential Last Kids story that includes crucial details about the next book in the series!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 3 pm PST
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Teen Poetry Workshop with Suzanne Lummis via South Pasadena Library – In-Person Event
Teens in grades 9-12 are invited to join Los Angeles Poet Suzanne Lummis as she leads a Poetry Writing Workshop for Teens in celebration of National Poetry Month. This program is being presented by South Pasadena Public Library’s Teen Advisory Board (TAB) and is sponsored by the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library.
NOTE: See site for registration and event details.
Where: South Pasadena Library – Library Community Room
Date: Wednesday 20th
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 1100 Oxley Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030
Website: https://www.southpasadenaca.gov/government/departments/library/calendar-and-events
Middle Grade Book Club & The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Pages’ Middle Grade Book Club, which tends to read new releases of middle grade fiction and meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.
This month’s selection is The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera, about a strong, heroic character fighting long odds to survive and protect others.
There once lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday 20th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-4
Poetry Speaks: Poetry Open Mic Night via OCPL – Online Event
Join OCPL online, for the third event in our Poetry Speaks Reading Series, with a Poetry Open Mic Night.
Come flex your poetry reading skills at the Poetry Open Mic Night, part of April’s Poetry Speaks Reading Series. Share your poetry, get practice reading in front of a (virtual) audience, or just sit back and enjoy listening as other poets read their work.
NOTE: To get the Zoom link, email readoc@occr.ocgov.com.
Where: OC Poet Laureate Event – Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: OCPL – Online Event (see site)
Website: https://ocpl.org/poetryspeaks
Molly Shannon, with John C. Reilly, & Hello Molly: A Memoir at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Molly Shannon, in conversation with John C. Reilly, will present and discuss her memoir, Hello Molly!.
Hello Molly! Is a candid, compulsively readable, hilarious, and heartbreaking memoir of resilience and redemption by comedic genius Molly Shannon.
At age four, Molly Shannon’s world was shattered when she lost her mother, baby sister, and cousin in a car accident with her father at the wheel. Held together by her tender and complicated relationship with her grieving father, Molly was raised in a permissive household where her gift for improvising and role-playing blossomed alongside the fearlessness that would lead her to become a celebrated actress.
It also explores with humor and candor her struggle to come to terms with the legacy of her father, a man who both fostered her gifts and drive and was left with the impossible task of raising his kids alone after the loss of her mother.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup at Wilshire Ebell Theatre
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 4401 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/book-soup-presents-molly-shannon-discussing-hello-molly-memoir
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.
• 7:30p.m.–8:30p.m. — Formal workshop;
• 8:30p.m.–9:00p.m. — Featured reader;
• 9:05p.m.–10:00p.m. — Open mic
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details, and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmial.com or call (323) 293-2451
Where: The World Stage (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Dengan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
Alexandra Billings, with Joey Soloway, & This Time for Me at Live Talks LA at Wilshire Boulevard Temple – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Alexandra Billings, in conversation with Joey Soloway, discuss her new memoir, This Time for Me.
This book is an emotional, funny, and fabulous memoir by trailblazing and award-winning Trans actor and activist Alexandra Billings. She has been acting since 1968 and made her Broadway debut in The Nap in 2018 and joined the cast of Wicked as Madame Morrible the following year. Every role played by Billings is thought to be a first for an out Transgender human. She is the recipient of countless awards and holds an MFA in acting. She has lived with AIDS since 1995, and her LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activism stretches across the continent,
Joey Soloway is a writer, filmmaker, and TV creator whose credits include the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Transparent and I Love Dick. Joey is also a prominent activist for LGBTQ representation in the arts as well as one of the founding members of the #TimesUp and #5050by2020 campaigns to eradicate sexual misconduct and gender inequity in the workplace.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Live Talks LA at Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3643 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/alexandra-billings-with-joey-soloway/
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop via Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
Join Beyond Baroque’s longest running free poetry workshop via Zoom online as we welcome new and seasoned poets to share their work and provide feedback. Facilitators are rotated quarterly, and the current facilitator is Pam Ward.
Pam Ward is the author most recently of Between Good Men and No Man at All (World Stage Press, 2022). Author of two novels, Want Some Get Some, and Bad Girls Burn Slow, she is a California Arts Council Fellow, Pushcart nominee, and Art Center instructor/designer. Her poetry has been published in Calyx, Chiron, The Santa Monica Review, Voices of Leimert Park, and The Los Angeles Times. Pam’s writing sings of her beloved city in prismatic color.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets and information.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-321344318507
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Brian Sonia-Wallace at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and also have an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured artist is Brian Sonia-Wallace.
Brian Sonia-Wallace set up a typewriter on the street in 2012 with a sign that said “Poetry Store” and accidentally started his business: RENT Poet.
Over 5,000 poems later, his book of essays, The Poetry of Strangers, profiles the communities he’s written for across America, and the desperate desire to be listened to and heard that he found. Excerpts have been published in The Guardian and Rolling Stone, and he’s been the official Writer in Residence for unlikely clients from Amtrak to the Mall of America.
“I now work with teams of poets to bring poetry to events, provide educational workshops, and advocate for the arts more broadly. RENT Poet has been featured on NPR’s How I Built This and continues to bring typewriter poetry to events. As an educator and advocate, I’m an instructor at the UCLA Extension Writing Program and the Manager of Education for Get Lit – Words Ignite, supporting over 100 schools and thousands of students in writing their own poetry.”
See site for details and/or to verify.
$4 cover fee, cash only. Masks are required unless eating or drinking.
NOTE: See site for further details, guidelines & information.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/Two-Idiot-Peddling_poetry/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/290787086518529
Creative Writing Workshop: Family Album via Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) – Online Event
Creative Writing Workshop: Family Album is a special event at LACMA.
Drawing inspiration from photographs and objects in the exhibition Family Album: Dannielle Bowman, Janna Ireland and Contemporary Works from LACMA, participants in this writing workshop will explore sensations of daily life, memories of loved ones, and concepts of home, community, and archives. Through guided exercises and discussion, participants will consider the everyday power of art and creativity in their lives. No writing experience necessary, just a willing pen and a curious mind. Led by Jenise Miller and Amy Shimshon-Santo.
Jenise Miller is a Pushcart-nominated poet, writer, and urban planner from Compton, California, whose work explores art, archives, mapping, and intersectional history. She is a California Arts Council Artist Fellow, recent PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, and a Tin House and VONA Workshop alumna. She curated Something from Nothing: The Black Arts Movement in Compton with Cal State L.A., L.A. Poets in Place with The Autry Museum of the American West, and Compton: Arts and Archives with KCET Artbound and Sēpia Collective. Named one of “Six Contemporary Panamanian Writers to Know” (Latino Book Review), her words are published in her poetry chapbook The Blvd as well as the Acentos Review, Cultural Weekly, Boom California, KCET Artbound, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.
Dr. Amy Shimshon-Santo is a writer and educator who believes that creativity is a powerful tool for personal and social transformation. Her work connects the arts, education, and urbanism. She is the author of two books of poetry (Catastrophic Molting, forthcoming, Flowersong Press; and Even the Milky Way is Undocumented, Unsolicited Press) and the chapbook Endless Bowls of Sky (Placeholder Press). She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes in poetry and creative nonfiction, a Rainbow Reads Award and Best of the Net in poetry. She has edited two books amplifying community voices: Et Al (Illinois Open Publishing Network), and Arts = Education (UC Press). Her teaching career has spanned research universities, community centers, K–12 schools, arts organizations, and spaces of incarceration.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, and event details.
Where: LACMA – Online
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lacma.org/event/creative-writing-workshop-family-album
A Conversation with Lynell George at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Please join Humanities in City/LA on Zoom for a conversation with Lynell George. She will be discussing her book After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame.
E-mail eden@lapl.org for the Zoom link.
Lynell George is an award-winning Los Angeles-based journalist, essayist and author. Her work explores social issues and human behavior as well as urban histories, visual art, music and literature. A former Los Angeles Times staff writer, her work has appeared in Alta Journal, Boom: A Journal of California, Preservation, Smithsonian, Oxford American, Essence and other publications. She is the recipient of a 2017 GRAMMY for her liner notes for Otis Redding Live at the Whisky A Go Go and a Los Angeles Press Club first place prize in 2020 for Commentary. She is the author of three books of nonfiction: No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels (Verso), After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame (Angel City Press) and her most recent—A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler (Angel City Press), published in 2020, was a 2021 Hugo Award Finalist.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Date: Thursday 21st
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/conversation-lynell-george
National Poetry Month Series: I Am America at Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us virtually during National Poetry Month to hear local and national poets share poems about their diverse and rich cultural heritages representing everyday people who live, work, and build America from its past to its present and future.
Register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining.
Alixen Pham, poet/writer/artist, hosts this four-week Virtual Public Poetry Reading Series along with poets:
Robbi Nester is a poet, writer, and retired educator. She is the author of four books of poetry—a chapbook, Balance (White Violet, 2012), and three collections—A Likely Story (Moon Tide, 2014), Other-Wise (Kelsay, 2017), and Narrow Bridge (Main Street Rag, 2019). She has also edited three anthologies of poetry, including The Liberal Media Made Me Do It! (Nine Toes, 2014), Birds, Beasts, and Trees (published as a special issue of Poemeleon poetry journal) and most recently, The Plague Papers. A folio of Robbi’s poems was published by Glass Lyre Press in Aeolian Harp, Volume VI, alongside other poets.
.chisaraokwu., aka Chisara Asomugha is an artist using her voice, body, and words to tell stories on the stage, page and screen. She uses her experiences in healthcare, ministry, social policy, and the arts to inform her artistic endeavors. Her intention is to create spaces for stories by women of the African Diaspora to be told unapologetically. Raised in Los Angeles, California, she calls just about any beach home.
Chris Tonelli is a founding editor of the independent poetry press Birds, LLC. He is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently Whatever Stasis (Barrelhouse Books, 2018). Chris is the co-director of the NC Book Festival, works in the Libraries of NC State, and co-owns So & So books in Raleigh, where he lives.
Linda Ravenswood is a poet, and performance artist from Los Angeles. She is the founder and editor in chief of The Los Angeles Press, a publishing house in California created under the umbrella of The Los Angeles Review of Books andUSC. She was shortlisted for Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2017 and Finalist for Poet Laureate of West Hollywood in 2016. She is included in 64, The Best American Poets of 2019. She won the California Writer in Residence award in 2019. She is a Poet in Residence in 2020 at Beyond Baroque, the southlands oldest and most respected center for poetry and spoken word.
Lisa Nanette Allender is a SAG-AFTRA actor and writer. Lisa enjoys writing poetry and has been published in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies.
Aruni Wijesinghe is a Sri Lankan-American writer, a project manager, ESL teacher, occasional sous chef and erstwhile belly dance instructor. Her work has been published in journals and anthologies both nationally and internationally. She has a solo poetry collection forthcoming with Moon Tide Press and (2022) and a duet collection with Picture Show Press (2022). Most notably, her first full-length poetry collection is titled 2 Revere Place, this collection of memoir in verse is a love song to her family; the subject matter is the first ten years of her family’s life in the U.S. and tackles subjects ranging from cultural identity to assimilation to the challenges of being an immigrant family in the United States during the 1970s. Though these poems are not her first publication, this volume is her first solo collection.
Fred Joiner is a poet and curator based in Chapel Hill, NC. He is 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. His work has appeared in Callaloo, Gargoyle, and Fledgling Rag, among other publications. Fred has read his work nationally and internationally. Joiner has received awards and fellowships from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Most recently, one of Joiner’s poems was selected by curator and critic A.M. Weaver as part of her 5 x 5 public art project, Ceremonies of Dark Men. Another one of Joiner’s poems recently won the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art’s Divine Comedy Poetry Contest, in response to Abdoulaye Konate’s textile work.
Nikolai Garcia has been published in the anthologies, The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles, (Tia Chucha Press, 2016), and Extreme: An Anthology for Social and Environmental Justice, (Vagabond Books, 2018), and in various literary journals. He is the author of the chapbook, Nuclear Shadows of Palm Trees (2019), and is a founding member of the Coleman Collective and is Assistant Editor for Dryland, a literary arts journal based in South Central.
Ash Tré Phillips is a genderqueer poet born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are a maker of puns, lover of coffee, and destroyer of gender. They are a two-time Youth Speaks Teen poetry slam finalist. They have self-published two chapbooks, The World Has a Timestamp (2018) and Absurdism: An Elegy for Kurt Cobain (2017).
hector son of hector lives in Oakland, CA. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, currently works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Date: Thursday 21st
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/national-poetry-month-series-i-am-america-0
Heather White and Diana Knapp Present Books at Diesel Bookstore – In–Person Event
Authors Heather White and Diana Knapp will present and discuss their new books:One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet and Girls Who Green the World, respectively.
Heather White’s One Green Thing shows you how to contribute to the climate movement through self-discovery—your personality, interests, and strengths. Setting the intention each day to take a small step—a “one green thing” to care for the planet—can help ease your eco-anxiety, push the culture toward climate solutions, and create a sense of joy. The book offers an easy-to-follow guide for climate action.
Diana Knapp’s Girls Who Green the World is her latest book. She is a business journalist with an MBA from Stanford University who has written about education and entrepreneurism for most of the major media outlets. You can find her online at dianakapp.com. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, ELLE, Marie Claire, O the Oprah Magazine, California Sunday Magazine, Sunset, Outside.com.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, book purchase, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St, Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/heather-white-diana-kapp
Sholeh Wolpe and Suzanne Robberts Present Books at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sholeh Wolpe and Suzanne Roberts will present and discuss their books: Abacus of Loss: A Memoir in Verse and Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties, respectively.
Sholeh Wolpe’s Abacus of Loss is a memoir in verse and invokes the abacus as an instrument of remembering, a journey of loss and triumph, love and exile.
Suzanne Roberts’ Animal Bodies explores the link between death and desire and what it means to accept our own animal natures.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Poetry Night with Aleoria: Angelica Maria Aguilera, Kim Guerra & Davina Agudelo at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear two poets read and discuss their work with the founder and CEO of ALEGRIA:
Kim Guerra is the author of “Mariposa” and “Mija”: collections of bilingual poems, affirmations, and revolutionary love letters. She is the creator of “Badass x Bonita” a movement for all humans who are giving themselves and their community wings through revolutionary love. Guerra is a TEDx Speaker and received the “Agent of Change” award from Univision’s Premios Juventud and has been recognized for her work in various publications including Oprah Magazine, Today, People, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Univision, Televisa, Remezcla, R29Somos, and FiercebyMitu. Kim Guerra continues to use her voice and platform to advocate for the immigrant, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, survivors, mujeres, and oppressed communities.
She was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, CA. Kim graduated from Cornell University and received her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Antioch University in Seattle. She’s currently based in Los Angeles and Coyoacan.
Angélica María Aguilera is an internationally touring Chicana poet & singer from Los Angeles. Her work has brought her across the country as a Tedx speaker, and as a finalist for both the National Poetry Slam 2018 and The Women of the World Poetry Slam 2019.
In 2019, she signed with Conscious Campus to bring poetry & writing workshops to university campuses across the country. Her work has been featured in literary works such as The Breakbeat Poets Anthology: LatiNEXT (2020) on Haymarket Books and Girls Becoming Women (2021) on Workman Publishing. Her work focuses on using storytelling to give voice to Latinx femme narratives in both poetry & music. She has been invited to present at countless universities across the U.S including Harvard University in Boston & Pratt University in New York.
Angelica has been contracted by platforms such as Facebook, Puma, & the USL Soccer League to write poetry for their campaigns. She currently resides in Mexico City where she is working on her first EP of music & poetry, centered on healing & divine feminine power.
Davina A. Ferreira is an award winning media entrepreneur & creative writer. She is the founder & CEO of ALEGRIA Bilingual Media and Publishing. Recently, she created ALEGRIA mobile LatinX bookstore, which shares her passion for LatinX literature.
In 2020, ALEGRIA Publishing was launched to celebrate the beauty and richness of our LatinX culture and to support writers who want to serve the world through storytelling.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Melissa Chadburn, with Sanzy Senna, & A Tiny Upward Shove at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Melissa Chadburn, in conversation with Danzy Senna, will present and discuss her debut novel: A Tiny Upward Shov, which charts the heartbreaking journeys of two of society’s castoffs as they make their way ot each other as criminal and victim.
Marina Salles’s life does not end the day she wakes up dead.
Instead, in the course of a moment, she is transformed into the stuff of myth, the stuff of her grandmother’s old Filipino stories—an aswang, a creature of mystery and vengeance. She spent her time on earth on the margins; shot like a pinball through a childhood of loss, she was a veteran of Child Protective Services and a survivor, but always reacting, watching from a distance, understanding very little of her own life, let alone the lives of others. Death brings her into the hearts and minds of those she has known—even her killer.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/melissa-chadburn-discusses-a-tiny-shove-upward
FOS–Thursdays & FOST Artistic Collective present: Freedom of Speech Open Mic with Sabor y Cultura Café – In-Person & Online IG Event
Please help FOS’s in-person venue Sabor y Cultura with the link in the bio. Open Mic is currently only on IG Live at 8 pm PST, with sign-ups open on Wednesday at 3pm PST.
NOTE: See site for cost, event details.
Where: Freedom of Speech (FOS) Open Mic – In-Person & Online IG event
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/ or https://www.instagram.com/p/CbQpRzPv5qe/
Your Author Series: Jessica Maison & Plastic Girl via Central Library, LAPL – Online YA Event
Join us to hear science fiction and fantasy writer Jessica Maison present her YA trilogy, Plastic Girl.
The series imagines humanity’s future if the climate crisis goes unmitigated. The books spark conversations around conservation, biology, genetics, and evolution as well as the role of myths and storytelling in confronting existential threats. She will also discuss her workshops around DIY naturalists, citizen science, and writing for a cause.
Streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Those attending the virtual program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online Event
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-emma-steinkeller
2nd and 3rd Grade Book Club & Once Upon a Tim, By Stuart Gibbs, at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event in Courtyard
Join Pages’ 2nd and 3rd Grade Book Club, which meets on the 3rd Friday of each month.
This month’s selection is Once Upon a Tim, by Stuart Gibbs, about a peasant boy who wants to be a knight.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Friday 22nd
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd-and-3rd-grade-book-club-2
Black Lit Book Club & The Kindest Lie at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join our Black Lit Book Club, to read and discuss this month’s selection, The Kindest Lie, by Nancy Johnson.
This novel is about race, class, family, and secrets, all on a collision course. The author takes us on a journey into the dawning of the Obama era, when protagonist Ruth faces her fears and begins to dig into her past.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Date: Friday 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-kindest-lie
R. Jerome Thomas Book Release: Seasons of the Heart via World Stage Press – Online Event
Seasons of the Heart, by R. Jerome Thomas, is a collection of poetry replete with sound advice for those seeking inspiration as well as those who are experiencing the developmental challenges of life. From the dormancy of winter, to the rebirth and renewal of spring, to the celebration of summer solstice, ending with the changing foliage of autumn, this offering provides a navigational blueprint for resilient living. The poet delves into the diverse states of being, from pain and suffering to elation and enthusiasm, with sincere understanding and empathy.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: World Stage Press – Online
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: World Stage Press – Online (see site)
Spoken Word Poetry and Politics with Matt Sedillo and David Romeroat Village Well Bookstore – In-Person Event
FlowerSong Press poets Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero interview each other on their latest releases City on the Second Floor and My Name Is Romero, respectively. This session will include live performances of spoken word poetry.
Matt Sedillo has been described as the “best political poet in America” as well as “the poet laureate of the struggle” by academics, poets, and journalists alike. Sedillo was the recipient of the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 book festival, and a participant in the 2011 San Francisco International Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He is the current literary director of the dA Center for the Arts, writer in residence at Re/Arte and author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor.
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero, a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago; the birthplace of slam poetry.
NOTE: See site for book purchases, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/16618
A Poetry Reading with Nicky Beer and Lynne Thompson at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join Beyond Baroque in person for a Poetry Reading with Nicky Beer and L.A. Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson,
Nicky Beer will present and discuss her third poetry collection, Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes (Milkweed Editions). Her collection was a Lambda Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Book of March 2022. Her newest work has been praised in several book reviews for its authentic humor, imaginative pop culture references, and exuberant poetic forms.
Lynne Thompson is a poet and writer, and the current Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. Her most recent collection is Fretwork, the winner of the 2018 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. The in-person reading will be introduced by author David St. John.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: http://www.beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-poetry-reading-with-nicky-beer-lynne-thompson-tickets-311442933197
2022 Annual LA Times Festival of Books: Day 1 of 2 – In-Person Event, Back at USC
The annual two-day LA Times Festival of Books returns this year with an in-person event schedule for one-on-one conversations, exciting panels, readings by authors in all genres, musical performances, exhibitors, book prizes, and much more!
This is the nation’s largest free literary event, open to the public, and welcomes approximately 150,00 people each year of all ages to celebrate the written world. The annual LA TIMES Book Awards is a separate ticketed event held on Friday, April 22, 2022, so see site for those details. The full schedule is too vast to present here, so here are some highlights listed below.
DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS Include: (Check schedule for specific times & locations)
The Poetry Stage will host readings all day, and some of the readers include:
Mai Der Vang, reading from “Yellow Rain;”
Amy Uyemtsu, reading from “That Blue Trickster Time;”
Edward Hirsch, reading from “The Heart of American Poetry;”
Kim Dower, reading from “I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom;”
Morgan Parker, reading from “Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night;”
Katherine Coles, reading from “(Solve for) X.”
Bovard Auditorium will host readings which include:
“History: Race In America,” with authors Clint Smith, Imani Perry, Martha S. Jones, Mia Bay, Anna Malaika Tubbs.
Adam Schiff, author of Midnight in Washington, in conversation with Robin Abcarian.
Ronald Tutor Campus Center will host readings which include:
Michael Connelly, author of The Dark Hours, and Susan Straight, author ofMecca, in conversation.
LA Times Stage will host readings which include:
Amanda Gorman, author of Call Us What We Carry: Poems.
Plus, many more outstanding events!
NOTE: See site for guidelines, full schedule, and event details. Advance free tickets are available starting April 17, and special packages are available for purchase now. Parking is $14 per day, and the Metro and RTD are very convenient.
Where: University of Southern California – various campus locations (and a few virtual events)
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 10 am – 6 pm
Address: USC – University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/ or https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/schedule-2022/
CLI Long Beach Poetry: Lisbeth Coiman, Hiram Sims Tommy Domino – In-Person Event
Join us at Gatsby’s Books in celebration of Poetry Month to hear featured readers from the Community Literature Initiative’s (CLI) Long Beach Poetry Publishing Class, who will read and discuss their work.
Lisbeth Coiman is the author of Uprising/Alzamiento: Poems, a bilingual chapbook about her native Venezuela and its political strife.,
Hiram Sims is a poet and writer, educator and teacher, and the founder of both the Sims Library of Poetry and CLI.
Tommy Domino is a spoken blues poet from Northwest Pasadena now residing in Long Beach area. He is the author of Switches, Hot Wheel Tracks, and Extension Cords, Spoken Blues. He’s also a play writ and photographer.
Where: Gatsby’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 5535E. Spring St., Long Beach, CA 90808
Website: https://www.gatsbybooks.com/events
Saturday Afternoon Poetry & Publishing Party – Off-Site In-Person Event & Via Zoom
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry off-site at The Reverse Orangatun in Glendora (and via the usual Zoom portal).
THE BIG WINNERS hosted by DKC and JRT (Entrants in the 2022 SGVPF contests and those published in Four Feathers Press’ THE POETRY LOTTERY read their poetry. Winners announced.)
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: The Reverse Orangatan & via ZOOM portal online
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 440 E. Route 66 in Glendora, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Los Angeles: Your City: Poetry Workshop Series with Brian Dunlap at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Join us for Los Angeles: Your City Writing Workshop Series with author and educator Brian Dunlap.
Los Ángeles is a sprawling, diverse city filled with amazing stories. Too many that have not been told. In this eight-week workshop you will learn the tools to write your own Los Ángeles stories in a safe, supportive environment. By workshop’s end, you will be well on your way to depicting your Los Ángeles.
Brian Dunlap is a native Angeleño who writes about the intersection of race and place in Los Ángeles. He’s the winner of a Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize from december magazine judged by former Los Ángeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez. Dunlap is also the author of the chapbook Concrete Paradise (Finishing Line Press, 2018). He runs the blog site losangelesliterature.wordpress.com — a resource to explore L.A.’s vast literary culture.
Note: See site for details and cost for all eight sessions.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 23rd – Saturday June 11th (weekly)
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/events or https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/los-angeles-your-city
Historical Fiction Book Club & The Henna Artist at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for our Historical Fiction Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi.
This novel, from the author of The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, is vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/historical-fiction-book-club-henna-artist
Poem a Week Show: Readers Hosted by Karo Ska at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Join us for the Poem a Week Show, hosted by Sims Library manager and author Karo Ska, and featuring readers:
Donato Martinez teaches English composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He hosts and curates a bi-annual afternoon of artistic expression with poetry, dance, and live music. These events generate large crowds and active parti cipation. He is also a poet and writes about his barrio upbringing, his community, his culture, his bi-cultural and bilingual identities and other complexities of life. He is influenced by the sounds and pulse of the streets, people, music, and the magic of language. He has a self-published collection with three other Inland Empire poets, Tacos de Lengua. His work has been published by City Works, Eastside Rose, Acentos Review, and Ofrenda Magazine. Forthcoming publications will appear in La Raiz Magazine and The San Diego Poetry Annual. He loves the outdoors and is inspired by music, books, movies, and his children, Gabriel and Abigail.
Sara Khayat was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. For six years, she was editor-in-chief of Paper Plane Pilots, a literary collective and publishing company. She has a BA in English/Creative Writing (California State University, Northridge) and an MFA in Poetry and Fiction (Regis University). Her poems and short stories have been published in various journals, magazines, and anthologies over the last decade or so. She always chose truth over dare at elementary school parties. Proof of her writing can be dated all the way back to old kindergarten findings and floppy disks. Her mind is full of wildflowers, ladybugs and gray matters. Give her a shout and she’ll give you a whisper.
Leslie Ortega (she/her) is a Chicanx artist born and raised in Anaheim, CA. Her work captures the small things that are often hidden in her culture growing up in a Mexican household. She likes to play around with various mediums like poetry, painting, sketching, and recycling items into art. Currently, she is tending to her recent obsession of fungi to study Botany in hopes of becoming a Mycologist. You can find all her art, cooking, and knowledge sharing on her Instagram @leslieburps.
Woodrow Bailey uses the words as a prose into his environment; he sees those who are left with little to no option as his audience. His writing is their testimony as he observes social issues. As the same streets he grew up on continue to be his composition book, those life lessons fuel what he stands for: Peace and Faith.
Josh Evans is a poet, storyteller, voice actor, and educator from Pasadena, California. He has read at Beyond Baroque, Avenue 50 Studio’s La Palabra series, a Dignidad Literaria read-in, and was a feature poet in the Los Angeles Music Center’s “For the Love of LA” production. His poems and essays have been published in the Café Con Libros inaugural anthology, Spectrum anthology, Angel’s Flight Literary Magazine, and the Los Angeles Poet Society’s debut anthology “Los Angeles Poets for Justice: A Document for the People.” When not performing, he also teaches poetry and creative writing from Pre-K to adult level. Josh is on Twitter/IG/Tik Tok under @joshevansgo; you can also visit his website for all things education and entertainment at www.highformfamily.com.
Ali Blanco is a queer Latinx-mix writer and performer. She hosts various artistic events and shows, and aims to be a supportive, hype-womxn extraordinaire. Mother, student, teacher, and humxn rights activist, her poetry often consists of themes in mental health and intersectional identity.
Nicole Favors N/A
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/events or https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/los-angeles-your-city
Why Images Matter and How to Create Powerful Photography, with Santino Zafarana at Village Well Bookstore – In-Person Event
Photographer and author Santino Zafarana of Think Before You Shoot joins us to teach us about the power of visual imagery. Join us for a conversation and Q+A to refine your photography skills!
For those seeking more creativity in their lives, there’s nothing like taking photographs through the lens of an actual camera, complete with a focus ring and shutter button. In Think Before You Shoot: The Art of Taking Creative Photographs, Santino Zafarana, an internationally recognized photographer and teacher, offers an illuminating fine arts guide to understanding the art of seeing, with 21 techniques to make taking photographs a conscious act.
NOTE: See site for book purchases, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/16845
2022 Annual LA TIMES Festival of Books: Day 2 of 2 – In-Person Event, Back at USC
The annual two-day LA Times Festival of Books returns this year with an in-person event schedule for one-on-one conversations, exciting panels, readings by authors in all genres, musical performances, exhibitors, book prizes, and much more!
This is the nation’s largest free literary event, open to the public, and welcomes approximately 150,00 people each year of all ages to celebrate the written world. The annual LA TIMES Book Awards is a separate ticketed event held on Friday, April 22, 2022, so see site for those details.
The full schedule is too vast to present here, so here are some highlights listed below.
DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS Incude: (Check schedule for specific times & locations)
The Poetry Stage will host readings all day, and some of the readers include:
Tommy Pico, reading from “Feed.”
Sholeh Wolpe, reading from “Abacus of Loss – A Memoir in Verse;”
Jonathan Wells, reading from “Debris;”
Patricia Smith, reading from “Incendiary Art and Other Works;”
Luis J. Rodriguez, reading from “Selected Works;”
Steven Reigns, reading from “A Quilt for David;”
Lynne Thompson, reading from “Fretwork;”
Michelle Bitting, reading from “Nightmares and Miracles.”
Bovard Auditorium will host readings which include:
Jonathan Franzen, author of Crossroads, in conversation with Hector Tobar
Don Winslow, author of City on Fire, in conversation with Michael Mann.
Ronald Tutor Campus Center will host readings which include:
Mysteries: The Frontier West, with Craig Johnson & Attica Locke, in conversation.
Town & Gown will host readings which include:
T.C. Boyle, author of Talk to Me.
Plus, enjoy many more outstanding events at many more stages/locations!
NOTE: See site for guidelines, full schedule, and event details. Advance free tickets are available starting April 17, and special packages are available for purchase now. Parking is $14 per day, and the Metro and RTD are very convenient.
Where: University of Southern California – various campus locations (and a few virtual events)
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: USC – University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/ or https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/schedule-2022/
Storytime: Liz Climo & You’re Loved at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to hear children’s author Liz Climo present and sign her book, You’re Loved.
Loving, uplifting, and hilariously honest, You’re Loved is a celebration of the milestones of childhood and a tribute to the parents and caregivers who are there for every win, every fall, every goodnight kiss, and every sleepless night.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – in the Courtyard
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 11 am
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/liz-climo-storytime
Luivette Resto Book Launch & Living on Islands Not Found on Maps at Vintage Wine + Eats, Studio City – In-Person Event
Join Angels Flight Literary West at Vintage Eats + Wine in Studio City to celebrate the launch of the third poetry collection from Luivette Resto, Living on Islands Not Found on Maps, MC’d by poet Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo and DJ’d by poet F. Douglas Brown.
Guest readers include:
Bridgette Bianca is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Howard University and her Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Otis College of Art & Design. She has performed her poetry all around Southern California, is one half of the literary curating team, Making Room for Black Women, with Sanura Williams of My Lit Box and co-host of the quarterly reading series at the Women’s Center of Creative Work with Nina Rota. Her work as a writer and an educator seeks to serve the people and moments most forget or ignore. Her first book of poetry, be/trouble, was just released by Writ Large Press in 2020.
Cynthia Guardado is a Salvadorian-American poet and Professor of English at Fullerton College. She is the managing editor of LiveWire, a literary arts magazine at Fullerton College. Her debut poetry collection, ENDEAVOR was published in 2017 by World Stage Press. Her manuscript Cenizas was the first place recipient of the Concurso Binacional De Poesia Pellicer Frost, and is forthcoming from University of Arizona Press. Her work and translations have been widely published and first collection, Endeavor, is available at Amazon.
Angelina Saenz M. Ed, MFA is an award winning public school teacher and poet whose work focuses on memory, mujeres and motherhood. She is a UCLA Writing Project fellow, an alumna of the VONA/Voices Workshop for Writers of Color and a Macondo Writer’s Workshop Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in venues such as Diálogo, Split this Rock, Out of Anonymity, Angels Flight Literary West, Every Other, Cockpit Revue Paris and The Acentos Review. She is the host of the monthly poetry reading La Palabra at Avenue 50 Studio in Northeast Los Angeles. Her debut book of poetry Edgecliff was released in winter of 2021 with FlowerSong Press. 12
NOTE: See site to RSVP and for details.
Where: Angels Flight at Vintage Wine + Eats, Studio City
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 12 pm – 3 pm
Address: 12023 Ventura Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 91604
Website: https://www.facebook.com/AFLWMag/posts/3202793050041641 or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/living-on-islands-not-found-on-maps-book-launching-tickets-318625035057?fbclid=IwAR36mScXo5foJTOFXlhPx-swNTduZJp1ku-WGLZX1-cLB0lN2x0ndQWG5mE
Sunday Series Workshop: Daniel Romo at The Poetry Lab – Online Zoom Event
Join the Poetry Labs next Sunday Series writing workshop with poet and author Daniel Romo.
In this workshop we will analyze the gravity of words. We will measure their weight and ensure their values are to scale, worthy of the heavy lifting that poetry requires. We will discuss how choice creates voice, how the sum of our sounds can be mined and found. We will compose drafts and listen to the direction they want to be driven. In this workshop we will absorb from an environment lush in language and rich in diction.
Daniel Romo is the author of Moonlighting as an Avalanche (Tebot Bach 2021), Apologies in Reverse (FutureCycle Press 2019), When Kerosene’s Involved (Mojave River Press 2014), and Romancing Gravity (Silver Birch Press 2013). His writing and photography can be found in The Los Angeles Review, PANK, The Good Men Project, Yemassee, Barrelhouse, and elsewhere. He received an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, and he lives and teaches in Long Beach, CA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab – Online via Zoom
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/register/sunday-series/danielromo
Fourth Sundays Poetry: Judy Kronenfeld & George Hammons at the Claremont Library – Online Zoom Event
Join the Fourth Sundays Poetry Reading series at the Claremont Library to hear poets George Hammons and Judy Kronenfeld read and discuss their work.
Pomona poet George Hammons has quietly established himself within a diverse community of poets, friends, and fans. With wry humor, intense honesty, and deep respect for the power of the spoken word, George has a simple way of weaving complex images and emotions into poems. His poetry is often crafted as stories or vignettes about love, family, and social justice. George’s poems have been published in American Mustard, Cadence Collective (2015), Sand Canyon Review, and the Pacific Review. George is also the author of two chapbooks: Hungry To Bed/Love Poems (Arroyo Seco Press, 2018) and Witness (Picture Show Press, 2020). George has lectured and conducted workshops on both writing and the performance of poetry.
Judy Kronenfeld is a poet and more occasional writer of short fiction and creative nonfiction. Her fifth book of poetry, Groaning and Singing (FutureCycle) came out in February 2022. Previous collections include Bird Flying through the Banquet (FutureCycle, 2017) and Shimmer (WordTech, 2012). Her poems have appeared in over three dozen anthologies and in such journals as Cider Press Review, New Ohio Review, Offcourse, One, Rattle, Slant, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verdad, and Your Daily Poem. Judy is Lecturer Emerita, Department of Creative Writing, UC Riverside.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Fourth Sundays Poetry – United Church of Christ
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 233 Harrison Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://www.facebook.com/fourthsundayspoetry/photos/gm.1965433746976435/4920370264667501
Latinx Book Club & The Five Wounds at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for our Latinx Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, The Five Wounds, by Kirsten Valdez Quade.
This miraculous debut novel from a writer whose stories have been hailed as “legitimate masterpieces” (New York Times). Kirstin Valdez Quade conjures characters that will linger long after the final page, bringing to life their struggles to parent children they may not be equipped to save.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/latinx-book-club-five-wounds
Author Reading: Rose Molina & A Very Fine House at Gatsby’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at Gatsby’s Books to hear author Rose Molina present and discuss her book, A Very Fine House.
This coming-of-age novel is about a young girl and her friends struggling with their own identities and the cultural upheavals all around them. Set during the Vietnam War, the author captures a tumultuous, divisive time from a warm, personal point of view.
Rose Molina is an Air Force veteran, teacher, mother and grandmother. She received her Master’s from CSU Long Beach.
Where: Gatsby’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5535E. Spring St., Long Beach, CA 90808
Website: https://www.gatsbybooks.com/events
Harold Green & Black Roses Book Tour at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Harold Green in conversation with Entertainment Producer, Krystal Franklin, to discuss and read from his new book, Black Roses. Followed by book signing.
Where: The Lion Art Gallery
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 4325 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/534103174809681
Bucket List Book Club & Doctor Zhivago (Parts 8-End) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for our Bucket List Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, Dr. Zhivago (Parts 8-End) by Boris Pasternak.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 4 pm (Please note new time)
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/bucket-list-book-club-doctor-zhivago-parts-8-end
Loose Lips Poetry Reading: Peg Quinn & Lynne Thompson (LA Poet Laureate) at Loose Lips – Topanga Canyon – Online Event
JoinLoose Lips Quarterly Reading Series to hear poets Peg Quinn and Lynne Thompson read and discuss their work.
Peg Quinn grew up in rural Nebraska and often associates the flat, green, rolling plains of the prairie with the flat, blue, rolling ocean, having moved to Santa Barbara many years ago. She has a B.F.A. in Education from the University of Nebraska, is a visual artist and mural painter, educator and poet. Nominate four times for a Pushcart Prize, her first book of poetry, Mother Lode, was published by Gunpowder Press in 2021. She as Art Specialist at a private elementary school, and is smitten by the creative process and views the arts as society’s salvation.
Lynne Thompson’s Beg No Pardon, her first book, won the Perugia Press Prize in 2007 and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award in 2008. She’s also the author of Start With A Small Guitar (2013) and Fretwork (2019), winner of the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. Thompson is the recipient of multiple awards, among them an Individual Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles. Her work has been widely anthologized including in The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles, X LA Poets, and Best American Poetry 2020. Thompson serves on the boards of Cave Canem and the Los Angeles Review of Books, is Chair of the Board of Trustees, Scripps College, and serves as the inaugural Perugia Press Poet Liaison to the Board, a conduit between poets and the board and a mentor to the latest winning poet. She is the current Poet Laureate of Los Angeles.
Where: Loose Lips Quarterly Reading Series at Topanga Library
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 4325 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.pw.org/literary_events/loose_lips_poetry_reading or https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9607501600#success
Los Angeles Literature 