NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Quantum Book Club: The Candle and the Flame at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Quantum Book Club reads selections from literary fiction and nonfiction, on the last Monday of every month. Join us to discuss the June selection, The Candle and the Flame, by Nafiza Azad.
This sophisticated debut novel combines basic Islamic concepts and Middle Eastern mythology in a YA fantasy set in a city along the along the Silk Road that is a refuge for those of all faiths, where a young woman is threatened by the war between two clans of powerful djinn. This book weaves an immersive tale of magic and the importance of names; fiercely independent women; and, perhaps most importantly, the work for harmony within a city of a thousand cultures and cadences.
NOTE: See site for book purchase and details6259
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.facebook.com/BookJewelBookstore/photos/pcb.731164534965353/731164484965358/
Local Author Day: 4 Authors Present Their Work via Vroman’s – Online Event
Vroman’s Local Author Day will feature four authors virtually via Crowdcast.
David Bolito presents Valley Fliers, about remote control aviation. When a newcomer arrives at the field practicing risky maneuvers with a military-grade drone, Jay suspects there is more to this stranger than meets the eye. But Jay has always been a little paranoid and too prone to conspiracy theories for his own good.
Erik Day presents Conjure Seven, set in a world that has recently discovered magic. Engineer Samuel “Rick” Rickard’s arcane invention would provide unlimited clean energy. Now hunted by a deadly assassin who wants to rip that secret from his head, Rick must protect his family while keeping his creation from destroying the world.
Dustin Davis & Paul Jan Zdunek present Cowboys and Conductors. Listen in as a horse-whispering cowboy and orchestra conductor turned CEO share their journeys and lessons learned. Their boundless approach to extremely complex issues yielding transformative results is the essence of GREY LEADERSHIP(R).
Saddle up for an epic ride through the vast terrain of humanship.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Vroman’s Online (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/local-author-day-june-27-2022
Zachary Levi & Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others at Book Soup – Online Event
Join author Zachary Levi to hear him discuss his debut memoir, Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others.
This book shares his emotional journey through a lifetime of crippling anxiety and depression to find joy, gratitude, and ultimate purpose. Facing the scars of childhood trauma and the voices in his head that told him he would never be enough, Zac recounts the raw yet honest behind-the-scenes story of his family life, career successes, and the personal disappointments that led him to rock bottom and landed him in a therapy center, where he learned to address the underlying issues that preceded his downward spiral.
NOTE: See site for guidleiines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
At Skylight: Ada Calhoun, with Nicola Twilley, & Also a Poet at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Ada Calhoun, in conversation with Nicola Twilley, will present and discuss her memoir, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me..
This book is about the author’s fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet
When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O’Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier.
As a lifelong O’Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O’Hara’s past, but also her father’s, and her own.
The result is a groundbreaking and kaleidoscopic memoir that weaves compelling literary history with a moving, honest, and tender story of a complicated father-daughter bond. Also a Poet explores what happens when we want to do better than our parents, yet fear what that might cost us; when we seek their approval, yet mistrust it.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-ada-calhoun-presents-also-poet-nicola-twilley
At Dynasty Typewriter: Lisa Taddeo, with Stephanie Danler, & Ghost Lover at Skylight Bookstore Off-site – In-Person Event
Lisa Taddeo, in conversation with Stephanie Danler, will present and discuss her book, Ghost Lover: Stories.
This book is about an army of cool and beautiful girls manage the dating service Ghost Lover, a forwarding system for text messages that promises to spare you the anguish of trying to stay composed while communicating with your crush.
In these nine riveting stories—which include two Pushcart Prize winners and a finalist for the National Magazine Award—Lisa Taddeo brings to life the fever of obsession, the blindness of love, and the mania of grief. Featuring Taddeo’s arresting prose that continues to thrill her legions of fans, Ghost Lover dares you to look away.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Under Mic Influence Event with Tommy Domino at Long Beach Unified Bar & Lounge – In-Person Event
Tommy Domino will feature at the Under Mic Influence event at Long Beach Unified Bar & Lounge, an event hosted by Kuahmel Ayleeus KuahAllah and Mylo Mu.
In the tradition of Funkmosphere, Monday Night Delight, Melodic Mondays, Project Blowed, Griot Cafe, and Lady Basco’s Speakeasy, we are here to light things right back up and take the poet & the MC to new heights. Monday June 27, you will be under Mic Influence. Come to level up with carefree, high-caliber spitters, and head home ready to get the bars up & come back for more!
The feature act for this edition is the man with the spoken blues, author of Switches, Hot Wheel Tracks, & Extenson Cords, repping the Long Beach NeverSpeak crew, Tommy Domino, swinging through to give the mic the poetic whoopin’ it deserves!
Tommy Domino is a spoken word blues poet, author, playwright and photographer who founded the Still Waters Collective. He was published in the anthology Poets and Allies for Resistance, and his first collection of spoken blues, Switches, Hot Wheel Tracks & Extension Cords (World Stage Press), was released in 2018. He became a member of the Never Speak Poets from Long Beach, who host monthly shows in the Arts District, and in 2019 he became a member of the PAFF Spoken Word planning committee member.
Soul Brother No. 7 Kuahmel and DJ Kev Jam captain this cruise with the necessary boom-bap & rare grooves. Only $5. Everyone from Santa Barbara to San Diego and beyond welcome!
Special invite to Blowedians and LBC poetry vets.
Where: Long Beach Unified Bar & Lounge
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 2222 East Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/387826329818037?ref=newsfeed
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 nonfiction and done readings with the Ventura Poetry Project.
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Monday the 27th
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-371167882127
Author Talk: Rebecca Rukeyser & The Seaplane on Final Approach at via Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Rebecca Rukeyser will join us on Zoom to discuss her debut novel, The Seaplane on Final Approach.
Tourists arrive all summer, by boat or seaplane, at the Lavender Island Wilderness Lodge in the Kodiak Archipelago, expecting adventure. But the spontaneity of their authentic Alaskan wilderness experience is meticulously scripted. Mira has been hired for the season as the lodge’s baker and housekeeper. She’s also busy gleefully nursing some obsessions including pursuing her step-cousin. By midsummer, the mood of the lodge spirals into chaos, and the inhabitants realize just how isolated Lavender Island really is.
NOTE: See site for link, and details. Email palsds@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
Where: Palisades Branch library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 11 am – PST
Address: Zoom Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/rebecca-rukeyser-discusses-her-debut-novel-seaplane-final-approach
Classics Book Club: Willa Cather’s My Antonia at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for out new monthly Classics/Modern Book Club discussion of Willa Cather’s novel, My Antonia.
We’ll talk about the intersection of ideas and the breadth of writerly influence across literary, historical, philosophical, and political spectra. Sign up for profound conversation and a chance to read those books that have been on your list forever (or experience books you know and love in an entirely new way).
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/new-classics-my-antonia
Phy-Sci Book Club & A Series of Unfortunate Events at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for the Phy-Sci Book Club to read A Series of Unfortunate Event: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You by Sean B. Carroll.
This book is an entertaining and humorous tour of biological discovery that emphasizes the key role played by chance in shaping conditions for life on Earth.
Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, writer, educator, and film producer. He is Vice President for Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Balo-Simon Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland. His books include The Serengeti Rules (Princeton), Brave Genius, and Remarkable Creatures, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside, CA 92507
Date: Tuesday 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/phy-sci-book-club-series-fortunate-events
Kristin Marguerite Doidge & Nora Ephron: A Biography at Diesel Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear author Kristin Marguerite Doidge present and discuss her new book, Nora Ephron: A Biography.
Nora Ephron: A Biography is the first comprehensive portrait of the Manhattan-born girl who forged a path of her own, earning accolades and adoration from critics and fans alike. Author Kristin Marguerite Doidge explores the tremendous successes and disappointing failures Ephron sustained in her career and examines the private life she tried to keep in balance with her insatiable ambition. Ephron’s career spanned five decades of smart, successful writing in nearly every medium: magazines, essays, movies, plays, books, and even blogs. Based on rare archival research and numerous interviews with some of Ephron’s closest friends, collaborators, and esteemed colleagues.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details on this hybrid event.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/author-signing-Kristin-Doidge
AAPI Book Club: Things We Lost to the Water via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to discuss our June AAPI Book Club selection, Things We Lost to the Water, by Eric Nguyen. We explore the storytelling talents of authors across the Asian diaspora.
This debut novel is a deeply engaging, heart-rending look at a family of Vietnamese refugees struggling to survive and how the choices they make as individuals have ripple effects on each other.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/read-aapi-book-club-269149
Jeremy Atherton Lin & Gay Bar at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Jeremy Atherton present and discuss his paperback edition of his acclaimed book, Gay Bar.
This book embarks upon a transatlantic tour of the hangouts that marked the author’s life, with each club, pub, and dive revealing itself to be a palimpsest of queer history. In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and dazzling as a disco ball, he time-travels from Hollywood nights in the 1970s to a warren of cruising tunnels built beneath London in the 1770s; from chichi bars in the aftermath of AIDS to today’s fluid queer spaces; through glory holes, into Crisco-slicked dungeons and down San Francisco alleys. He charts police raids and riots, posing and passing out—and a chance encounter one restless night that would change his life forever.
The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity—a tale of liberation.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/jeremy-atherton-lin-discusses-gay-bar-why-we-went-out
Book Talk: Sophie Benoit, with Priyanka Mattoo, & Well, This Is Exhausting at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Sophie Benoit, in conversation with Priyanka Mattoo, discuss her collection of essays, Well, This is Exhausting.
From Bustle columnist and Twitter sensation Sophia Benoit, this “charming and often laugh-out-loud funny” (Vogue) memoir-in-essays explores the ins and outs of modern womanhood—from finding feminism, the power of pop culture, and how to navigate life’s constant double standards—perfect for fans of Shrill and PEN15.
Like so many women, Sophia spent her formative years struggling to do the “right” thing—to make others comfortable, to take minimal and calculated risks, to live up to society’s expectations, Sophia finally let go of the crushing pressure to be perfect.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Nonfiction Book Club: Stealing Home, by Eric Nusbaum at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for our Nonfiction Book Club discussion of Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nusbaum.
Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy.
Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy—a glittering, ultra-modern stadium.
But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood’s families—including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation—and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/nonfiction-book-club-3
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & BJ Ward – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest BJ Ward.
BJ Ward is an award-winning poet whose poetry and essays have appeared on NPR, NJTV and in many journals. He is the author Soft Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands, 17 Love Poems with No Despair, and Gravedigger’s Birthday.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Da Poetry Lounge IG Live Open Mic Night – IG Live Event
Every Tuesday (except for 3rd Tuesdays and special events) Da Poetry Lounge holds open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in the audience.
See sites for details.
Where: DA Poetry Lounge
Date: Tuesday the 28th Check to Verify details.
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: IG Live (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/dapoetrylounge_com/
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 28st
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: Facebook
Quest Book Club: Rubyfruit Jungle at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Quest Book Club reads selections from literary fiction and nonfiction, on the last Wednesday of every month. Join us to discuss the June selection, Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown.
This novel is a modern classic and the author’s first novel, remarkable in its day for its explicit portrayal of lesbianism. The novel is a coming- of age account of Brown’s youth and emergence as a lesbian author. The term “rubyfruit jungle” is a term used in the novel for the female genitals.
NOTE: See site for book purchase and details6259
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.facebook.com/BookJewelBookstore/photos/pcb.731164534965353/731164484965358/
Kristin Marguerite Doidge, with Michele Raphael, & Nora Ephron: A Biography at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Kristin Marguerite Doidge, in conversation with Michele Raphael,present and discuss her new book, Nora Ephron: A Biography.
Nora Ephron: A Biography is the first comprehensive portrait of the Manhattan-born girl who forged a path of her own, earning accolades and adoration from critics and fans alike. Author Kristin Marguerite Doidge explores the tremendous successes and disappointing failures Ephron sustained in her career and examines the private life she tried to keep in balance with her insatiable ambition. Ephron’s career spanned five decades of smart, successful writing in nearly every medium: magazines, essays, movies, plays, books, and even blogs. Based on rare archival research and numerous interviews with some of Ephron’s closest friends, collaborators, and esteemed colleagues.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Skylight Bookstore At Dynasty Typewriter: Ottessa Moshfegh, with Emily Segal, & LAPVONA Launch – In-Person Event
Ottessa Moshfegh, in conversation with Emily Segal, will launch and discuss her book, LAPVONA.
In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet.
Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by the duo of Father Barnabas, the lacky for the governor, and the governor, Lord Villam, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, will prove to be very thin indeed.
Ottessa Moshfegh is a fiction writer from New England. Eileen, her first novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Death in Her Hands, her second and third novels, were New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of the short story collection Homesick for Another World and a novella, McGlue. She lives in Southern California.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore at Dynasty Typewriter
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm (Doors at 6 pm)
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/dynasty-typewriter-ottessa-moshfegh-presents-lapvona-emily-segal
ALOUD Reading Series: An Evening with Yesika Salgado & Hermosa at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us to hear poet, author, emerging literary superstar, and body positive activist Yesika Salgado, in conversation with Gloria Lucas, discuss her unconditional take on love and the body, as well as her three books: Corazón, Tesoro, and Hermosa, published with Not a Cult.
Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city, and her fat brown body. She has shared her work in venues and campuses throughout the country.
Salgado is a two time National Poetry Slam finalist and the recipient of the 2020 International Latino Book Award in Poetry.
Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, Univision, CNN, NPR, TEDx, and many digital platforms. She is an internationally recognized body-positive activist and the writer of the column Suelta for Remezcla.
Gloria Lucas was born and raised in Southern California and founded Positivity Pride in 2014 at the age of 24. Struggling with an eating disorder (ED) and not being able to relate to the conventional narratives of ED she was moved to share her story with the world. Gloria has a background in grassroots feminist organizing, sexual health education and HIV/AIDS services.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday 29th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lfla.org/event/an-evening-with-yesika-salgado/
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 29th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Dengan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
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 Jose Hernandez Diaz.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology 2011. He teaches creative writing online and edits for Frontier Poetry.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets and information.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 29th
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-372593666687
Flight School Open Mic Has Returned! at Playground Hookah Lounge – In-Person Event
Join us for the return of the weekly Flight School Open Mic, which actually returned in April after a five-year hiatus!
All arts are welcome: singing, dance, poetry, improv, comedy, music, and we learn to fly together, all balanced by host O. Smith and a full live band and DJ D-Major.
NOTE: Check site for further details, updates, and information.
Where: Flight School Open Mic at the Playground
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 630 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302
Website: https://losangelesliterature.wordpress.com/2022/06/22/flight-school-open-mic-is-back/ or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flight-school-open-mic-tickets-362732662157?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Erik Moraga at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured event features poet and publisher Eric Moraga.
Eric Moraga is a is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominated poet who believes performance carries as much importance on the page, as it does off. Currently he hosts a monthly reading series, teaches writing workshops, and serves as an associate editor for the online literary journal, FreezeRay Poetry. Eric is the author of What We Ache For (Moon Tide Press) and Feasting on Sky (Paper Plane Pilots). He has an MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach and lives in Los Angeles, California.
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 29th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1397843340681451
At Skylight: Hannah Strong & Sophia Coppola: Forever Young at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Hannah Strong will be signing her new book, Sophia Coppola: Forever Young. This will occur between screenings at American Cinematheque.
This book is an illustrated critical survey of Academy Award–winning writer and director Sofia Coppola’s career, covering everything from her groundbreaking music videos through her latest films.
In the two decades since her first feature film was released, Sofia Coppola has created a tonally diverse, meticulously crafted, and unapologetically hyperfeminine aesthetic across a wide range of multimedia work. This book offers a rich and intimate look at the overarching stylistic and thematic components of Coppola’s work. In addition to critical essays about Coppola’s filmography, the book will include interviews with some of her closest collaborators, including musician Jean-Benoît Dunckel and costume designer Nancy Steiner, along with a foreword by Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 8:45 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-hannah-strong-signs-sofia-coppola-forever-young
Sci-Fi Books Club: Inaugural Meeting & Story of Your Life via Mark Twain Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for the inaugural session of the Sci-Fi Book Club! We will be discussing Ted Chiang’s contemporary classic Story of Your Life from Stories of Your Life and Others. Adapted into the feature film Arrival in 2016, explore this ground-breaking short story via Zoom with Sci-Fi lovers across the universe!
For the Zoom link, please send an e-mail request to christopher.taylor@lapl.org with “Sci-Fi Book Club” in the subject line.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Mark Twain Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 30th – Friday
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sci-fi-book-club
Alyson Noel, with Tiana Warner, & Stealing Infinity at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear authors Alyson Noel, in conversation with Tiana Warner, present and chat about her new romance release Stealing Infinity, and all things YA fantasy and romance.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Tomi Obaro, with Isaac Fitzgerald, & Dele Weds Destiny at Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear author Tomi Obaro, in conversation with Isaac Fitgerald, discuss her debut novel, Dele Weds Destiny.
This book is about friends Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab, who first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother’s smothering and needy love; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father’s first two wives after her mother’s death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab’s boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him—a Connecticut WASP—that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father’s, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him.
Now, some thirty years later, the three women are reunited for the first time, in Lagos. The occasion: Funmi’s daughter, Destiny, is getting married. Enitan brings her American daughter, Remi. Zainab travels by bus, nervously leaving her ailing husband in the care of their son. Funmi, hosting the weekend with her wealthy husband, wants everything to go perfectly. But as the big day approaches, it becomes clear that something is not right. As the novel builds powerfully, the complexities of the mothers’ friendship–and the private wisdom each has earned–come to bear on a riveting, heartrending moment of decision.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
YA Panel: Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow, E. Lockhart & Jessica Goodman Present New Releases at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
YA authors Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow, E. Lockhart & Jessica Goodman, with moderator Alexa Donne, will discuss their latest releases: The Agathas, Family of Liars, and The Counselors, respectively.
Liz Lawson will present and discuss her new book, The Agathas.
Last summer, Alice Ogilvie’s basketball-star boyfriend Steve dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days. She’s not talking, so where she went and what happened to her is the biggest mystery in Castle Cove. Or it was, at least. But now, another one of Steve’s girlfriends has vanished: Brooke Donovan, Alice’s ex-best friend. And it doesn’t look like Brooke will be coming back.
Kathleen Glasgow will present and discuss her new book, Family of Liars.
On a windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.
Welcome back to the Sinclair family.
They were always liars.
E. Lockhart will present and discuss her new book, The Counselors.
Camp Alpine Lake is the only place where Goldie Easton feels safe. She’s always had a special connection to the place, even before she was old enough to attend. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood, the small town she lives in. Alpine Lake provides jobs, money and prestige to the region. Few Roxwood locals, though, get to reap the rewards of living so close to the glam summer that camp, with its five-figure tuition and rich kids who have been dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents. Goldie’s one of them. Now she’s back as a counselor, desperate for summer to start and her best friends, Ava and Imogen, to arrive. Because Goldie has a terrible dark secret she’s been keeping and she is more in need of the comfort than ever.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/liz-lawson-kathleen-glasgow-e-lockhart-discuss-their-latest
At Skylight: Lydia Conklin, with Claire Vaye Watkins, & Rainbow Rainbow: Stories at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Lydia Conlin, in conversation with Claire Vaye Watkins, discuss her book, Rainbow Rainbow: Stories.
This book is a fearless collection of stories that celebrate the humor, darkness, and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that’s not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception, and queer joy
In this exuberant, prize-winning collection, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming characters seek love and connection in hilarious and heartrending stories that reflect the complexity of our current moment.
A nonbinary writer on the eve of top surgery enters into a risky affair during the height of COVID. A lesbian couple enlists a close friend as a sperm donor, plying him with a potent rainbow-colored cocktail. A lonely office worker struggling with their gender identity chaperones their nephew to a trans YouTube convention. And in the depths of a Midwestern winter, a sex-addicted librarian relies on her pet ferrets to help resist a relapse at a wild college fair.
Capturing both the dark and lovable sides of the human experience, Rainbow Rainbow establishes debut author Lydia Conklin as a fearless new voice for their generation.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Fos–Thursday & FOST Artistic Collective Presents: 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, with sign-ups open on Wednesday at 3pm.
NOTE: See site for cost, event details.
Where: Freedom of Speech (FOS) Open Mic – In-Person & Online IG event
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/
Sunset Echos Poetry Platform: Karla Lamb, Briana Munoz, Ivan Salinas, Tori Gesualdo at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Sunset Ecos (sic) is a new poetry platform created in incite conversation, empower, and amplify rising literary voices in Echo Park and beyond.
Join us for the first installment, featuring these poets:
Tori Gesualdo is a Los Angeles based poet and bookseller. Her poems are an effort at catharsis and a recollection of her personal responsibility to her own healing and to the healing of the collective. She can be found at Stories in Echo Park, coaxing your friends to read anti-capitalist literatures.
Briana Munoz is a Mexican American poet and writer, and author of her 2019 debut Loose Lips and her bilingual full collection Everything is Returned to the Soil/Todo vuelve a la tierra, which are both reflective of her community activism and inclusive personality. Her themes explore her cultural and political identity.
Ivan Salinas immigrated to Los Angeles when he was ten years old, and at college he was a student organizer advocating for education that addresses racism and social justice. His work has appeared in Backlash Lit, Curious Publishing, Drifter Zine, Dryland, and La Raiz. He is a 2021-2022 Poetry Fellow at Beyond Baroque.
Karla Lamb is a is a multidisciplinary Chicana poet & artist. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and has been translated in Revista La Peste. Her work has been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology. Lamb is currently working on a full-length poetry manuscript, and is the program manager at City of Asylum, an organization that provides sanctuary to endangered writers. She is the co-host of the podcasts Charla Cultural & Itty Bitty Coping Committee, and has edited for After Happy Hour Review,
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Re-Launch of First Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Cynthia Alessandra Briano, via Rapp Saloon – Hybrid In-Person & Online Event
Join the re-launch of First Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Featured Readers, offered every 1st Friday of the month by host Cynthia Alessandra Briano.
This re-launch will expand the event as a HYBRID event, with a return to live in-person events while maintaining at HISUA Zoom option for our performers and guests.
Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA
Share your voice at the Open Mic, where there is a time limit of 4 minutes max. Sign-ups are at 8:15 pm. Zoom ID posted 3 hours prior to event.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: https://m.facebook.com/events/rapp-saloon-reading-series/rapp-saloon-reading-series-first-fridays-open-mic or https://www.facebook.com/RappSaloonReadingSeries/photos/
The Catalog Poem Workshop with Karo Ska via Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
Join poet and author karo Ska for a writing workshop titled: The Catalog Poem: Exploring Self Through the List, offered virtually through the Sims Library.
Need some inspiration for your writing? Want a community to write with? Join us for this generative poetry workshop.
This workshop is part of an introductory poetry craft and generative series. You will have a chance to write and share your work.
We will read and discuss several list poems and use them as an entry point to write about the self.
You can pay $25 for one class or sign up for the monthly offerings: $44/month for two classes that meet on the first and third Saturday of the month. You can find more info at the Library website.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday 2nd
Time: 10 am
Address: Sims online (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/392815326156456
Summer Children’s Storytime at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Children’s Event
Join us for a Summer Children’s Bilingual Storytime event for kids, every Saturday morning.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Saturday 2nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Los Feliz Book Club: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us in-person for a discussion of the Los Feliz Branch Library Book Club selection for the month, Harlem Shuffle, by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award prize-winning author Colson Whitehead.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday 2nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-harlem-shuffle
Victoria Aveyard, with Alexandra Overy, & Blade Breaker at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Victoria Aveyard, in conversation with Alexandra Overy, present and discuss her new book, Blade Breaker.
Andry, a former squire, continues to fight for hope amid blood and chaos.
Dom, a grieving immortal, strives to fulfill a broken oath.
Sorasa, an outcast assassin, faces her past when it returns with sharpened teeth.
Valtik, an old sorceress, summons a mighty power.
And Corayne, a pirate’s daughter with an ancient magic in her blood, steps closer to becoming the hero she’s destined to be.
Together they must assemble an army to face Queen Erida and Taristan’s wicked forces. But something deadly waits in the shadows, something that might consume the world before there’s any hope for victory.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchases, guidelines and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – in the Courtyard
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/victoria-aveyard-blade-breaker
Saturday Afternoon Poetry Writing Workshop with Don Kingfisher Campbell + Spectrum 32 at My Place Café – In-Person Event & Online Event Via Zoom
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry off-site at My Place Café for a Poetry Writing Workshop led by DON KINGFISHER CAMPBELL (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines for Spectrum 32: Rejoice or Rue by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, July 2nd) THIS MEETING CAN ALSO BE ACCESSED THROUGH OUR USUAL ZOOM PORTAL
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry at My Place Café
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2057 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101 or Online via Zoom link (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
2-Part Community Poetry Workshop with Gina Duran at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Join us for a 2-Part Community Poetry Workshop, with a 30-minute break in-between.
Part 1: Self-Care Guide to Community Poetry (3:30 pm to 4:30 pm)
Mindfulness, safe space/courageous space, embrace our mistakes, breathwork for stress or anxiety, release shame, embrace the humble, show up and write your truth (music warmups). Permissions (love and be yourself), self-care, self-nurturing, connecting, and honoring our internal child. Drawing warmups. Poetry from our experiences. Finally…an exquisite corps.
Part 2: Community Poetry: Community-Care is Self-Care (5 pm to 6 pm)
Mindfulness, safe space/courageous space, how to speak your truth/vocal warmups. Warm-ups will begin with ourselves, then expand to listening skills and note-taking, then vocal warmups, then continue to expand through the process of communication and note-taking through interviews, finally, we will come together as a whole and present our work together through our work and through a community-building game while speaking through the act of poetry.
Gina Duran is an artist, poet and educator with a focus on marginalized youth. She is the founder of the IE Hope Collective; an outreach that helps people living on the streets and in shelters, and provides poetry, art, and yoga workshops for low-income, homeless, foster, refugee, and LGBTQ2+ youth. She was the Guest Editor of Boundless 2022, of The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, and is currently the DJ/Host for The Collective on KQBH LA. Her first collection of poetry “…and so, the Wind was Born,” was published in 2021 by FlowerSong Press and is a part of the Her Story Mixed Tape collection in the archives of the Autry Museum of the American West, in LA. She feels art and community can and will lead to positive change.
NOTE: See site for tickets and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday 2nd
Time: 3:30 pm – 4;30 & 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-poetry-workshop-tickets-350617926657
Poetry Parrri: Featuring Willie Perdomo, Luivette Resto & Taller Bula at LibroMobile – In-Person Event
Join us to celebrate poets Willie Perdomo, author of Smoking Lovely: The Remix & Luivette Resto, author of Living on Islands Not Found on Maps, with a bomba performance by Taller Bula!
Willie Perdomo is the author of Smoking Lovely: The Remix (Haymarket Books, 2021), The Crazy Bunch (Penguin Random House, 2019), The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin Random House, 2014), and Where a Nickel Costs of Dime (Norton, 1996). Winner of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, the New York City Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN Open Book Award, Perdomo was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award. He is co-editor of the anthology, Latínext, and his work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poetry, Washington Post, The Best American Poetry 2019, and African Voices. He is currently a Lucas Arts Literary Fellow, a core faculty member at VONA/Voices of our Nation Writing Workshop, and teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy.
Luivette Resto, a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is on the Board of Directors for Women Who Submit, a non profit organization in Los Angeles focused on women and nonbinary writers. Some of her latest work can be read on Spillway, North American Review, and the latest anthology, Gathering.
Her latest collection Living On Islands Not Found On Maps is published by FlowerSong Press. Her first two books of poetry Unfinished Portrait and Ascension have been published by Tía Chucha Press.Some of her latest work can be found in the anthology titled What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump edited by Martín Espada and on the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center website. She lives in the San Gabriel Valley with her three children aka her revolutionaries.
Taller Bula N/A
NOTE: See site for costs, RSVP, and details.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol, Ste. A3. Santa Ana, CA 92704
Pondwater Remembrance for Jeanette Baines at The Pondwater Society – In-Person Event
Jeannette Baines was at the first Pondwater event and supported everyone, every month. When her son, Eddie, died she was strong and kept everyone going.
This event is for her, the best Mother ever. it’s an open reading, and everyone who was touched by her will have a voice.
God bless us all, everyone.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Private Residence
Date: Saturday 2nd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 16504 E. Masline St., Covina, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/600325531240852/?ref=newsfeed
Happily Everyone After Book Club & Knot My Type at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore Off-site at The Actors Gang – In-Person Event
Join us at the Happily Everyone After Book Club, led by Sarah S., which reads widely across the romance genre.
Our book selection for July is Knot My Type by Evie Mitchell.
Feel free to bring your own snacks and drinks, as well as a blanket, beach chair, or camp chair.
We recommend you give yourself plenty of time to park and find us in the park.
LOCATION:
Media Park in front of The Actor’s Gang Theater. It’s directly behind the store, across the street from Trader Joe’s.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore at The Actors Gang Theatre
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 12 pm – 1:30 pm
Address: 9070 Venice Blvd, at Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Outdoor Lit Book Club & Rooted at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for the Outdoor Lit Book Club to read Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature and Spirit, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, which believes that cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside, CA 92507
Date: Sunday 3rd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/outdoor-lit-book-club-rooted
Sunday Jump Poetry Event & (Ten)acious Open Mic at Pilipino Workers Center – In-Person Event
Join Sunday Jump for a Poetry Night & Open Mic every 1st Sunday of the month, during our 10th anniversary year celebration.
We curate three featured performing artists, a visual artist, and a community spotlight at every event. In this curation process, we focus on uplifting artists who are people of color. Features today include:
Sam Paguita (they/them) is a dancer, performer.
Luivette Resto (she/her) is a teacher, poet, is on the board of Women Who Submit and is widely published. Her latest collection is Living on Islands Not Found on Maps (FlowerSong Press), which follows two collections from Tia Chucha Press: Unfinished Portrait and Ascension.
Christopher Siders (he/they) is a spoken word artist, music producer, journalist, and author of From the Ground Up.
NOTE: See site for schedule, guidelines, and further event details.
Where: Sunday Jump at Pilipino Workers Center
Date: Sunday 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 153 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.sundayjump.com/programs/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/550162390092282
Los Angeles Literature 