Story Writing Club: Teen Eventat Jefferson Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Join the Story Writing Club for Teens. Draw, learn the art of storytelling, and discover your ideas with other teens. For ages 11 – 18.
This event is scheduled for every Monday and Thursday, 4:30 – 5:30 pm.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Jefferson Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 20th (and Thursday the 23rd)
Time: 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/story-writing-club
Poetry Happy Hour: John Freeman and Aria Aberat pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
This first Poetry Happy Hour event will feature celebrated poets John Freeman and Aria Aber, who will discuss and read from their books, Wind,Trees and Hard Damage, respectively.
John Freeman is the editor of Freeman’s, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. His own books include Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as Tales of Two Planets, an anthology of new writing about inequality and the climate crisis globally, and three poetry collections, Maps, The Park and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Zyzzyva.
Aria Aber was raised in Germany. Her debut book Hard Damage won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was published in September 2019. Her poems are forthcoming or have appeared in The New Yorker, New Republic, Kenyon Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. She is at work on a novel and a second book of poems.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/poetry-happy-hour-poets-john-freeman-and-aria-aber
The Philosophical Horror Book Club: The Silence at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Philosophical Horror Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Silence, by author Tim Lebbon.
In the darkness of a underground cave system, blind creatures hunt by sound. Then there is light, there are voices, and they feed… Swarming from their prison, the creatures thrive and destroy. To scream, even to whisper, is to summon death. As the hordes lay waste to Europe, a girl watches to see if they will cross the sea. Deaf for many years, she knows how to live in silence; now, it is her family’s only chance of survival. To leave their home, to shun others, to find a remote haven where they can sit out the plague. But will it ever end? And what kind of world will be left?
Tim Lebbon is the New York Times bestselling author of the movie novelizations of 30 Days of Night and The Cabin in the Woods. He has also written many critically acclaimed horror and dark fantasy novels. Tim has won three British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, a Tombstone and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest D r., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-silence
From Readers to Writers: A Panel and Reading with Women Who Submitat Cerritos Library – In-Person Event
Women Who Submit will present a panel of published poets and writers from WWS to inspire and teach and encourage women to submit their written work to literary journals and to clarify the submission and publication process.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details. Ages 13 and over.
Where: Cerritos Library, Skyline Room
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 18025 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos, CA 90703
Mar Vista Book Club: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mar Vista Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by author Maya Angelou.
This 1969 autobiography describes the young and early years of the life of the author. Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. It is an apt choice to read and celebrate during Women’s History Month.
Copies of the book are available behind the Reference Desk. New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL, Community Room
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Address: 12006 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mar-vista-book-club-i-know-why-caged-bird-sings-maya-angelou
Meditation Monday: Self Care for the Writer with Alex Petunia via L. A. Poet Society – Online Event
Meditation Monday: Self Care for the Writer is a workshop led by poet, writer, and author Alex Petunia, and includes breathing meditation self-care check-in, writing prompts, and affirmations.
The mission of the L. A. Poet Society is to create a bridge, fusing the communities of Los Angeles & Southern California Poets.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online Event, Zoom: 840 2975 5764
Website: https://www.facebook.com/LosAngelesPoetSociety/
At Mark Taper Auditorium: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai & Dust Child at Skylight Books Off-site – In-Person Event
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai will discuss her novel, Dust Child.
International bestselling author and poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai in conversation with host of The Vietnamese podcast Kenneth Nguyen to discuss her second novel written in English, Dust Child. Described by Viet Thanh Nguyen as “powerful and deeply empathetic… A heartbreaking tale of lost ideals, human devotion, and hard-won redemption,” Dust Child is set both during the Việt Nam War and in present day Việt Nam. Dust Child tells an unforgettable story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies through love, hard-earned wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.
Quế Mai’s debut novel in English, The Mountains Sing, was an international bestseller, runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the 2020 Book Browse Best Debut Award, the 2021 International Book Awards, the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details. RSVP HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dust-child-registration-519294402537z
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Erik Conway & The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Erik Conway will discuss his book,The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market.
In their bestselling book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the “magic of the marketplace.”
In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with “big government” and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names; recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books; and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine to millions and launched Ronald Reagan’s political career.
By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
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 an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial and Transnational Literatures at California State University Channel Islands, teaching courses on creative writing and contemporary African literatures. Raquel has published poetry in Africology and The Arrow; fiction in Enculturation, The Daily Palette, The Womanist, and Crux; and non-fiction in Little Village; and has done readings with the Ventura County Poetry project. Raquel lives for talking about all things about the craft and social meanings of literature!
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-588228075007
Under the Mic Influence Open Mic & Yaa Asantewaa Faraji at Long Beach Unified – In-Person Event
Under the Mic Influence Open Mic event is hosted by Kuahmel & SDJ Kev Jam every 1st & 3rd Monday of the month.
Tonight’s featured guest is Yaa Asantewaa Faraji. She is the author of the explosive book, Calabama, from World Stage Press. She is another wordsmith who will inspire you for a long time to come, and she can be found @farjiwrites!
Where: Long Beach Unified
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA
Website: www.facebppk.com/kuahmel
Celebrate World Poetry Day: Latinx Poets Reading via Museum of Latin American Art – Online Event
In honor of UNESCO’s World Poetry Day, MOLAA, in collaboration with FlowerSong Press, will host a series or virtual readings from authors: Matt Sedillo, David Romero, Gabriella Gutierrez Y Muhs, Lilliana Valenzuela, and Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez.
Matt Sedillo is political poet and international performance and spoken word artist. He the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor, both from FlowerSong Press.
David Romero is a Mexican American spoken word artist and the author of My Name Is Romero, from FlowerSong Press.
Gabriella Gutierrez Y Muhs is a professor at Seattle University. She is a polylingual poet, critic, and cultural worker. She is the author/editor of eight books of poetry, criticism and culture, and multiple articles, encyclopedia entries, opinion pieces.
Lilliana Valenzuela is an award-winning poet and the author of Codex of Love: Bendita Ternura (FlowerSong Books, 2020) and Codex of Journeys: Bendito Camino (Mouthfeel Press, 2013). Her poetry has appeared in Edinburgh Review, Indiana Review, Tigertail, Huizache, Borderlands, Drunken Boat and other publications in Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and the United States.
Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez is a Puerto Rican American poet who has been published in Queen Mob’s Teahouse, The Acentos Review, A Gypsy’s Library, and Here Comes Everyone among other publications. She currently performs, facilitates workshops, and hosts events in the greater Washington D.C. area, having previously done so in New York, Miami, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, including venues such as New York University. She is the author of Sespoto and Coconut Curls Y Café Con Leche.
Join this reading event series to hear and explore essential verse from, about, and throughout the borderlands.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and further details.
Where: Museum of Latin American Art
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 11 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://molaa.org/events/2023/3/21/poetry or Zoom
Adult Non-Fiction Book Club: Fly Girl at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Adult Non-Fiction Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Fly Girl, by author Anna Hood.
This memoir describes the golden age of travel, when flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world―and maybe, one day, write about it―Ann Hood joined their ranks. After a grueling job search, Hood survived TWA’s rigorous Breech Training Academy and learned to evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, administer oxygen, and stay calm no matter what the situation.
As the airline industry changed around her, Hood began to write―even drafting snatches of her first novel from the jump-seat. She reveals how the job empowered her, despite its roots in sexist standards.
Copies of the book are available behind the Reference Desk. New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL, Community Room
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 1 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/adult-nonfiction-book-club
Mysterious Book Club: Her Royal Spyness at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mysterious Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Her Royal Spyness, by author Rhys Bowen, the first in her Royal Spyness series.
This mystery features a new detective from the Royal Family. It’s London, 1932. Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the English throne, is flat broke. She’s left Scotland, her greedy brother, and her boring fiance for London, where she’s free, learns life lessons, does a bit of spying for HRH—oh, and finds a dead Frenchman in her tub. Now her new job is to clear her (long) family name.
New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 861 Alma Real Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mysterious-book-club-8
Baby-Sitters Club Courtyard Party & Guests Artistsat pages: a bookstore – In-Person YA Event
The Baby-Sitters Club Courtyard Party will feature two illustrators of the graphic novel series: Katy Farina and Cynthia Yuan Cheng.
Have you wondered how the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels are brought to life through illustrations? Join us to meet two Baby-Sitter’s Club cartoonists to learn more about their process and creating a graphic novel!
Katy Farina is a comic artist and illustrator based in Los Angeles, CA. She is best known as the artist of the bestselling series BABY-SITTERS LITTLE SISTER and is currently developing her own original stories. Katy received her MFA in illustration from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2009. She has worked in a number of industries before finding her love in comics. Katy has illustrated six of the Baby-Sitter’s Little Sister graphic novels.
Cynthia Yuan Cheng is a cartoonist who loves to tell stories that make your heart feel full, your eyes a bit watery, but most importantly make you laugh! Cynthia grew up reading manga and playing American football in New Jersey, and graduated from MICA with a B.F.A. in Illustration and a concentration in Sequential Art. Cynthia’s debut graphic novel, MARY ANNE’S BAD LUCK MYSTERY, is the 13th installment of the Scholastic Graphix BABY-SITTERS CLUB graphic novel series.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/baby-sitters-club-courtyard-party-tuesday-march-21-430-pm
Classic Detectives Book Club: The Mystery of the Yellow Room at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Classic Detectives Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by author Gaston LeRoux.
This 1908 French novel marked the first appearance of popular character Joseph Rouletabille, a reporter and part-time sleuth who features in several of Leroux’s novels. Originally a journalist, Leroux turned to fiction after reading the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. Often considered one of the best locked-room mysteries of all time, the novel has been adapted several times for film and television. Joseph Rouletabille is more than meets the eye. A reporter by profession, he spends his free time working as an amateur detective, using his journalistic talents to compile facts and track down leads. When the young daughter of a prominent professor is found badly beaten in a locked room at the Ch teau du Glandier, Roulebatille sets out to investigate with his trusted assistant Sainclair.
The Mystery of the Yellow Room is a story of danger and suspense from one of history’s finest detective novelists. Joseph Rouletabille is without a doubt France’s answer to Sherlock Holmes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/classic-detectives-book-club-mystery-yellow-room
Third Tuesday Book Club: The Rent Collector at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Third Tuesday Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Rent Collector, by author Camron Wright.
Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working. Just when things seem worst, Sang Ly learns a secret about the ill-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money—a secret that sets in motion a tide that will change the life of everyone it sweeps past. The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman’s journey to save her son and another woman’s chance at redemption. It demonstrates that even in a dump in Cambodia—perhaps especially in a dump in Cambodia—everyone deserves a second chance.
New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club
Book Club: Harlem Shuffle at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
The Village Well Book Club participants will discuss Harlem Shuffle,by Colson Whitehead.
Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.
But mostly, it’s a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author, Colson Whitehead.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/23186
At Skylight: Kerry Howley, with Susanna Fogel, & Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Kerry Howley, in conversation with Susanna Fogel, will discuss her book, Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs.
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs tells the true story of intelligence specialist Reality Winner, a lone young woman who stuffs a state secret under her skirt and trusts the wrong people to help. After printing five pages of dangerous information she was never supposed to see, Winner finds herself at the mercy of forces more invasive than she could have possibly imagined. Howley’s subjects face a challenge new to history: they are imprisoned by their past selves, trapped for as long as the Internet endures.
A soap opera set in the deep state, this story is a free fall into a world where everything is recorded and nothing is sacred, from a singular writer unafraid to ask essential questions about the strangeness of modern life. It’s a wild, humane, and hilarious meditation on post-privacy.
Kerry Howley is a feature writer at New York magazine and the author of Thrown, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and pick for best-of-the-year lists in Time, Salon, Slate, and many other venues. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Best American Sportswriting, The New York Times Magazine, and Harper’s. A Lannan Foundation Fellow, she holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, where she was a professor at the celebrated Nonfiction Writing Program until joining New York. She lives in Los Angeles.
Susanna Fogel is a director, screenwriter, and novelist. On the directing side, her credits include the pilot episode of HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant, for which she won a DGA award and was nominated for an Emmy, the feature film Cat Person, which was based on the New Yorker short story and premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and the upcoming WWII-set limited series A Small Light for Disney+. She recently wrapped production on the feature film Winner, a biopic written by Kerry Howley about the whistleblower Reality Winner and starring Emilia Jones, Zach Galifinakis and Connie Britton.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Cathleen Schine & Künstlers in Paradise at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Cathleen Schine will discuss her novel, Künstlers in Paradise, her captivating and comedic twelfth novel explores exile, émigrés, movie stars, musicians, family bonds and the power of stories—both those we hand down and the ones held secretly in the heart.
For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three-years-old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City. Like many a twenty-something, he has come to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the global pandemic sweeps in, and Julian’s short visit suddenly has no end in sight.
Mamie was only eleven when the Künstlers escaped Vienna in 1939. They made their way, stunned and overwhelmed, to sunny, surreal Los Angeles where they joined a colony of distinguished Jewish musicians, writers and intellectuals also escaping Hitler. Now, faced with months of lockdown and a willing listener, Mamie begins to tell Julian the buried stories of her early years in Los Angeles: her escapades with eminent émigrés like Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann. Oh, and Greta Garbo. While the pandemic cuts Julian off from the life he knows, Mamie’s tales open up a world of lives that came before him. They reveal to him just how much the past holds of the future.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/cathleen-schine-discusses-kunstlers-paradise
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Bryn Wickerd via Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Bryn Wickerd.
Bryn Wickerd is a gender-tender Poet, certified Domestic Violence Advocate, + San Fernando Valley Rat. Bryn has performed in several features/shows and has been published in conjunction to a variety of projects; such as Whittier College’s ekphrastic art gallery: Bridges, The Poetry Circus, Moon Tide Press’s Poet of the month, and more. Fractured Shakespeare’s Speak I Will is their first time with Hollywood Fringe. They hope the times are treating you gently.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Book Launch: Praxinoscope: Hours of the Day at Poetic Research Bureau
Join @PraxinoscopeX for an evening of words and sounds offered by artists celebrating the launch of Hours of the Day: PerformX Documents No. 3, a new 180-page print collection of poems, scripts, scraps, song lyrics, sketches, and photos from a single-day exhibition presented last Fall at Poetic Research Bureau.
Sounds by Cato Gilmour, Nikki Ochoa, Dave Holguin, Nina Sarnelle, Mystic Elevator, and Darow.
Words by Sabrina O’Reilly, Jason Rodriguez, Karolina Lavergne, Jessica Dillon, and Kierunya Davis.
This latest print collection documents the third of four quarterly exhibitions mounted in 2022 — presenting live, interdisciplinary, group performances. Each Praxinoscope PerformX has featured a selection of 12 + artists who each responded separately to a changing central theme. Curated by DA Denckla and Matthew Bussa.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/praxinoscope-hours-of-the-day-1
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show – In-Person Event
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted by DeForest Wright, all are invited to attend.
NOTE: Details at event link.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1699147113818899
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic Night at Greenway Court – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. They hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
Every Tuesday (except for 3rd Tuesdays which is Slam Night) we hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in our audience.
TIME LIMIT: Each artist has 3 minutes at the mic, and if you go over, our DJ will scratch you. Please be respectful of the time limit as we try to accommodate as many people as possible.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
See sites for details.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theater.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre and YouTube Live Stream
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or
https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/open-mic-night
New Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s – In-Person Event
The New Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s with Shy But Flyy, will feature guest poets + an open mic.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: DiPiazza’s Pizza
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 9 pm
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-mic-w-shy-but-flyy-music-poetry-tickets-533965935487
Nic Stone & Fast Pitch via Children’s Book World – Online Children’s Event
Nic Stone will present and discuss her children’s book, Fast Pitch., a challenging and heartwarming coming-of-age story about a softball player looking to prove herself on and off the field.
Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the plate. Nothing can stop her from leading her team to the U12 fast-pitch softball regional championship. But life has thrown some curveballs her way.
Strike one: As the sole team of all-brown faces, Shenice and the Firebirds have to work twice as hard to prove that Black girls belong at bat. Strike two: Shenice’s focus gets shaken when her great-uncle Jack reveals that a career-ending—and family-name-ruining—crime may have been a setup. Strike three: Broken focus means mistakes on the field. And Shenice’s teammates are beginning to wonder if she’s captain-qualified. It’s up to Shenice to discover the truth about her family’s past—and fast—before secrets take the Firebirds out of the game forever.
Nic Stone is the New York Times bestselling author of Clean Getaway, which received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, who called it “an absolute firecracker of a book.” She is also the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling and William C. Morris Award finalist Dear Martin, its New York Times bestselling sequel Dear Justyce, and the acclaimed novels Odd One Out and Jackpot for teens.
Nic spent several years on the softball field as a kid, and Fast Pitch grew out of her love of the sport and the movie The Sandlot, and her desire to see more Black female athletes represented on the field and on the page. Nic lives in Atlanta with her adorable little family. You can find her online at nicstone.info.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, Zoom link, and details.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 9 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Mystery Book Group: Funeral Train by Laurie Lowenstein at Once Upon a Time – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
The Mystery Book Group will read and discuss this month’s selection, Funeral Train, by Laurie Lowenstein.
Whether you loved it, hated it, or haven’t finished it, we want to see you at our Mystery Book Group at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!
In her gripping follow-up to the widely acclaimed Dust Bowl Mystery Death of a Rainmaker, Laurie Loewenstein brings 1930s Oklahoma evocatively to life.
We will be meeting to discuss the book outside of the shop in the circle in front of Star Cafe. You may still email your thoughts to share with our club if you are unable to attend in-person.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, Zoom link, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 9 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-funeral-train-laurie-loewenstein
Coffee Time Book Club & Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Coffee Time Book Club meets on the 3rd Wednesday of every month and participants will discuss this month’s selection, Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel by Kate Atkinson.
This story begins in London in the wake of the Great War, and gives us a window in a vanished world. It’s a spellbinding story of seduction and betrayal.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-15
Write Your Novel Event at Platt Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Platt Branch Library invites you to write your novel at their library.
Is writing one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2023? Is completing a book on your bucket list? Whether you shouted an emphatic yes or mumbled a hushed maybe to either of those questions, our new novel writing support group is for you. This new group will be a place to learn, practice, and receive support from other writers. We will use LinkedIn Learning courses available on lapl.org to guide us through the novel writing process one step at a time. With weekly goals and the encouragement of your peers, you can spend the year working your way toward a completed novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Platt Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 23600 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/write-your-novel
Good Trouble Reading Group: Armenian Poetry at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Edendale Branch Library hosts Dr. Andrea Liss online for the next Good Trouble Reading Group. Participants will read and discuss a selection of Armenian and Armenian American poetry from the collections Birthmark and The Other Voice.
The Good Trouble Reading Group shares books that engage themes of social justice with love and family at their core. Dr. Andrea Liss, an Echo Park resident, is Professor Emerita of Visual Culture and Cultural Theory at California State University San Marcos. Her teaching and research focus on feminist visual culture and writing, visual art, and photography related to historical events and representations of social justice, particularly through the work of African American women.
Email eden@lapl.org for the link to read the poetry selection online and for the Zoom link to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, Zoom link, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-armenian-poetry
Natasha Khan Kazi & Moon’s Ramadan at Redondo Beach Library with pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Natasha Khan Kazi will discuss her debut picture book, Moon’s Ramadan, at The Redondo Beach Library.
Natasha Khan Kazi was born in Bangladesh, raised in Texas and Pennsylvania, and now lives in Southern California, where she writes and illustrates books for young readers, including her debut picture book, Moon’s Ramadan (2023 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.) Her creative work is rooted in empathy, diversity, and childhood joy. Natasha is the blogger behind IslamiMommy, where she shares ways to honor Islam through arts & crafts. She is a 2023 Highlights Foundation Muslim Storyteller Fellow. Natasha’s second picture book will be released in 2024 with Versify/HarperCollins. Learn more about Natasha and her books at www.natashakhankazi.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: pages at Manhattan Beach LIbrary
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 4 pm
Address: 303 Pacific Coast Hwy., Redondo Beach, Ca
Graphic Novel Book Club & Invisible at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person MG Event
The Graphic Novel Book Club is for children ages 9-12and is a discussion-based group led by Apollo.
Invisible, by Christina Diaz & Gabriella Epstein, in a phenomenal mix of Spanish and English, is for every kid who has felt themselves pushing against a language barrier in school, with friends, among family, and stumbling into strangers.
Five kids are stuck together when they’re forced to complete their school’s community service hours. Although they’re sure they have nothing in common with one another, some people see them as all the same…just five Spanish-speaking kids.
Free to attend. Limited space. No drop-ins.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Creative Writing Workshop with Robert Rifkin at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Express yourself! Get feedback on your writing in a fun, supportive environment. Novelist and journalist Robert Rifkin will conduct a free weekly writing workshop in Meeting Room A on the first floor of the Central Library. The workshop will be offered every Wednesday night from 6:00-8:00 p.m., March 22nd through June 20th.
To participate, please submit one page of original writing to fiction@lapl.org by Friday, March 17th.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Meeting Room A
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 630 W. 7th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/weekly-creative-writing-workshop
Book Talk: Dana Schwartz & Immortality at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Dana Schwartz will discuss her new book, Immortality: A Love Story, the sequel to her #1 bestselling gothic romance, Anatomy: A Love Story.
Hazel Sinnett is alone and half-convinced the events of the year before—the immortality, Beecham’s vial—were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know if Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do now is treat patients and maintain Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her.
When saving a life leads to her arrest, Hazel seems doomed to rot in prison until a message intervenes: Hazel has been specifically requested to be the personal physician of Princess Charlotte, the sickly granddaughter of King George III. Soon Hazel is dragged into the glamor and romance of a court where everyone has something to hide, especially the enigmatic, brilliant members of a social club known as the Companions to the Death.
Dana Schwartz is a television writer and the creator of the number-one charting history podcast Noble Blood. As a journalist and critic, Dana has written for Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, Glamour, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, and their cats Eddie and Beetlejuice. Her books include Choose Your Own Disaster, The White Man’s Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon, and Anatomy: A Love Story.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/product-page/signed-immortality-by-dana-schwartz or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-dana-schwartzs-immortality-tickets-551771983857
Reading in Bed: Jessica Wilson Cardenas with guest TBA via L. A. Poet Society – Online Event
The Reading in Bed with Jessica Series is held live on Wednesdays at www.radioollin.org and features oldies, interviews, performances, live in-studio.
The mission of the L.A. Poet Society is to create a bridge, fusing the communities of Los Angeles & Southern California Poets. Jessica Wilson Cardenas is a poet, writer, event curator and founder of the L.A. Poet Society. She is the author of the collection Serious Longing.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/losangelespoetsociety/?hl=en
ARTA! Zine Writers Workshop with Viva Padilla at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Workshop for mujer-identified writers
Facilitated by founding editor-in-chief of sin cesar (formerly Dryland) Viva Padilla.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 730 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Boyle Heights, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/pages/calendar-of-events
Craig Seligman, with Liz Brown, & Who Does That Bitch Think Se Is? at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Craig Seligman, in conversation with Liz Brown, will discuss his new book, Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag.
In the 1970s era, Doris Fish (born Philip Mills in 1952) painted and padded his way to stardom. He was a leader of the generation that prepared the world not just for drag queens on TV but for a society that welcomes and even celebrates queer people. How did we get from there to here? In Who Does That Bitch Think She Is? Craig Seligman looks at Doris’s short but overstuffed life as a way to provide some answers.
Seligman recounts this dynamic period in queer history—from Stonewall to AIDS—giving insight into how our ideas about gender have broadened to make drag the phenomenon we know it as today. In a book filled with interviews and letters about a life that ricocheted between hilarity and tragedy, he revisits the places and people Doris knew in order to shed light on the multihued era that his remarkable life encapsulated.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/craig-seligman
At Skylight: Angela Peñaredondo, with Vickie Vertiz & Cynthia Dewi Oka at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Three poets will read and discuss their new works:
Angela Peñaredondo will present the collection, Nature Felt But Never Apprehended. This collectionsynthesizes poetry, lyric prose, fragmented creative nonfiction, and visual art. They voyage through the junctures of gender and environmental injustices, and its connections between Philippines’ histories of foreign invasions and intimacies of survivorhood. The author wields queer, diasporic mythmaking, affective experiences of ritual and prayer as an illuminating force in the tangles of intergenerational memory,
Angela Peñaredondo (she/they) is queer, nonbinary Filipinx writer and author of nature felt but never apprehended (Noemi Press, 2023) All Things Lose Thousands of Times (winner of the 2016 Inlandia Institute’s Hillary Gravendyk Book Prize) and the chapbook Maroon (Jamii Publishing). An interdisciplinary writer, artist and educator, their work can be found in The Academy of American Poets, Pleiades, Apogee Journal, Michigan Quarterly and elsewhere. They are a recipient of fellowships to Hedgebrook, Kundiman, Macondo, TinHouse, the Community of Writers and others. They are an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at California State University, San Bernardino.
Vickie Vertiz will present the collection, Auto/Body, winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, which connects the vulnerability of the narrating queer body to the language of auto mechanics to reveal their shared decadence.
From odes to drag, to pushing back on the tyranny of patriarchy, to loving too hard and too queer, to growing up working-class in a time of incessant border violence and incarceration, this collection combusts with blood and fuel. In other words, Vertiz writes to dissolve a colonial engine and reconstruct a new vessel with its remains.
Vickie Vértiz, the oldest child of an immigrant Mexican family, was born and raised in Bell Gardens, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. With over 25 years of experience in social justice, writing, and education, Vértiz is an alumna of the Woodrow Wilson and Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowships. Her writing is featured in the New York Times Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huizache, Nepantla, the Los Angeles Review of Books, KCET Departures and Artbound, and the anthologies: Open the Door ( McSweeney’s and the Poetry Foundation), and The Coiled Serpent ( Tia Chucha Press), among many others
Cynthia Dewi Oka will present A Tinderbox in Three Acts, her fourth poetry collection, which performs a lyric accounting of the anti-Communist genocide of 1965, which, led by the Indonesian military and with American assistance, erased and devastated millions of lives in Indonesia. Under the New Order dictatorship that ruled by terror for over three decades in the aftermath, perpetrators of the killings were celebrated as national heroes while survivors were systemically silenced. Drawing on US state documents that were only declassified in recent years, Oka gives form and voice to the ghosts that continue to haunt subsequent generations despite decades of state-produced amnesia and disinformation. This book repurposes the sanitized lexicon of official discourse, imagines an emotional syntax for the unthinkable, and employs synesthetic modes of perception to convey that which exceeds language.
Cynthia Dewi Oka was born in Bali, Indonesia. When she was 10 years old, her family migrated to Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories. In 2012, she and her son migrated to the Greater Philadelphia Area. She is the author of A Tinderbox in Three Acts, a Blessing the Boats Selection chosen by Aracelis Girmay, published by BOA Editions in 2022; Fire Is Not a Country (2021) and Salvage (2017) published by Northwestern University Press; and Nomad of Salt and Hard Water, first published by Dinah Press in 2012, with a second edition of new and revised poems published by Thread Makes Blanket in 2016.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-angela-pe%C3%B1aredondo-nature-be-felt-vickie-vertiz-autobody-cynthia-dewi-oka-tinderbox
Women’s Fiction Reading Group: Sparks Like Stars at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Vroman’s Women’s Fiction Reading Group meets the 4th Wednesday of every month, and participants will read this month’s selection, Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi.
This novel is about an Afghan American woman who returns to Kabul to learn the truth about her family and the tragedy that destroyed their lives and led to her family’s relocation from Kabul to America in 1978. Thirty years later, in 1978, her world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room—a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/vroman%E2%80%99s-fiction-reading-group
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.
- 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm — Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm — Readings TBA;
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — 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
Date: Wednesday the 22ND
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom Event
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. Please be prepared to share one poem. This workshop will be hosted via the Zoom video-conferencing platform. Please sign up for each workshop session at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, and you will be contacted with instructions on how to join the meeting.
The new facilitator for this workshop is Tom Laiches, author of Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019). His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Salt, Jabberwock, Blue Unicorn, Softblow, Disquieting Muses Quarterly, Stand, and elsewhere. He lives in Venice, California.
Please spend some time before the workshop learning how to share documents via Zoom. It will keep the session moving if you’re able to make your poem viewable quickly and easily. Here’s an instructive video that might help.
The workshop can sometimes reach high levels of attendance, which means not everyone will get a chance to read every session.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Wednesday the 22th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-591399972237
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Featured Guest at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event (Check to verify)
Join host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night for our Reading & Open Mic, with feature TBA.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for an individual reading, as well as an Open Mic reading.
$4 cover fee, cash only.
NOTE: See site for further details, guidelines & information.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 22nd (Check to verify)
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/
LGBTQ Book Club & The Paris Bookseller at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The LGBTQ Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Paris Bookseller, by author Kerri Maher.
This book is the dramatic story of how a humble bookseller fought against incredible odds to bring one of the most important books of the 20th century to the world in this new novel from the author of The Girl in White Gloves.
When bookish young American Sylvia Beach opens Shakespeare and Company on a quiet street in Paris in 1919, she has no idea that she and her new bookstore will change the course of literature itself.
Shakespeare and Company is more than a bookstore and lending library: Many of the prominent writers of the Lost Generation, like Ernest Hemingway, consider it a second home. It’s where some of the most important literary friendships of the twentieth century are forged—none more so than the one between Irish writer James Joyce and Sylvia herself. When Joyce’s controversial novel Ulysses is banned, Beach takes a massive risk and publishes it under the auspices of Shakespeare and Company.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/lgbtq-book-club-paris-bookseller
Big Read Book Discussion & Interior Chinatown at Mid-Valley Regional Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The West L.A. Book Club will discuss the Big Read novel and this month’s selection, Interior Chinatown, by author Charles Yu.
Interior Chinatown is a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. After stumbling into the spotlight, actor Willis Wu finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family.
Please email cdavies@lapl.org for more information and Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Mid-Valley Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 16244 Nordhoff St., North Hills, CA 91343
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-discussion-5
Open Mic: Besos y Puñales at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Viva Padilla will host the Re/Arte Open Mic of musica, poesia, comedia, lectura every Thursday.
Sign up at the door.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Scott Galloway & Adrift at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Author Scott Galloway will discuss the future of America in his book, Adrift: America in 100 Charts.
In this book, bestselling author and NYU business school professor Scott Galloway presents an urgent examination of the future of our nation – and how we got here.
We are only just beginning to reckon with our post-pandemic future. As political extremism intensifies, the great resignation affects businesses everywhere, and supply chain issues crush bottom lines, we’re faced with daunting questions – is our democracy under threat? How will Big Tech change our lives? What does job security look like for me? America is on the brink of massive change – change that will disrupt the workings of our economy and drastically impact the financial backbone of our nation: the middle class.
In Adrift, Galloway looks to the past – from 1945 to present day – to explain just how America arrived at this precipice. Telling the story of our nation through 100 charts, Galloway demonstrates how crises such as Jim Crow, World War II, and the Stock Market Crash of 2008, as well as the escalating power of technology, an entrenched white patriarchy, and the socio-economic effects of the pandemic, created today’s perfect storm.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24020
Gesine Bullock-Prado, with Jeff Fischer, & My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Gesine Bullock-Prado, in conversation with Jeff Fischer, discusses My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons.
When Gesine Bullock-Prado left her Hollywood life in 2004 and moved to Vermont, she fell in love with the Green Mountain State’s flavors and six unique seasons. Spring, summer, fall, and winter all claim their place at this table, but a true Vermonter holds extra space for maple-forward mud season—that time of year before spring when thawing ice makes way for mucky roads—and stick season, a notable period of bare trees and gourds galore prior to winter.
In this book, quintessential Vermont flavors are updated with ingredients and spices from Bullock-Prado’s own backyard. With stunning photography, Vermonters and visitors alike will revel in a seat at this table.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/gesine-bullock-prado
At Skylight: Mandy Kahn & Holy Doors at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Poet and writer Mandy Kahn will present here new poetry collection Holy Doors, a lyrical highly spiritual journey exploring meditation, prayer, the afterlife, the poet’s love of peace, and the ever-accessibility of grace.
A poet working within the traditions of the form, in Holy Doors, Kahn is both seeking—and finding—the holy in the everyday. The poems in the collection suggest then that the holy need not be pursued—it need only be noticed. Doors to ecstatic experience, as Kahn reminds us, are everywhere.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-mandy-kahn-presents-holy-doors
Molly Lambert & Jazz Roulette at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Molly Lambert will present Jazz Roulette, and will feature guests Max Silvestri, Giulia Bencivenga, Matthew Goldin, and Gracie Hadland.
Molly Lambert is a writer from and in Los Angeles. She has written for publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and GQ, and was a staff writer at the websites Grantland and MTV News. She hosts the podcast Molly’s Sleazy Friends and co-hosts Night Call.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Liam Callanan, with Marisa Silver, & When in Rome at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Liam Callanan, in conversation with Marisa Silver, will discuss his new novel, When in Rome.
Meet Claire: fifty-two, desperate to do something new and get a fresh start.
Enter the chance to go to Rome: Home to a struggling convent facing a precipitous end, the city beckons Claire, who’s long had a complicated relationship with religion, including a “missed connection” with convent life in her teens. Once in Rome, she finds a group of funny, fearless nuns in a gorgeous villa, beautiful runs throughout a color-saturated city, and a chance to reflect. It all leads her to an unexpected question—should she join the convent?—and an answer that startles her as much as it does those closest to her.
A look at faith, in oneself as much as a higher power, and love, romantic and familial, lost and found, this is the thoroughly charming story of one woman who sets out to rewrite her past and future, only to be surprised by the plot twists life plants…when in Rome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/liam-callanan-conversation-marisa-silver-discusses-when-rome
Knight Owl Dress-Up Story Time Party at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Come dressed in your best knight, princess, owl or dragon costume to celebrate one of our favorite read-aloud books and Caldecott honoree Knight Owl!
Knight Owl, by Christopher Denise, is a Caldecott Honor Winner and New York Times Bestseller. The story is about a determined Owl who builds strength and confidence in this medieval picture book about the real mettle of a hero: wits, humor, and heart.
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon A Time
NoHo Online Book Club: Cleopatra: A Life via North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL – Online Event
The NoHo Online Book Club will discuss the current selection, Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.
Email nohlwd@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-online-book-club
Pajama Party & Sleepover: Benson Shum & Anzu at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
A Slumber Party Event will celebrate Benson Shum and his picture book, Anzu the Great Kaizu.
Children are invited to wear their pajamas and bring a favorite stuffie to enjoy a special storytime, cookies and juice, and then tuck the stuffies in for their overnight stay at pages. We wonder what the stuffies will be up to all night long in a bookstore? We know there will be some shenanigans, cozy cuddles, and lots of books to read!
On Saturday morning at 9:30 am, stuffies can be picked up while children enjoy a very special storytime with children’s author, Benson Shum. Benson will share his Anzu books and provide a drawing demonstration while children enjoy doughnuts with their stuffies. Photos will also be displayed of what the stuffies were up to all night!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/pages-pajama-party-stuffie-sleepover
Black Lit Book Club & Black Buck at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Black Lit Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Black Buck: A Read with Jenna Pick, by author Mateo Askaripour.
This book is a hilarious satire and a debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.
Mateo Askaripour’s work aims to empower people of color to seize opportunities for advancement, no matter the obstacle. He was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 rising stars to make waves in 2021,” a 2018 Rhode Island Writers Colony writer-in-residence, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. His debut novel BLACK BUCK was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read With Jenna Today Show book club pick. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @AskMateo.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-black-buck
Street Poets Presents: Jaha Zainabu & Open Mic at COMMUNITYmade – In-Person Event
Street Poets presents poet and author Jaha Zainabu, performing for Womens’s History Month an Open Mic in honor of Tonya Ingram.
Jaha Zainabu is the author most recently of I’m Writing to Tell You, a collection of inspiring and entertaining poetry from Mama’s Kitchen Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: COMMUNITYmade
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 584 Mateo St., Los Angeles, CA
Book Launch: Gretchen McNeil, with Robin Benway, & Three Drops of Blood at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Gretchen McNeil, in conversation with Robin Benway, will present and discuss Three Drops of Blood.
This book is a thriller with romantic elements. In this novel from celebrated author Gretchen McNeil, a mundane office job takes a dark turn when a girl witnesses a double murder through the window.
Being an actress, Kate is no stranger to drama. And when her chance at a leading role gets canceled, she is willing to do whatever it takes to get her acting career back on track even if that means getting a boring office job at her best friend’s father’s law firm so she can prove to her parents she can to support herself rather than go back to high school. Now, rather than living life on the big screen, she is stuck filing mundane contracts and watching the people in the office across from hers live their equally boring lives.
But when Kate sees things heat up between a woman and her assistant, her new source of entertainment takes a turn for the worse when she witnesses a double murder. Now, she must get anyone to believe her and find out who this mystery woman is to get answers. But as she learns more and more about the circumstances leading to the gruesome act, she begins to realize there is a bigger mystery under the surface…
In this voyeuristic thriller filled with twists and turns, can Kate get anyone to believe her before she becomes the next victim?
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Leslie Stein, with J.C. Gabel, & Brooklyn’s Last Secret at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Leslie Stein, in conversation with J.C. Gabel, will present her journey through the highs and lows of tour life in her book, Brooklyn’s Last Secret.
Welcome aboard the tour van of Major Threat—Brooklyn’s finest rock band yet to catch a break—as they traverse the US of A on a last-ditch summer festival tour. On drums we’ve got “band dad” Ed, the stoic drummer who keeps bumping into tech bro coworkers that he can’t quite relate to. On bass, there’s Paul, a man of mostly mystery, who drinks hard and yet manages to glide through life, intelligible to no one except energy-drink–guzzling Marco, the baby of the band and newest replacement lead singer. And of course there’s the gentle and serene Lilith, a weed–lollipop–sucking, stuffed-animal–backpack–wearing guitarist healing from heartbreak.
Her first full-length fiction, Brooklyn’s Last Secret expertly showcases Stein’s trademark cocktail of charm, wit, and whimsey, leaving readers decidedly affected by their time spent in her world.
Leslie Stein is the cartoonist of the LA Times Book Prize Award-winning Present, as well as I Know You Rider, Bright-Eyed at Midnight, and the Eye of the Majestic Creature series. Her diary comics have been featured on The New Yorker, Vice, and in the Best American Comics anthology. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
J.C. Gabel began his career in publishing at the age of 19. In the mid-’90s, he handmade the first issue of Stop Smiling “The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes” and developed it into a full-color glossy featuring timeless themes, original stories, and interviews you couldn’t read anywhere else. It grew for 15 years before transitioning into books.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-leslie-stein-presents-brooklyns-last-secret-w-jc-gabel
NDA Autofiction Reading: at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories’ autofiction reading series, inspired by the Archway Editions book NDA: An Autofiction Anthology, is edited by Caitlin Forst, who hosts this event.
This reading features guest readers: Miranda July, Robert Gluck, Michelle Tea, William E. Jones, Erin Taylor, Jasmine Johnson and Taylor Lewandowski
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
David Razowsky & A Subversive’s Guide to Improv at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Author David Razowsky, in conversation with Sam Wasson, will present and discuss in his book, A Subversive’s Guide to Improve.
Razowsky throws conventional improv wisdom on its head by giving you a unique take on how to create masterful improv scenes. He describes how his life philosophy and improv methodology have evolved on his journey from struggling actor to one of the world’s most respected improvisers and coaches.
The challenge for most improvisers is sticking to “the rules” and believing “Yes, and” is the magic formula for a successful scene. Characters meander and travel from a state of fluidity to a mess of frustration and ask, “How did I go wrong?”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24021
An Evening of Poetry: Orphans & Other Strangers: Mark Irwin & Elena Karina Byrne at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents: An Evening of Poetry titled Orphans & Other Strangers and featuring: Mark Irwin and Elena Karuna Byrne, andaddressing contemporary social issues and current trends in art.
Elena Karina Byrne is a freelance editor, lecturer, Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and Literary Programs Director for the Ruskin Art Club. Pushcart Prize & Best American Poetry recipient, Elena’s five collections include If This Makes You Nervous (Omnidawn, 2021), No Don’t (What Books Press, 2020), and Squander (Omnidawn, 2016), MASQUE (Tupelo Press, 2008), and The Flammable Bird (Zoo Press/Tupelo Press, 2002). Poems, reviews, and interviews can be found in Poem-a-Day, Plume, POETRY, The Paris Review, The Adroit Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, Kenyon Review, BOMB, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, Narrative, NPR’s KNAU Poetry Snaps Morning Edition / All Things Considered, and elsewhere. Elena’s writing screenplays while completing her collection of hybrid essays entitled Voyeur Hour.
Mark Irwin is the author of eleven collections of poetry, including Joyful Orphan (2023), Shimmer (2020), A Passion According to Green (2017), American Urn: Selected Poems (1987-2014), and Bright Hunger (2004). Recognition for his work includes The Nation/Discovery Award, two Colorado Book Awards, four Pushcart Prizes, the James Wright Poetry Award, the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, and fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, and NEA. He has also translated three volumes of poetry.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, link, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm (doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/orphans-and-other-strangers-a-poetry-reading-tickets-558383759857
Spoken Word Live: Open Mic & Guest Artistat Northridge Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join Northridge Branch Library for a multinational spoken word event that will take place on the fourth Saturday of each month on site at the Northridge Branch Library and online via Zoom. There will be an open reading included.
Email Emily at eaaronson@lapl.org for Zoom information.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 26th
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: 9051 Darby Ave., Northridge CA 91325
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/spoken-world-live
Book Club for Middle Grade Readers at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Middle grade readers are invited to participate in this fun monthly book discussions.
This month we will be reading: El Deafo by CeCe Bell.
Please e-mail akagan@lapl.org or gkim@lapl.org for the Zoom login information
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-middle-grade-readers-5
Mystery Book Club: Two Nights in Lisbon at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club meets via Zoom, and participants will discuss this month’s selection, Two Nights in Lisbon, by author Chris Pavone.
Please contact wwood@lapl.org for Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-14
Children’s Book Reading: I Love My Bubbe and Zayda with Brooke Taylorat Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Author Brooke Taylor will present and discuss her books, I Love My Bubbe and Zayda.
Make sure to bring your creativity, as the final page of the book is a blank canvas that you can write or draw in!
Brooke Taylor is a nineteen-year old writer from Los Angeles. She attends the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also the author of another childrens’ book, I Have Juvenile Arthritis Too.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24022
Pinay Gathering: Celebrate Women’s History Month with Five Women Authors at Philippine Expressions Bookshop – In-Person Event
Celebrate Women’s History Month with a Pinay Gathering of five women writers reading from their work, including:
Gracelyn Bateman was born and raised in Southern California. She co-created Luna Peak Foundation alongside her aunt, Melody, which benefits the cancer and grief communities. Their books and projects are centered on uplifting survivor stories and giving others a sense of a hope through adversity. More info about her work can be found at http://www.lunapeakfoundation.org. Her most popular book is The Grief Notebook.
Melody Lomboy-Lowe is a childhood cancer survivor of leukemia and has been an advocate in the cancer community ever since. Her first book, Beyond Remission: Words of Advice for Thriving, is a book of hope that features cancer survivorr portraits and stories to inspire and provide community to newly diagnosed fighters. Helping others heal and celebrate life through adversity is a mission she continues within Luna Peak Foundation which she co-founded in 2019 alongside her niece.
Lia Ocampo is a mentor and resource speaker for immigrants and aspiring flight attendants. In 2021, she published her second project, I Love Flying: An Inspirational Journal for Your Flying and Travel Adventures. In 2020 through her first book, What We Know for Sure, she provided a compilation of inspirational stories of Filipino immigrants in America.
Norma Samuelson is the author of a life, an orphan, a wordless book of 66 pages with loose black and white pencil sketches. Norma is also an accomplished children’s book illustrator.
Jennifer Suzara-Cheng is a children’s book author and her most popular book is My First Coloring Book. Other books include a number of “My First” titles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Philippine Expressions Bookshop
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm – 6 pm
Address: 479 W. 6th St., Suite 105, San Pedro, CA 90731
Website: https://www.facebook.com/philippineexpressionsbookshop/
Fourth Saturdays Poetry: Natalie J. Graham & Cynthia Alessandra Briano – In-Person Event
Fourth Saturdays Poetry, a monthly reading event, will feature Natalie J. Graham and Cynthia Alessandra Briano.
Natalie J. Graham is an award-winning author and performer who has toured nationally with her collection, Begin With a Failed Body. In 2021 she was appointed Poet Laureate of Orange County. A widely published scholar, she Is also a professor in the Department of African American Studies at Cal State University Fullerton. When she isn’t making poems, teaching or planning events, she enjoys baking and learning science with her son, Ronald.
Cynthia Alessandra Briano is a literary activist and community organizer through the arts, She is Director of the Rapp Saloon Reading Series First Fridays, an @HIUSA hybrid event and literary arts series centering voices of Indigenous, Black, and POC writers in a multilingual international setting. She is founder of Love On Demand Global which creates custom ordered poetry for charity and opportunities for writers to contribute to causes they’re passionate about. Cynthia is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and grew up in Southeast L.A. She teaches at Cal State Fullerton in the African American Studies Department as a lecturer in the Ethnic Studies Program.
Where: Claremont Library
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 208 N. Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=666987438768562&set=ecnf.100063719346046
Earth Day Every Day: A Poetic Celebration at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Earth Day Every Day is a poetic celebration to explore our changing world through environmental poetry, featuring:
John Curl is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Revolutionary Alchemy and Yoga Sutras of Fidel Castro, and has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. His translations of Inca, Maya and Aztec poets are collected in Ancient American Poets. Jack Hirschman wrote, “John Curl has earned a place among the foremost revolutionary American poets since the end of WW2.” Vagabond Books published his poetry collection, Rainbow Weather, in October 2022.
Leslie Ortega is a Chicana poet and aspiring mycologist. Her most recent work focuses on the ephemeral parts of life and coexisting with all things living. Ortega loves exploring the life of fungi and how mycelium networks are related to building community in any space.
Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians. Ferguson has been selected by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. (NBPF), to serve as the State of California Beat Poet Laureate (Sept. 2020 to Sept. 2022). He is a featured performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. His poetry and award-winning spoken-word music videos have been widely anthologized. He was a winner in Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match, L.A. Ferguson’s newest poetry collection, Everything is Radiant Between the Hates published in January 2021 by Moon Tide Press.
Susan Suntree is the author of the non-fiction epic poem Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California. This book won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award for Nonfiction. Suntree also adapted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a poem set as a choral work by award-winning composer Adrienne Albert.
Gina Duran 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. Duran was the guest editor of Boundless 2022, of The Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, and is currently the Host for The Collective on KQBH LA.
The last half of the program will include poets from the University of Southern California offering the voices of our youth on issues of environmental injustice, and how climate change has affected their lives.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/earth-day-every-day-a-poetic-celebration-tickets-588452074997
Michelle Lam & Meesh the Bad Demon at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Michelle Lam, with Noor Rasoul, will present and discuss her Children’s book, Meesh the Bad Demon.
This is a tale of unlikely heroes and myths is made real in this debut graphic novel series about a “bad” demon trying to find her place in the underworld. But she’ll have to save it first!
Meesh is a bad demon. “Bad” in that she always sees the good in those around her—which isn’t how a demon is meant to feel or act. Bullied by the other demons, twelve-year-old Meesh is more likely to be found reading magazines from Plumeria City—the fairy realm—and fangirling about the fairy princesses.
But when disaster strikes and all of demon-kind is threatened, Meesh must journey to other worlds in search of help.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Michelle-Lam-with-Noor-Rasoul-discusses-Meesh-the-Bad-Demon
Poetry in Non-English: Literary Event with Luivette Resto & Guest Readers at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Zoom Online Hybrid Event
Poetry in Non-English is a poetic literary event in response to the “Speaking in Non-English” captioning during the acceptance speech of Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny at the 2023 Grammys Ceremony. It addresses decentralizing English as the only language that matters,
Hosted by Luivette Resto, a multicultural round-up of poets and authors will read from their selected works challenging the lingua franca:
Obed Silva was born in Chihuahua, Mexico and grew up in Westminster, California. He received his bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and master’s degree in English at California State University at Los Angeles. He is an Associate Professor of English at East Los Angeles College. The Death of My Father the Pope (MCD/FSG 2021) is his first published memoir. He is currently working on a second memoir titled In the Hands of My Mother.
Jasmine Minchez is an 18-year-old Los Angeles-based poet of proud Guatemalan heritage. She studies and lives in the sprawl of the San Fernando Valley where she loves visiting local coffee shops and scribbling away at messy notebooks. Mixing in dry humor and whimsical storytelling, she indulges in themes of youth, culture, womanhood, and her ever-evolving relationship with herself.
Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam and fled her Vietnamese homeland with her mother and brother shortly after the American war in Việt Nam spending three and a half months in a freight boat stranded in the South China Sea before being rescued. Her father, who had served in the Army of the Republic of Việt Nam, remained in a Viet Cong re-education prison camp for nine years. Altadena Poet Laureate, 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, Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012). Her poetry appears in journals such as The National Poetry Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, and in anthologies such as Inheriting the War: Poetry and Prose by Descendants of Vietnam Veterans and Refugees (W.W. Norton & Company, 2018) and Tree Lines: 21st Century American Poems (Grayson Books, 2022). Teresa’s new poetry chapbook, Incidental Takes, is forthcoming from Hummingbird Press in 2023. Teresa teaches literature and writing at a public high school in Los Angeles.
Allan Aquino is a poet and professor of Asian American Studies at Cal State, Northridge. He has published and participated with our worldly community of poets since 1994, having featured in eclectic spaces such as the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC), The Tuesday Night Project (TNP), the J. Paul Getty Center, and Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore. His academic work has been printed in various journals and Ethnic Studies textbooks, with foci upon Filipino and AAPI history, literary arts, and popular culture. When neither writing nor moderating his classes, Allan, a self-declared “gentleman swordsman”, proficiently trains with blunt and “live” edged weapons from various martial cultures.
Nikki Dela Rosa is a queer Filipina immigrant poet and behaviorist living in SoCal with her pet familiar, Bixie. Her poems can be found in academic and literary anthologies that encompass topics in ecology, politics, spirituality, and intersectionality. She currently attends Antioch University in pursuit of an MFA in Creative Writing.
Robert Americano Esnard was born and raised in the Bronx, NY. He studied Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Dartmouth College. His work has been published by or is forthcoming in Bat City Review, Cutbank, Michigan Quarterly Review, New York Quarterly, The Offing and many more journals and anthologies.
Peter J. Harris is a 2018 Los Angeles COLA Fellow in literary arts, Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at USC, and award-winning poet/essayist. He is also the author of Bless the Ashes, poetry (Tia Chucha Press) winner of the 2015 PEN Josephine Miles Award, and The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My ‘Unalienable Right,’ a 2015 American Book Award winner. In 2022, Beyond Baroque Books will publish Harris’ book of poetry SongAgain and FlowerSong Press will publish his Safe Arms: 20 Love & Erotic Poems (w/an Ooh Baby Baby moan). Currently, he also serves as one of Altadena’s poet laureates. Harris is founder of the Black Man of Happiness Project.
Lisbeth Coiman is a bilingual author born in Venezuela. Her first book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017) explores the intersection between immigration and mental health. Her bilingual poetry collection, Uprising / Alzamiento (FLP, 2021) alerts us about the fragility of our democracy. An avid reader and committed literary citizen, Coiman writes reviews for the New York Journal of Books. Coiman is an active member of Women Who Submit and the host of La Palabra poetry series in Los Angeles.
ASL Interpreter Moira Jane Cedaars.
Spanish Language Interpreter Jocelyn Cruz.
NOTE: Mobile eTicket available at Eventbrite.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 3 pm Doors; 3:30 om Readings
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-in-non-english-tickets-588728561977?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Publishing Workshop by Gerda Govine Ituarte and Poetry Readings – In-Person Event
Saturday Afternoon Poetry presents a Print & Internet Publishing Workshop led by Gerda Govine Ituarte + Poets published in Four Feathers Press’ 4 IN 1: BOOK THREE (Jim Babwe, Anissa Sboui, and Shih-Fang Wang) and TRAVELING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: TRAVEL POETRY anthologies.
All events are curated by: Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Thelma’s Backyard
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1438 Atchison St., Pasadena, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Bilingual Children’s Reading:Professors Dra. Suzanne Garcia-Mateus & Fernan Rodriguez-Valls at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
LibroMobile hosts a bilingual children’s reading and scholar conversation with Professors Dra. Suzanne Garcia-Mateus & Fernan Rodriguez-Valls.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Historical Fiction Book Club: Beneath a Scarlet Sky at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Historical Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by author Mark Sullivan.
Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/historical-fiction-book-club-beneath-scarlet-sky
Book Launch: Lacie Waldon, with Falon Ballard, & The Only Game in Town at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Lacie Waldon, in conversation with Falon Ballard, will present and discuss The Only Game in Town.
Nothing ever changes in Redford, Georgia. It’s part of what freelance editor Jess Reid loves about her hometown—and part of what keeps her from ever leaving, no matter how much she might want to. That, and her relationship with her father, a car mechanic who raised her on his own after her mom left town. Jess is resigned to a safe, unremarkable existence…until Jasper Wilhelm, the town’s eccentric benefactor, dies suddenly and leaves behind the opportunity of a lifetime.
Carter Wilhelm has been too busy working long hours as a financial advisor to visit Redford, but he’s heard countless stories about the town and its zany residents from his grandfather. A small, insular town in Georgia is the last place Carter expects to be spending his summer—but it seems his grandfather had other plans…
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Marie Lu, with Maureen Goo, & Stars and Smoke at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Maire Lu, in conversation with Maureen Goo, will present and discuss her book, Stars and Smoke.
Meet Winter Young – International pop sensation, with a voice like velvet and looks that could kill. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. His rabid fans would move heaven and earth for even a glimpse of him – just imagine what they’d do to become his latest fling.
Meet Sydney Cossette – Part of an elite covert ops group, Sydney joined their ranks as their youngest spy with plans to become the best agent they’ve ever had. An ice queen with moves as dangerous as her comebacks, Sydney picks up languages just as quickly as she breaks hearts. She’s fiery, no-nonsense, and has zero time for romance – especially with a shameless flirt more used to serving sass than taking orders.
When a major crime boss gifts his daughter a private concert with Winter for her birthday, Sydney and Winter’s lives suddenly collide.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-marie-lu-presents-stars-and-smoke-w-maurene-goo
Mic Night @ Midnight Open Mic: Besskepp Poet & Lupe Montiel at LA Poet Society at Midnight Books – In-Person Event
L.A. Poet Society will host Open Mic Night at Midnight Books in Whittier, featuring poets and performers Besskepp Poet and Lupe Montiel.
Besskepp Poet (Cory Cofer) is a poet and performance artist, and author of Dreaming Under Polka Dot Skies.
Lupe Montiel is an author, actress, writer and filmmaker, and founder of Monarha Pictures.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Midnight Books
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 7201 Greenleaf Ave., Suite D, Whittier, CA 90602
Website: https://www.losangelespoetsociety.org/ or https://www.instagram.com/losangelespoetsociety/
L.A. Books Launch: Carol V. Davis & Below Zero at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents the L.A. book launch of the poetry collection, Below Zero by author Carol V. Davis, who will read from her collection in a solo performance.
In Below Zero, her fourth poetry collection, Carol V. Davis explores Siberia, an area in Russia largely unknown to Americans. Flying into Ulan-Ude, capital of Buryatia Republic, where she had never been, she mutters a prayer that her plane will be met. On a trip to Lake Baikal, she and her colleagues drive past trees strung with Tibetan prayer ags and stop to drop rubles in the lap of a Buddha. In Irkutsk, when her host dips a finger in a glass of beer and taps it on the tabletop, “For the house spirits,” she thinks of her own Passover, “finger dipping in the wine.”
Intermingling faith practices, shamanistic rituals jostle with Russian Orthodox blessings. Amid a harsh life in winter “below zero,” the poet finds wonder and majesty in the vast landscape and the warmth of people who welcome her. These poems wander over borders, America to Russia, Los Angeles to Nebraska, from cities to tall grass prairie to forest. Faith and doubt, magic and superstition, place, cultures, and family history weave through this journey, inviting us to ask ourselves: Where do we belong and why?
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, link, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-book-launch-below-zero-by-carol-v-davis-tickets-549860897747
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event (Check to Verify)
Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain host the Griot Café Open Mic & Poetry event every Saturday evening at Shades of Africa in Long Beach. See site to subscribe for reminders, etc.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Burning Issues Book Club: Essential Labor via Bel Canto Books – Online Event
Bel Canto’s Burning Issues Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, by Angela Garbes.
From the acclaimed author of Like a Mother comes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.
Garbes explores assumptions about care, work, and deservedness, offering a deeply personal and rigorously reported look at what mothering is, and can be. A first-generation Filipino-American, Garbes shares the perspective of her family’s complicated relationship to care work, placing mothering in a global context—the invisible economic engine that has been historically demanded of women of color.
Garbes contends that while the labor of raising children is devalued in America, the act of mothering offers the radical potential to create a more equitable society. In Essential Labor, she reframes the physically and mentally draining work of meeting a child’s bodily and emotional needs as opportunities to find meaning, to nurture a deeper sense of self, pleasure, and belonging. This is highly skilled labor, work that impacts society at its most foundational level.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and further information.
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/burning-issues-book-club-261829
Celebrating the Life of Doug Knott at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Beyond Baroque presents a celebration of the life of Doug Knott. The former president of Beyond Baroque’s Board of Trustees, Doug was a multi-talented poet, performer, and producer of literary events. He was the author of the poetry collection Small Dogs Bark Cartoons, the play The Last of the Knotts, several chapbooks, and was a co-founder of the performance troupe The Carma Bums. He had a law degree from Harvard, a commitment to the counterculture, an incredible array of friends, and a deep history of creating and performing in events at the intersection of poetry, punk, and the art world. We hope you’ll celebrate his life with us.
Food and drinks will be served on Beyond Baroque’s patio following the memorial.
Readings, performances, and remembrances by:
Quentin Ring
Janet Sager Knott
The Mighty Echoes
Peter Lownds
John Fleck
Phoebe MacAdams Ozuna
Laurel Ann Bogen
John Doe
Exene Cervenka
Richard Modiano
Jerry the Priest
Jerome Dunn
Nelson Gary
Alexa Hunter
Marsha de la Oh
Phil
Joe Culp
Andy Schwartz
Neal Taylor
Mike M Mollett
Michael Lane Bruner
S.A. Griffin
NOTE: See site for further details, guidelines, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-life-of-doug-knott-tickets-576503697077
Latina Book Club: Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Latina Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People, by author Marcus Antonio Hernandez.
This book is the gripping combination of two books in the Hispanic American Heritage Stories series, based on historical events. If you like indigenous revenge, villain origin stories, and the consuming force of religious fervor, then you’ll love this illuminating tale about Catholicism’s shadowed past.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
La Palabra Reading Series: Tisha Reichle Aguilera, Suhasini Yeeda & Christina Brown at Avenue 50 Studios – In-Person Event
The La Palabra Reading Series is hosted by Lisbeth Coiman and takes place every 4th Sunday of the month. Today’s event is centered on Women’s History Month and is Titled This Is What Radical Feminists Look Like. Featuring:
Tisha Reichle is a Chicana feminist and former teacher who works for equity through Women Who Submit. She is a PhD candidate at USC and recently had a live reading of her prize-winning script performed at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.
Suhasini Yeeda is a writer and communications consultant whose creative work can be found at Ms. Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Indian Review, Madcap Review, Packingtown Review, and the Arroyo Seco Press Anthology Redshift 5. Her short stories have been nominated for three distinguished literary awards: The Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and Best of the Net. She is presently at work on her first novel.
Christina Brown is a poet, performer, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English – Creative Writing from California State University, Channel Islands, and a master’s degree in American studies from California State University, Fullerton. Her scholarship focuses on popular culture, gender and technology, competing narratives, and the #MeToo movement. She is currently working on her first full-length poetry collection.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and information.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 2 pm – 4pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.facebook.com/lapalabrapoetry/
The Poetry Salon Book Club: Heather Bourbaeu & Monarch via The Poetry Salon – Online Event
The Poetry Salon Book Club is hosted by Tresha Haefner on Zoom free of charge.
This Book Club meeting will be a spirited discussion of Heather Bourbaeu’s poetry collection, Monarch.
As a communications strategist and researcher with expertise in climate change, conflict, migration, humanitarian aid, and technology, Heather Bourbeau has worked with colleagues around the world to produce influential high-level reports and communications strategies.
Heather Bourbeau’s poetry and fiction have appeared in 100 Word Story, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and SWWIM. She is the winner of La Piccioletta Barca’s inaugural competition and the Chapman Magazine Flash Fiction winner and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her collection Some Days The Bird is a poetry conversation with the Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey (Beltway Editions, 2022). Her latest collection Monarch is a poetic memoir of overlooked histories from the US West she was raised in (Cornerstone Press, 2023).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and information.
Where: The Poetry Salon
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Book Launch: Lila Riesen & Free Radicals via Bel Canto Books – In-Person YA Event
Bel Canto KUBO celebrates the book launch of Free Radicals, by Lila Riesen.
Lila Riesen, in conversation with Arya Shahi (An Impossible Thing to Say), will present and sign copies of her debut YA book, Free Radicals.
Free Radicals is a novel about how Afghan-American Mafi’s sophomore year gets a whole lot more complicated when she accidentally exposes family secrets, putting her family back in Afghanistan in danger in this poignant novel.
The daughter of Afghan and Australian immigrants, Lila Riesen was raised in the United States. Her undergraduate studies in English were completed at Indiana University and the Australian National University. In 2017, Lila graduated with a master’s degree in English literature and linguistics from the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Free Radicals is her first novel, inspired by her cashew-coveting baba and all the Afghans fighting for peace, in the US and abroad.
Arya Shahi is an Iranian American writer, performer, musician, director, and producer. His debut novel-in-verse, An Impossible Thing To Say, is being published by HarperCollins in the Fall of 2023. He is a co-founder of PigPen Theatre Co., the award-winning folk band and theatre company, as well as @inboxart, an Instagram collaboration which explores the connection between poetry and visual art.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Bel Canto KUBO
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ya-book-launch-for-free-radicals-by-lila-riesen-tickets-561014478407
Book Launch Event: Angela Peñaredondo & Vicki Vértiz, with Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes and Erin Mizrahi at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Celebrate book launch month for Angela Peñaredondo and Vicki Vértiz, with readings from Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes and Erin Mizrahi.
Hosted by Sarah Yanni.
Angela Peñaredondo is a queer Pilipinx poet, interdisciplinary artist, educator and scholar, and the author of: nature felt but never apprehended (Noemi Press), All Things Lose Thousands of Times (Inlandia Institute, Winner of Hilary Gravendyk Regional Prize) and Maroon (Jamii Publications). Peñaredondo is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Humanities at California State University San Bernardino.
Vicki Vértiz is the oldest child of an immigrant Mexican family, born and raised in Bell Gardens, and is an award-winning poet, writer, educator. Vertiz is the author of Swallows, Palm Frond with Its Throat Cut, and most recently, Auto Body. Vértiz teaches creative nonfiction, writing for Chicanx Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Her research interests include drag culture, feminist and queer art, film, and performance, experimental writing, and writing for community engagement.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and information.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/
March Focus on Craft Book Club & Take the Lead at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents the March Focus on Craft Book Club, led by Taylor C., which will discuss Take the Lead,: A Dance Off Novel by author Alexis Daria.
Meets at the store on the 3nd Sunday of the month at 7:15pm.
No membership necessary, feel free to show up!
About the book:
This fun, sexy romance is set against a reality dance show.
Gina Morales wants to make it big. In her four seasons on The Dance Off, she’s never even made it to the finals. But her latest partner, the sexy star of an Alaskan wilderness show, could be her chance. Who knew the strong, silent, survivalist-type had moves like that? She thinks Stone Nielson is her ticket to win it all—until her producer makes it clear they’re being set up for a showmance.
As Stone and Gina heat up the dance floor, the tabloids catch on to their developing romance. With the spotlight threatening to ruin everything, will they choose fame and fortune, or let love take the lead?
Alexis Daria writes stories about successful Latinx characters and their (occasionally messy) familias. Her debut Take the Lead won the 2018 RITA® Award for “Best First Book”. You Had Me at Hola is a national bestseller, Target Diverse Book Club Pick, and New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick. Alexis is a lifelong New Yorker who loves Broadway musicals and pizza.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-ticket
Los Angeles Literature 