Center Theatre Group Play Reading: Lola’s Banigs at Malabar Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The CTG will present a theatre group play reading of Lola’s Banigs, by author Fran de Leon, directed by Giovanni Ortega.
When Gina, a single working mom, sits down to a Filipino breakfast with her daughter, Ligaya, flashbacks take them to a childhood in the Philippines when every Sunday was& spent with relatives at her Lola’s house. Recounting days of meriendas chismis, and siestas on hand-woven banigs, Gina realizes there are painful moments of her life that have been cast away into the recesses of her mind. It takes Ligaya to unlock Gina’s memory and pass down long-forgotten family traditions.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Malabar Branch Library, LAPL, Community Room
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2801 Wabash Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/center-theatre-group-play-reading-lolas-banigs
Venice Library Book Club: Burgess Boys at Venice Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Venice Library Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, the novel Burgess Boys, by Elizabeth Strout.
Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.
Copies of each month’s selection will be available behind the Circulation Desk. New members are always welcome.
Email venice@lapl.org for Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Venice Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/venice-book-club-1
Phy-Sci Book Club: First Light at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Phy-Sci Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time, by author Emma Chapman.
Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe’s history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualizing an actual black hole. There’s a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe.
This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe’s history, known to astrophysicists as the ‘Epoch of Reionisation’, represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to comets, to moons, and to life itself.
Emma Chapman is a Royal Society research fellow based at Imperial College London, and one of the world’s leading researchers in search of the first stars to exist in our Universe.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/phy-sci-book-club-first-light
L.A. Times Book Club: Annalee Newitz & The Terraformers at L.A. Times – Online Event
The L.A. Times Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, the novel The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz. L.A. Times columnist Carolina Miranda will interview author Annalee Newitz online about her third novel, a sci-fi page-turner set in a distant future.
The Terraformers introduces Destry and the Environmental Rescue Team, an ancient organization devoted to preventing ecosystem collapse. On the planet Sask-E, her mission is to terraform an Earthlike world, with the help of her companion moose, Whistle. But when she discovers a hidden civilization inside a massive volcano, Destry must make a decision that echoes down the generations.
Newitz is a California journalist, editor and author of fiction and nonfiction; previous novels include The Future of Another Timeline and Autonomous. As a science journalist, they are the author of Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age and Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in science. Newitz founded the science fiction website io9 and served as editor-in-chief from 2008 to 2015, and then became editor-in-chief at Gizmodo.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: LA Times Book Club
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-times-book-club
Kate Bast & 115 Hacks and Hacktivities for Parents of Mini Humans at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Kate Bast will present and discuss her new book, 115 Hacks and Hacktivities for Parents of Mini Humans.
With hacks for everything from mini human care to travel and toys, this book will give you the extra hand you need to do it all. Divided into helpful categories, each innovative hack comes with easy-to-follow instructions, materials made up of simple items you can find in your own home or local stores, and clean, modern illustrations that make parenting feel a little less hectic (even on the days that you are running on fumes). And watch out for the hacktivities! You can use these hacks that are disguised as activities to keep your mini human busy, making parenting fun for everyone. In a durable and easy-to-carry package, this must-have book can go with you anywhere. Parenting is officially hacked!
Kate Bast was born and raised in England and is a TikTok content creator who now lives in Southern California with her husband Ryan, and toddler, Lily. Kate brings to life some of the best parent hacks and mini human hacktivities as she navigates the wild ride of parenting.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 9040
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Kate-Bast-Author-signing
Mystery Book Club: The Hangman at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – in-Person Event
The Mystery Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, the novel The Hangman, by Louis Penny.
The Hangman is a Chief Inspector Gamach Novel, and because it is a shorter piece than usual by the author.
On a cold November morning, a jogger runs through the woods in the peaceful Quebec village of Three Pines. On his run, he finds a dead man hanging from a tree. The dead man was a guest at the local Inn and Spa. He might have been looking for peace and quiet, but something else found him. Something horrible. Did the man take his own life? Or was he murdered? Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to the crime scene. As Gamache follows the trail of clues, he opens a door into the past. And he learns the true reason why the man came to Three Pines.
New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-0
Nonfiction Book Club: The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
The Nonfiction Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change, by author Geoff Dembicki.
In The Petroleum Papers, Dembicki draws from confidential oil industry documents to uncover for the first time how companies like Exxon, Koch Industries, and Shell built a global right-wing echo chamber to protect oil sands profits–a misinformation campaign that continues to this day. He also tells the high-stakes stories of people fighting back: a Seattle lawyer who brought down Big Tobacco and is now going after Big Oil, a Filipina activist whose family drowned in a climate disaster, and a former Exxon engineer pushed out for asking hard questions.
With experts now warning we have less than a decade to get global emissions under control, The Petroleum Papers provides a step-by-step account of how we got to this precipice–and the politicians and companies who deserve our blame.
“The petroleum industry is guilty of a Big Tobacco-style public cover-up, according to these vivid expos.”–Publishers Weekly STARRED Review
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: {pages} a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/nonfiction-book-club-4
Nathan Masters, with David Kipen, & Crooked at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Nathan Masters, in conversation with David Kipen, will discuss his book, Crooked: The Roaring ‘20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal.
Newly elected to the Senate on a promise to root out corruption, Burton “Boxcar Burt” Wheeler sets his sights on ousting Attorney General Harry Daugherty, puppet-master behind President Harding’s unlikely rise to power. Daugherty is famous for doing whatever it takes to keep his boss in power, and his cozy relations with bootleggers and other scofflaws have long spawned rumors of impropriety. But when his constant companion and trusted fixer, Jess Smith, is found dead of a gunshot wound in the apartment the two men share, Daugherty is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, exposing the rot consuming the Harding administration to a shocked public.
Determined to uncover the truth in the ensuing investigation, Wheeler takes the prosecutorial reins and subpoenas a rogue’s gallery of witnesses–convicted felons, shady detectives, disgraced officials–to expose the attorney general’s treachery and solve the riddle of Jess Smith’s suspicious death. With the muckraking senator hot on his trail, Daugherty turns to his greatest weapon, the nascent Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose eager second-in-command, J. Edgar Hoover, sees opportunity amidst the chaos.
Packed with political intrigue, salacious scandal, and no shortage of lessons for our modern era of political discord, Nathan Masters’ thrilling historical narrative shows how this intricate web of inconceivable crookedness set the stage for the next century of American political scandals.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/nathan-masters-discusses-crooked
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Derek Brown via Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Derek Brown.
Derek Brown is an author, poet and spoken word performance artist in Los Angeles, CA. He is the author of the collection, Articulate Scars: Comfortable Silences and Reluctant Tears. The author writes that“these poems are living testaments to love’s losses and wins, adult growing pains, and dreams realized and deferred.”
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
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 28th
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 28th
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 28th
Time: 9 pm
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-mic
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 29th
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
Author Event: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela & Fit Nation at Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event
Bel Canto Books presents author Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, in conversation with Sarah Schrank, to present and discuss her book, Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession.
How is it that Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier? Fit Nation explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future.
Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture and associate professor of history at the New School. A certified fitness instructor, she has worked out at home and in gyms for nearly three decades. She is the author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture, and her work has appeared in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and CNN.
Sarah Schrank, PhD is Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Liberal Arts at California State University, Long Beach. She is the author of Art and the City: Civic Imagination and Cultural Authority in Los Angeles; Free and Natural: Nudity and the American Cult of the Body; and co-editor of Healing Spaces, Modern Architecture, and the Body. Professor Schrank was recently awarded the Atlantic, and CNN. CSULB Outstanding Professor Award, 2021-2022.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: Bel Canto Books at The Hangout
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2122 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://www.shopthehangout.com/product
Quest Book Club: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu via The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Book Jewel presents Quest Book Club, and participants will discuss this month’s literary fiction or nonfiction selection, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts, by Joshua Hammer.
In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CpRN0cyKETZ/
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 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/losangelespoetsociety/?hl=en
Mystery & Thriller Book Club: The Women in the Library via Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Studio City Branch Library’s Mystery & Thriller Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Women in the Library, by author Sulari Gentill.
The author sets this mystery-within-a-mystery in motion with a deceptively simple, Dear Hannah, What are you writing? pulling us into the ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library.
The tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-thriller-book-club
Book Launch & Live Bilingual Performance: Carolina Rivera Escamilla & In a Corner of Your Country at Jaragua Restaurant – In-Person Event
Author and actor Carolina Rivera Escamilla, with guests, chorographer Sarah Swenson and actor Erika Cohen, will present her new book, In a Corner of Your Country,
This book launch, signing, and live bilingual performance is a theatrical dance inspired by the poems in the book, Organized and produced by SOLYART & Carolina Rivera Escamilla.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information. Donation: $10.
Where: Jaragua Restaurant
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 4493 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://carolinariveraescamilla.com/events
Charles Finch & What Just Happened? at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Charles Finch will discuss his new book, What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year.
In March 2020, at the request of the Los Angeles Times, Charles Finch became a reluctant diarist: As California sheltered in place, he began to write daily notes about the odd ambient changes in his own life and in the lives around him. The result is What Just Happened.
In a warm, candid, welcoming voice, and in the tradition of Woolf and Orwell, Finch brings us into his own world: taking long evening walks near his home in L.A., listening to music, and keeping virtual connections with friends across the country as they each experience the crisis. And drawing on his remarkable acuity as a cultural critic, he chronicles one endless year with delightful commentary on current events, and the things that distract him from current events: Murakami’s novels, reality television, the Beatles.
What Just Happened is a work of empathy and insight, at once of-the-moment and timeless–a gift from one of our culture’s most original thinkers.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Charles-Finch
Book Launch: Emily Lee, with Taneum Bambrick, & 回 / Return at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Emily Lee, in conversation with Taneum Bambrick, will present and discuss her new book, 回 / Return.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
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 29th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
Women & Femmes Night: Hosted by Jasmine Williams & Yesika Salgado at The Britely – In-Person Event
Da Poetry Lounge’s Women & Femmes Night is back tonight hosted by Jasmine Williams & Yesika Salgado, and featuring:
Aman Batra is a nationally touring, Punjabi-American poet from Artesia, CA. She graduated from UCLA with a BA in Creative Writing, and is currently obtaining her MFA in poetry at Antioch University.
Pastiche Queen is a Queer From Another Dimension LA-based slam poet from Denver, CO.
Wyann Vaughn N/A
Vibes by DJ Faucet
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Britely
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.instagram.com/yesikastarr/?hl=en
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 29th
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-597725772877
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Rachel McKibbons at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night for our Reading & Open Mic, with feature Rachel McKibbons.
Rachel McKibbens was born in Anaheim, California. She is the author of blud (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), Into the Dark & Emptying Field (Small Doggies Press, 2013) and Pink Elephant (Cypher Books, 2009). McKibbens is a two-time New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion. She co-curates the monthly reading series Poetry & Pie Night with poet Jacob Rakovan in upstate New York, and is the founder of The Pink Door Writing Retreat, an annual event open exclusively to women, femme, trans, gender-variant, and non-binary writers of color. She lives in Rochester, New York.
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 29th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/
Exclusive: Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham In-Person Kitty-Corn Party at Children’s Book World – In-Person Kids & MG Event
Celebrate the magic of friendship with bestselling superstar duo Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham in-person!
Join us after school to celebrate their new book, Party Hearty Kitty-Corn.
LeUyen Pham & Shannon Hale are the team behind the bestselling picture books Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn and Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn, the bestselling graphic novels Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever, and, with Dean Hale, the early chapter book series The Princess in Black. They’ve made a bunch of other books, too. They are both: moms of kids who love parties, wives to husbands who give them homemade cards, honor award winners (Caldecott and Newbery), caretakers of cats, and believers in unicorns. Pham lives in Los Angeles, Hale lives in Utah, and although they also have friends close to home, their best friend hearts are always entwined.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://www.childrensbookworld.com/event
Book Launch Party: Gretchen Woelfle & A Take-Charge Girl Blazes a Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeannette Rankin at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids & Adults Event
The Mar Vista Branch Library will host a book launch party for local Mar Vista author Gretchen Woelfle and her new book, A Take-Charge Girl Blazes a Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeannette Rankin.
This is an illustrated biography and story of the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
The program will include a reading from the book, a Q&A with the audience, and a book signing. Books will be available for purchase from the Friends of the Mar Vista Branch Library. Refreshments will be provided.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 12066 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-launch-party
Book Talk: Leigh McMullan Abramson & A Likely Story at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Leigh McMullan Abramson will present and discuss her new book, A Likely Story.
The only child of an iconic American novelist discovers a shocking tangle of family secrets that upends everything she thought she knew about her parents, her gilded childhood, and her own stalled writing career in this brilliantly observed standout debut.
Growing up in the nineties in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. Her beautiful society hostess mother, Claire, and New York Times bestselling author father, Ward, were the city’s intellectual It couple. Ward’s glamorous obligations often took him away from Isabelle, but Claire made sure her childhood was always filled with magic and love.
Now an adult, all Isabelle wants is to be a successful writer like her father but after many false starts and the unexpected death of her mother, she faces her upcoming thirty-fifth birthday alone and on the verge of a breakdown. Her anxiety only skyrockets when she uncovers some shocking truths about her parents and begins wondering if everything she knew about her family was all based on an elaborate lie.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk
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 30th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Elaine Hsieh Chou, with Adam Bradley, & Disorientation at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Elaine Hsieh Chou, in conversation with Adam Bradley, will discuss her book, Disorientation.
Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Ingrid Yang is desperate to finish her dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou and never read about “Chinese-y” things again. But after years of grueling research, all she has to show for her efforts are junk food addiction and stomach pain. When she accidentally stumbles upon a curious note in the Chou archives one afternoon, she convinces herself it’s her ticket out of academic hell.
But Ingrid’s in much deeper than she thinks. Her clumsy exploits to unravel the note’s message lead to an explosive discovery, upending not only her sheltered life within academia but her entire world beyond it. With her trusty friend Eunice Kim by her side and her rival Vivian Vo hot on her tail, together they set off a roller coaster of mishaps and misadventures, from book burnings and OTC drug hallucinations, to hot-button protests and Yellow Peril 2.0 propaganda.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/elaine-hsieh-chou
ROAR V: Celebrating the Resilient Feminine Event with Featured Readers & Open Mic via L.A. Poet Society – Online Event
Jessica M. Wilson will host the ROAR V event, Celebrating the Resilient Feminine with an Open Mic and featured readers:
Carmen Toffola is an award-winning Chicana Writer, 2014 Texas Poet Laureate, author of more than 30 books, and university administrator and professor.
Shonda Buchanan is a Black Indigenous poet and writer and the author of the memoir Black Indian. She is President of the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center Board of Trustees, an educator at Alma College’s MFA Program.
Andrea Lee is a Black Poet, Chef and Literary Host.
Jen Yanez Alaniz is a Chicana Poet and Organizer from San Antonio, TX.
Rosalilia M. Mendoza is a Chicanx Writer. She Parents, Kickboxs, Heals, and Writs. She lives NE San Fernando Valley on Tataviam lands born & raised.
Margo Perin is a LGBTQ Poet and Activist.
Tauri Alonso is a Chicana LGBTQ poet.
Trini Rodriguez is a Chcanx Writer and Activist, and co-founder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore.
Estela Victoria-Cordero is a Chicana Poet and Writer.
We will have a short open mic segment. 1 piece per person, first come, first served.
Happy Womxn’s History Month! The Los Angeles Poet Society recognizes all femmes, womxn, female identified folks, and sends much love and gratitude, support, and celebrate you!
NOTE: See site for Zoom link, and details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: Online Event, ZOOM: 836 1553 4139
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo
At Skylight: Monica Youn, with Victoria Chang, & From From: Poems at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Monica Youn, in conversation with Victoria Chang, will discuss her new book, From From: Poems.
“Where are you from . . . ? No—where are you from from?” It’s a question every Asian American gets asked as part of an incessant chorus saying you’ll never belong here, you’re a perpetual foreigner, you’ll always be seen as an alien, an object, or a threat.
Monica Youn’s From From brilliantly evokes the conflicted consciousness of deracination. If you have no core of “authenticity,” no experience of your so-called homeland, how do you piece together an Asian American identity out of Westerners’ ideas about Asians? Your sense of yourself is part stereotype, part aspiration, part guilt. In this dazzling collection, one sequence deconstructs the sounds and letters of the word “deracinations” to create a sonic landscape of micro- and macroaggressions, assimilation, and self-doubt. A kaleidoscopic personal essay explores the racial positioning of Asian Americans and the epidemic of anti-Asian hate. Several poems titled “Study of Two Figures” anatomize and dissect the Asian other: Midas the striving, nouveau-riche father; Dr. Seuss and the imaginary daughter Chrysanthemum-Pearl he invented while authoring his anti-Japanese propaganda campaign; Pasiphaë, mother of the minotaur, and Sado, the eighteenth-century Korean prince, both condemned to containers allegorical and actual.
Monica Youn is the author of From From (Graywolf Press 2023), Blackacre (Graywolf Press 2016), Ignatz (Four Way Books 2010), and Barter (Graywolf Press 2003). She has been awarded the Levinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America, a Witter Bytter Fellowship from the Library of Congress, and a Stegner Fellowship among other honors. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kingsley Tufts Award and the PEN Open Book Award. A former constitutional lawyer, she grew up in Houston, the daughter of Korean immigrants, and now splits her time between Brooklyn and Southern California, where she is an associate professor of English at UC Irvine.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-monica-youn-presents-w-victoria-chang
Caitlyn Lubas & You Are Where You Go at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Author Caitlyn Lubas will discuss her book, You Are Where You Go.
Celebrate Women’s History Month with local author and female traveler Caitlyn Lubas! Hear excerpts of stories from Caitlyn’s experiences camping in Antarctica, exploring the savannah on a 6-week safari in eastern Africa, living abroad for the first time at age 19, redefining “normal” by gaining new perspectives, and more. After a brief reading, Caitlyn will host a chat and Q&A touching topics across the range of learning and growing through travel, solo travel as a woman, how to make the most of a semester or opportunity to live abroad, and the importance of making necessary sacrifices and traveling on a budget while young.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24568
Jacqueline Winspear & White Lady at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jacqueline Winspear will discuss his new novel, White Lady.
This heart-stopping novel, set in Post WWII Britain in 1947, follows the coming of age and maturity of former wartime operative Elinor White–veteran of two wars, trained killer, protective of her anonymity–when she is drawn back into the world of menace she has been desperate to leave behind.
A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government.
The private, quiet “Miss White” as Elinor is known, lives in a village in rural Kent, England, and to her fellow villagers seems something of an enigma. Well, she might, as Elinor occupies a “grace and favor” property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor’s war work had been, or that their mysterious neighbor is haunted by her past.
It will take Susie, the child of a young farmworker, Jim Mackie and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White’s icy demeanor–but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie. Yet in her quest to uncover the truth behind the family’s pursuit of Jim, Elinor unwittingly sets out on a treacherous path–yet it is one that leads to her freedom.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Matthew Desmond, with Michael Tubbs, & Poverty, by America at LiveTalks LA, William Turner Gallery – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Author Matthew Desond, in conversation with Micheal Tubbs, will discuss his book, Poverty, by America.
In this book, The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.
Poverty, by America is one of the most anticipated books of 2023: It’s the latest from best-seller Matthew Desmond, who won the Pulitzer in 2017 for Evicted: Poverty & Profit in the American City. Over the last few years, Desmond’s spent time with dozens of people who live in poverty, while doing a deep dive into abundant data and research. Through this work, he’s uncovered a story about how our society works to keep poor people poor, while rewarding its richest citizens.
How do we become poverty abolitionists and usher in a new age of shared prosperity? Desmond will speak about new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem.
MacArthur “Genius” and sociologist Matthew Desmond launched The Eviction Lab at Princeton University after conversations with renters and policymakers convinced him that collecting national data on eviction would help answer fundamental questions about residential instability, forced moves, and poverty in America. Desmond is a New York Times Magazine contributing writer. His writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, the New Yorker and The Chicago Tribune.
Michael Tubbs is the founder of End Poverty in California (EPIC), Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), and Tubbs Ventures. He is the Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility and Opportunity. Tubbs served as the seventy-ninth mayor of Stockton, California, his hometown, from 2017-2021. He was the city’s first Black mayor and the youngest-ever mayor of a major American city. Tubbs has also served as a Stockton city council member and a high school educator. He has been a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, The MIT Media Lab, and the Stanford Design School. He is the author of The Deeper The Roots.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, link, and further information.
Where: William Turner Gallery, Bergamot Arts Station
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/matthew-desmond-with-michael-tubbs/
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is a weekly time to have fun with books with enthusiastic troubadour, Maddi!
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
East West Players Perform: Sama Sama: Solidarity in the Fields at Chinatown Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Est West Players will perform live a production of Sama, Sama: Solidarity in the Fields to celebrate Cesar Chavez.
Sama Sama: Solidarity in the Fields is a story that infuses narration, poetry, music, movement, and Eskrima, the national martial art of the Philippines, told through the lens of Tonantzin, Araw and Uriel, three high school students who are finding themselves and their cultural identity by learning about the “Manongs” and “Bracero Program.” It emphasizes the shared narratives of Mexican and Filipino culture and uses English, Spanish, and Tagalog to amplify this important piece of history. The play is intended to be interactive/immersive and inspired by theatrical praxis similar to Teatro Campesino, Philippine Educational Theatre Association and Theatre of the Oppressed. Tri-linguality permeates the sonic universe, and English translations have been provided on the script.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details. All ages are welcome.
Where: Chinatown Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 639 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/east-west-players-theater-sama-sama-solidarity-fields
Nervous Ghost Press Open Mic at Brewjeria, Pico Rivera – In-Person Event
Nervous Ghost Press Open Mic is presented on the last Friday of every month. It is a monthly event where the community comes together to share their art. All styles and media, genres, and voices are welcome to participate, always. This open mic is truly open and it allows us to live our mission and work toward realizing our vision in bringing the arts to all people. Art is what binds us, heals us, and saves us. Come join the party.
Guest emcee for tonight’s event is Carly Creley.
Sign up today at ghosts@nervousghostpress.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Brewjeria
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 4937 Durfee Ave., Pico Rivera, CA
Website: https://www.nervousghostpress.org/openmic
Asian Author Panel: Mae Coyiuto, with Guests, & Chloe and the Kaishao Boys at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Mae Coyiuto, in conversation with Julie Tieu, Michelle Quach, and Stephan Lee, will discuss her book, Chloe and the Kaishao Boys.
This book is a hilarious YA rom-com about a Chinese-Filipina girl in Manila whose father sets her up on a marathon of arranged dates in hopes of convincing her to stay close to home for college.
Chloe knows what it takes to be the perfect Liang daughter—stay in Manila, study business management, and join the family company. But when she unexpectedly gets off the wait list for USC, her dream of becoming an animator in the United States is suddenly within reach.
Before she goes, her auntie insists on planning a traditional debut for Chloe’s eighteenth birthday. And while a party with all her friends and family sounds like the perfect send-off, the huge production her auntie wants—complete with ball gowns and a choreographed dance number—makes Chloe want to pass out from stage fright.
To make matters worse, her father, intent on finding Chloe the perfect escort for the party, keeps setting her up on one awkward kaishao—or arranged date—after another. Why does her dad suddenly care so much about her love life? And what happens when she starts to fall for one of the guys, only to have to leave at the end of the summer?
At home in the Philippines, Chloe has her future all planned out for her. In America, nothing is certain. With a career in animation far from guaranteed, Chloe must decide if following her dreams is worth everything—and everyone—she’ll be leaving behind.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Book Talk: Shannon Taggart, with Molly McGarry, & Séance at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
American photographer Shannon Taggart’s fascination with Spiritualism, the belief in deceased individuals’ ability to communicate with the living, began during her adolescence when a medium revealed additional information about the circumstances of her grandfather’s death. A decade later, Taggart, then a practicing photojournalist, found herself drawn to Lily Dale, New York―the world’s largest Spiritualist community. Her transformative experiences there catalyzed an 18-year odyssey documenting Spiritualist communities throughout the world in search of “ectoplasm”―an emanation exorcised from the body of the medium, believed to be both spiritual and material.
Now revisited by Atelier Éditions, Séance offers readers a remarkable series of supernatural photographs exploring Spiritualist practices and beliefs within communities across the U.S., the U.K., and Europe. The photos are accompanied by Taggart’s commentary on her experiences, a foreword by Dan Aykroyd, creator of the Ghostbusters franchise and fourth-generation Spiritualist, and illustrated essays by Andreas Fischer and Tony Oursler. Atelier Éditions’ reissue also features new commentary by writer and filmmaker J.F. Martel, additional images, and a new design.
Shannon Taggart’s photographs have been exhibited internationally and have appeared in TIME, New York Times Magazine, and Newsweek, among other publications. Taggart’s monograph, SÉANCE, was named one of TIME magazine’s Best Photobooks of 2019. She lives and works in St. Paul, MN.
Molly McGarry is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Riverside, and teaches courses in nineteenth-and twentieth-century U.S. cultural history, gender and sexuality, public history, and museum studies. She is the author of Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Tara Ison, with David Ulin, & At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Tara ison, in conversation with David Ulin, will discuss her new novel, In the Hour Between Dog and Wolf.
This is the story of a twelve-year-old Parisian Jewish girl in World War II France, living “in hiding” as a Catholic orphan with a family in a small village.
When Danielle Marton’s father is killed during the early days of the German Occupation, her mother sends her to live in a quiet farming town near Limoges in Vichy France. Now called Marie-Jeanne Chantier, Danielle struggles to balance the truth of what’s happened to her family and her country with the lies she must tell to keep herself safe. At first, she’s bitter about being left behind by her mother, and horrified at having to milk the cow and memorize Catholic prayers for church. But as the years pass and the Occupation worsens, Danielle finds it easier to suppress her former life entirely, and Marie-Jeanne becomes less and less of an act. By the time she’s fifteen and there is talk amongst the now divided town of an Allied invasion, not only has Danielle lost the memories of her father’s face and the smell of her mother’s perfume, but her very self, transforming into a strict Catholic and an anti-Semitic, fervent disciple of fascism.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Obscenely Poetic: A Fusion of Poetry & Jazz at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Obscenely Poetic is a night of music and poetry featuring: A.K. Toney, Rhys Langston, Tori Gesualdo, and music by The Cesar Hernandez Quintet
Beyond Baroque presents an evening of diatonic feels in rhyming verse & auxiliary prose. Inspired by Rhys Langston’s first track in Grapefruit Radio (published by Black Market Poetry), this powerhouse line-up features three poets based in Los Angeles; multi-media artist Rhys Langston, drummer/spoken-word poet A.K. Toney, and the magic of Tori Gesualdo. Enjoy the poetry followed by a stellar performance with The Cesar Hernandez Quintet!
A.K. Toney is a Griot, writer, and educator. He currently is a Literacy Coordinator, Artist teacher and owner of Reading Is Poetry. Although Toney has yet to publish a full volume of poetry, he is currently working on his first book and album chronicling his life as a poet in the Leimert Park Village area in Los Angeles, CA. As a Griot Toney has learned the art of storytelling while playing percussion instruments. He often deeply emerges himself into rhythms of African Oral Tradition and Jazz from a modern urban perspective. A.K. follows the role of the Griot singing and playing the message, loving, and respecting the people.
Rhys Langston is a musician, visual artist, and writer born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, California. Publications such as the NY Times, the LA Times, AFROPUNK, LA Weekly, STEREOGUM, and SPIN have praised his multimedia efforts. Notable projects include 2020’s dissertation and musical album Language Arts Unit: a Rap Textbook and 2022’s Grapefruit Radio, which melded his outré rap, visual art, and absurdist prose. Ever composing and plotting between disciplines, he remains the poet laureate of his living room and has a higher vertical leap than your favorite rapper.
Tori Gesualdo is a Los Angeles based poet and bookseller. Her poems are an effort at catharsis and recollection of her personal responsibility to her own healing and the healing of the collective. She can be found at Stories in Echo Park, coaxing your friends to read anti-capitalist literature.
The Cesar Hernandez Quintet is a jazz band from Los Angeles, led by trumpet player Cesar Hernandez.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/obscenely-poetic-a-fusion-of-poetry-and-jazz-tickets-580961600787
Club Sadie! Sade Adu & Rent Partyat The Salt Eaters Bookshop – In-Person Event
We had SO much fun with y’all for our Renaissance Rent Party that we *had* to do it again–Sade Adu-style! Join us on Queen St. for a night paying tribute to the Queen of Quiet Storm. Games, treats, and vibes provided. Books will be available for browsing and purchasing (it’s giving book “club”!). We’re thrilled to bring back our girl Kailyn Hype and welcome TAYHDSN with remixes of classic Sade ballads and sounds from the new girlies mixed in. Tickets went QUICK for our last party, so be sure to reserve yours today.
100% of proceeds go towards our rent fund to keep this Black feminist bookshop afloat!
Not able to attend, but still want to support? We have a donation ticket option if you’d like to send us some love. We appreciate you!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Salt Eaters Bookshop
Date: Friday the 31st
Time: 9 pm on Friday – 1 am on Saturday
Address: 302 East Queen St., Inglewood, CA 90301
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/club-sade-tickets-585900282517?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
20th Anniversary Celebration with Palacios Family at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Palacios Family (Maureen, Jorge, Jessica, and Amelia) are the proud owners of Once Upon A Time Bookstore. They bought the store from the founder Jane Humphrey in 2003 after Jessica – then 9 years old – wrote a letter to the local newspaper asking for someone to save the bookstore.
There will be special story times, book signings, giveaways, and sales all day long.
11:00 am: Story Time for Party Hearty Kitty-Corn
2:00 pm: author-illustrator Betty C. Tang signing Parachute Kids plus a drawing demo!
All Day: Dog Man Day
All Day: Treats, goodies, and prizes!
All Day: Time with our bookstore kitty, Pippi (based on her napping schedule)
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Saturday the1st
Time: 10 am – 6 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/20th-anniversary-celebration
Prose Poetry & Hybrid Forms Workshop with Karo Ska [44 Poetry Class] via Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
In this two hour class, participants will defy genre and experiment with different forms of writing within and beyond poetry. Break apart the categories of poetry and prose to see what emerges in the liminal space between the two. What is a poem? What defines it as separate from prose? This will be a lively discussion, followed by the reading of two hybrid pieces to inspire our own writing. You will have the option to share your work and receive compassionate feedback from classmates.
Class starts with an optional open mic, where you can bring a poem to share with the class.
You can pay $25 for one class or sign up for the monthly offerings: $44/month for two classes that meet on the first and third Saturday of the month.
Karo Ska (she/they) is a South Asian and Eastern European gender-fluid poet living on unceded Tongva land. Their writing focuses on identity, mental health, survivorship and the intersections of trauma and politics. They have been published in Cultural Daily, Altadena Poetry Review, Marías at Sampaguitas, Glass: A Journal of Poetry among others. They are a 3-time 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2021 Cal Arts Artist Fellow, and were a 2020 semi-finalist in the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize. Their first full-length collection, loving my salt-drenched bones was released in February 2022 through World Stage Press. For more info, check out their website karoska.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the1st
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/44-poetry-class-prose-poetry-hybrid-forms-tickets-596029770087
Special Storytime: Shauna & John Stith Present: Black Beach: A Community, an Oil Spill, and the Origin of Earth Day at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Authors Sahuna & John Stith will present and discuss their children’s book, Black Beach: A Community, an Oil Spill, and the Origin of Earth Day.
Twenty million people across the country made their voices heard on the first Earth Day.
Some came out to celebrate the environment, while others protested and demanded change.
A movement was born.
In 1969, Union Oil caused an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara that would change the world. Hazardous crude oil from the blowout flooded the Pacific Ocean, harming wildlife and devastating habitats. But from this ecological disaster sprang a new wave of environmental activism that continues to this day.
Based on actual events, Black Beach: A Community, an Oil Spill, and the Origin of Earth Day follows Sam and her classmates as they fight back. Sam initially feels powerless watching her parents and neighbors try to clean up the oil spill. But as her awareness grows, she learns she’s not alone in caring for the Earth. The impact of the spill seeps into living rooms and classrooms across the nation. People everywhere are motivated to act, and a movement to protect and celebrate the environment is born.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 10:45 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Indie Bookstore Field Trips #12: Bel Canto Books’ Jhoanna Belferof Bel Canto Books Travels to Octavia’s Bookshelf & Lost Books – In-Person Event
Bel Canto Books’ Jhoanna Belfer curates this series of field trips to Indie Bookstores, and this event willtravel to and explore: Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena and Lost Books in Montrose.
What We’ll Do:
Once a month, we’ll host a FREE Saturday morning meetup at 1–2 bookstores in varying neighborhoods around SoCal. We’ll begin with free browsing time and end by circling up outside to introduce ourselves and share about any new books we bought or discovered. In certain months, we may even be given private tours by the bookshop owners, as well!
What to Bring:
Your love for books and bookstores and your curiosity.
Field Trip #12: Octavia’s Bookshelf + Lost Books
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023
Time:
11am at Octavia’s Bookshelf, 1361 N Hill Ave, Pasadena, CA 91104
12pm at Lost Books, 2233 Honolulu Ave, Montrose, CA 91020
The Plan:
1) We’ll meet at Octavia’s Bookshelf at 11am and browse for a bit, gathering at 11:45am for introductions and a group photo.
2) Then we’ll head to Lost Books (15 min drive) at 12pm for more bookstore browsing and a group photo and recap.
3) For those interested, we’ll convene afterwards at a nearby coffee shop or restaurant for a quick lunch or snack (meal on own).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf, 1361 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104 (Meet at 11am); Lost Books, 2233 Honolulu Ave, Montrose, CA 91020 (Meet at 12pm)
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 11 am
Address: See details above.
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indie-bookstore-field-trips-12
Third Annual 30 in 30 Workshop with Brendan Constantine at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom Event
Poet Brendan Constantine returns to Beyond Baroque for National Poetry Month and his popular 30/30 Challenge Workshop! Each Saturday in April, participants will engage in projects and discussions to inspire even the most reluctant writer. At the end of each session, everyone receives a packet of prompts and materials to keep you writing a poem a day! This is its third popular year in a row and spaces will go fast!
This workshop will be conducted across five Saturdays in April, beginning on Saturday April 1 – Saturday April 29 , 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. PDT.
An optional reading will be hosted, tentatively on Saturday May 6, 11 – 1 (ONLINE) for anyone who feels like sharing new work! All workshops will be held via Zoom.
Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in many standards, including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, Poetry Daily, Tin House, and Poem-a-Day. He teaches creative writing at the Windward School and, since 2017, has been developing writing workshops for people living with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, guidelines, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 1st (through the 29th)
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/beyond-baroque
A Garden of Verses Poetry Festival: at California Botanic Garden – In-Person Event
California Botanic Garden brings back our celebration of words amongst the wildflowers with the return of the A Garden of Verses Poetry Festival. Kicking off both national Poetry Month and CalBG’s Wildflower Month, guests are invited to walk the paths amongst spring blooms, happening upon multiple poetry stations scattered throughout the Mesa gardens. All ages are welcome at this celebration of the power of poetry to capture the beauty of nature, with activity stations supplementing the poetry readings and allowing guests to create their own poems.
Garden of Verses features poetry stations sponsored by:
Fourth Saturdays: Poetry at the Helen Renwick Library
Southern California Haiku Study Group
The Pasadena Poets
All About Town Poets
Participating poets include: Patricia Scruggs, Cynthia Tuell, Tamara Madison, Romaine Washington, Judy Kronenfeld, James Coats, Cindy Bousquet Harris, George Hammons, Nancy Murphy, and others.
NOTE: See site for details and schedule of poets.
Where: California Botanic Garden
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 11 am – 4 pm
Address: 1500 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://www.calbg.org/event/a-garden-of-verses-2023
Book Club Discussion & Untamed at Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book club is back! Please join in for lively discussions of a wide range of books and topics. Copies available at reference/information desk and as ebooks.
Participants will discuss this month’s selection, Untamed, by author Glennon Doyle.
For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living.
Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 11 pm – 12 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-discussion
Los Feliz Book Club: The Paris Bookseller at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Los Feliz Branch Library Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Paris Bookseller, a novel by Keri Maher.
The Paris Bookseller is about how a humble bookseller fought to bring one of the most important books of the 20th century to the world.
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.
Copies are being held at the circulation desk while supplies last.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 11 am
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-paris-bookseller
Book Club: Crying in H-Mart at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Tia Chucha Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Crying in H Mart, by author Michelle Zauner.
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
Register at: bit.ly/cryingbookclub
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Cultural Center & Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.tiachucha.org/calendar_of_events
Sarah Mlynowski & The Sister Switch at Children’s Book World – In-Person Kids & MG Event
Meet beloved and bestselling author Sarah Mlynowski signing her new book, Best Wishes 2: The Sister Switch!
In her new book, Best Wishes 2: The Sister Switch, the author tells about what happers when different girls around the country receive a wish-granting bracelet in the mail: magical mayhem ensues. Filled with fun illustrations, friendship, and humor, this series from New York Times bestselling authors Sarah Mlynowski and Debbie Rigaud brings laughter, sparkle, and warmth to this story.
Sarah Mlynowski has written the New York Times bestselling middle grade series Whatever After; the middle grade series Upside-Down Magic (with Lauren Myracle and Emily Jenkins),The Best Wishes series, and many other novels for teens. Sarah’s books have been translated into twenty-nine languages and been optioned to Hollywood. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 12 pm
Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://www.childrensbookworld.com/event/meet-author-sarah-mlynowski-saturday-april-1st-noon
“New” Kids Book Club: The Marvellers at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Kids & MG Event
The “New” Kids Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Marvellers, by author Dhonielle Clayton, Khadijah Khatib (Illustrator).
Eleven-year-old Ella Durand is the first Conjuror to attend the Arcanum Training Institute, a magic school in the clouds where Marvellers from around the world practice their cultural arts, like brewing Indian spice elixirs and bartering with pesky Irish pixies.
Despite her excitement, Ella discovers that being the first isn’t easy—some Marvellers mistrust her magic, which they deem “bad and unnatural.” But eventually, she finds friends in elixirs teacher, Masterji Thakur, and fellow misfits Brigit, a girl who hates magic, and Jason, a boy with a fondness for magical creatures.
When a dangerous criminal known as the Ace of Anarchy escapes prison, supposedly with a Conjuror’s aid, tensions grow in the Marvellian world and Ella becomes the target of suspicion. Worse, Masterji Thakur mysteriously disappears while away on a research trip. With the help of her friends and her own growing powers, Ella must find a way to clear her family’s name and track down her mentor before it’s too late.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 1 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/new-kids-book-club-marvellers
Free Writers: A Collection of Our Truths by Fancisco Homes Residents at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join us for a reading with the writers of the Francisco Homes, a collection of transitional homes for formerly incarcerated communities.
These writers come together on Thursday nights for writing workshops where they share stories, laughs, challenges, feedback, and life lessons. The pieces they share (and the writers who penned them) come out of various contexts. Some authors composed these pieces while incarcerated; other work has come from the time the group spends together each Thursday—particularly during their sacred twelve-minute free writes. Many of the authors’ pieces can be found in the Francisco Homes anthology Free Writers: A Collection of Our Truths.
Regardless of the writing’s provenance or destination, these authors are united through their participation in the Francisco Homes Writing Workshop at some point between 2019 and 2023, and the collection of pieces chosen for this reading showcase the writers’ experiences, ideas, and talents.
The event will feature readings by current and former residents of The Francisco:
John Njoroge
Charles Mebene
Daryl Thompson
Ronnie Noday
Rill Alexander
Gilbert Salazar
Ronald Patterson
John Sanchez
Jessie Garcia
and the participation of USC professors Ben Pack, Zen Dochterman, Homes:
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 2 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-writers-a-collection-of-our-truths-tickets-580921721507
April Fools in Love Panel: Lucy Eden, Mia Heintzelman, Karina Halle & Liana De la Rosaat The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Lucy Eden, Mia Heintzelman, Karina Halle & Liana De la Rosawill feature in our rom-com panel, April Fools in Love.
Can’t attend the event? Signed books from all the authors are available for in-store pick-up and shipping.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series and Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series, featuring poetry readings and open poetry mic, is held both in-person and online twice every month.
RSVP: Please email studio@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark Street, Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic-0
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Writing Workshop by Don Kingfisher Campbell – Online Event Only
Saturday Afternoon Poetry presents a Poetry Writing Workshop led by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
(Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines for Spectrum Double Issue 34/35: No ir/Dive by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, April 1st)
All events are curated by: Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Sadie Girl Press Reunion Reading at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Sadie Girl Press will present a Reunion Reading of Sadie Girl Press authors, including:
Nancy Lynee Woo is a poet, writer, organizer, and climate activist who harbors a wild love for the natural world. She is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Bearing the Juice of It All (Finishing Line Press, 2016) and Rampant (Sadie Girl Press, 2014). Her debut poetry collection, I’d Rather Be Lightening, was published by Gasher Press in March 2023.
Kelsey Bryan-Zwick is a multi-modal artist and writer whose writings and artwork has been published in numerous chapbooks and journals. Their debut collection of poetry, Here Go the Knives was released by Moon Tide Press in April 2022.
Terri Ann Wright is a proud graduate of San Francisco State University and Goddard College. Her debut chapbook Nature Studies was published by Sadie Girl Press in 2015; the title poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her third nomination. Her poem “Juniper Tree” was longlisted for the 2022 Sappho Prize and appears in her forthcoming chapbook Madchen from dancing girl press.
Raquel Reyes-Lopez is a chicana poet currently residing in San Diego County. Her poetry has been published in Rattle, Cadence Collective: Long Beach Poets, Long Beach Live, and various other magazines. Her debut poetry chapbook, Born to Electrify was published by Sadie Girl Press in 2014.
Sarah Thursday is a poet in hibernation, an arts advocate, and an eternal music lover. She has been published in many fine journals and anthologies, interviewed by Poetry LA, and received a 2017 Best of the Net nomination. She is also the founder of Sadie Girl Press.
Sadie Girl Press was founded in Long Beach in 2014 as a way to help publish local and emerging poets and artists. In addition to numerous chapbooks, the press has also released several anthologies featuring poets and artists from around the world. Visit SadieGirlPress.com for further information about the press, their publications, and their authors and artists.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/931505401377210?ref=newsfeed
Pondwater Presents: Terri Niccum & The Others & Open Reading at Pondwater Society – In-Person Event
This edition of Pondwater, hosted by Joanne Qualey, presents featured poet Terri Niccum and an Open Reading.
Terri Niccum is a Southern California poet and writer and is a former journalist and special education teacher. She is the author of the books, The Knife Thrower’s Daughter and Dead Letter Box.
RSVP
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pondwater Society
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16504 Masline St.,Covina, CA 91722
Website: N/A
Lit Angels Anthology: April Edition at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Lit Angels is a monthly, online, carefully curated short fiction, novel excerpts, memoir excerpts, essays and poetry, by new and established writers, edited by Francesca Lia Block. Lyrical & witty, light & dark, magical & gritty, dreamy & informative writing—to inspire, delight, connect—to make you laugh, cry, think and ultimately, we hope, help us all survive in this crazy world.
This edition featuring:
Robin Carr
Kerby Caudill
Tracey SImmons
Melissa Pleckham
Deanne Stillman
Jack Skelley
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24179
1st Saturday Open Mic at LibroMobile in Santa Ana – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
This new Open Mic series is hosted by local poet Kunthon “Katon” Meas & on special nights Epigraph Brewing too!
RSVP
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol Street, Suite A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/1st-saturday-open-mic-with-local-poet-katon-2023-04-01-18-00
L.A. Books Launch: Three Hundred Streets of Venice California at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents the L.A. book launch of Three Hundred Streets of Venice California by author Tom Laichas.
In this extraordinary collection, Tom Laichas is our Vigil, guiding us through Venice, California, and its ancient namesake. Throughout Laichas shape-shifts from resident, to historian, to social critic, to ghost, moving among one neighborhood’s heavens and hells. A work of poetry, prose, and memoir, Three Hundred Streets of Venice is masterful, provocative, and unforgettable.
To celebrate Laichas’s third poetry collection, poets-travelers Susan Suntree, Beth Ruscio, & Mike Sonsken will be reading their selected works. A reception will be held before and after the event with food & light refreshments. The authors will also be signing books.
Tom Laichas is the author of Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War and Empire of Eden. A recipient of the Nancy Hargrove Poetry Prize, his work is widely published. He lives with his wife Donna in Venice, California.
Susan Suntree is an award-winning poet, performer, and essayist whose recent books of poetry included Dear Traveler and the updated paperback and audiobook release of her non-fiction epic poem Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California which won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award for Nonfiction, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Narrative Poetry, a Mellon Foundation Elemental Arts Award, and was a finalist for a Society of Voice Arts and Sciences prize. Other books include Eye of the Womb, also published in Madrid as a bilingual edition, El Ojo de la Matriz; Tulips, a bilingual chapbook of translations of poetry by Spanish poet Ana Rossetti; Rita Moreno, YA biography; Wisdom of the East; Stories of Compassion, Inspiration and Love for which the Dalai Lama wrote the foreword. http://www.susansuntree.com/
Beth Ruscio, daughter of actors, poet with multiple honors, accomplished actor, and winner of the Brick Road Poetry Prize for her 2020 collection SPEAKING PARTS praised as “. . .an exceptional collection. Ruscio has spent a career acting and is able to bring the wisdom of that career with her to show us what it means to be human.” and “I realized this is the first collection of poems I’ve cherished this much . . . moved carefully through with the devotion I once reserved for listening to the Dark Side of the Moon. This truly deserves–and richly rewards–the attention.”
Mike Sonksen aka Mike the PoeT is a 3rd-generation Southern Californian. Poet, professor, journalist, historian & tour-guide, his book Letters to My City was published by Writ Large Press. He’s written for Poets & Writers, Metropolis, KCET, Alta, Wax Poetics, PBS, LA Taco, LA Review of Books, LAist, Boom and the Academy of American Poets. His poetry’s been featured on Public Radio Stations KCRW, KPCC & KPFK & Spectrum News. Sonksen is the Coordinator of the First Year Experience Program at Woodbury University. He’s been awarded by the Los Angeles Press Club and in 2013, Beyond Baroque honored him for Outstanding Public Service to Los Angeles Poetry.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, link, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291
A Poetry Reading & Conversation: Karla Cordero & Yesika Salgado at Espacio 1839 – In-Person Event
Karla Cordera and Yesika Salgado appear together for a poetry reading and conversation at Espacio 1839.
Karla Cordero is a descendant of the Chichimeca people from Northern Mexico, a Chicana poet, educator, and ARTtivist, raised along the borderlands of Calexico, CA. She is a three-time Pushcart nominee and offered fellowships from California Arts, VONA, Macondo, CantoMundo, The Loft Literary Center, Community of Writers and Pink Door Writing Retreat.
Karla teaches creative writing and composition at MiraCosta College and San Diego City College, receiving recognitions such as the San Diego State University Global Diversity Award and Associate Faculty of the Year for education and social justice.
She is the author of the chapbook, Grasshoppers Before Gods (Dancing Girl Press 2016) and her first full length collection titled, How To Pull Apart The Earth (NOT A CULT.) is a 2019 San Diego Book Award winner and awarding-winning finalist for the 2019 International Latino Book Award and the International Book
Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles-based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, culture, city, and fat body.
Salgado is a leading voice in poetry, both in performance and social media. She has garnered a large online following across multiple social media platforms through her poetry and her determination to make poetry accessible to everyone in everyday scenarios. She is the co-founder of the past collective Chingona Fire, a poetry collective that curated and ran poetry-based events in Los Angeles serving Women and Nonbinary folks of color. She is also a long-time production staff member of Da Poetry Lounge, the country’s largest running weekly poetry venue.
She is an internationally recognized body-positive activist and the writer of the columns Suelta for Remezcla and Relaciones for R29 Somos. Yesika is the author of the best-sellers Corazón, Tesoro, and Hermosa, published with Not a Cult Media, and is represented by Folio Literary Management.
Where: Espacio 1839
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1839 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://www.instagram.com/yesikastarr/?hl=en or https://www.instagram.com/karlaflaka13/?hl=en
Performance Event: When We Dream in Bittersweet Tongues + Irreversible Entanglements (Pt, 2 of 2) at The Broad Museum – In-Person Event
In conjunction with the special exhibition, William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows, on view through April 9, 2023, The Broad presents an evening of programming centered on the effects of colonialism on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) literature, language, and music. The evening features richly diverse poets addressing topics such as Chicana roots through the lens of Beat Generation influences, disabled and immigrant identities, and education for incarcerated youth, a solo bass performance, and a live performance of free jazz as a vehicle for Black liberation.
Shonda Buchanan has guest co-curated When We Dream in Bittersweet Tongues, featuring poetry and performances that weave the thread of this storytelling into the fabric of Kentridge’s exhibition. South Africa, where William Kentridge was born and continues to live and work, is the focal point of his studio practice, which is inherently collaborative and expansive, spanning drawing, filmmaking, printmaking, sculpture, theater, opera, and installation addressing apartheid and other social wounds.
Bassist and meditation facilitator Curtis Robertson, Jr. will perform a live solo piece to set intention and open space for readings by: poet, emcee, speaker, actor, and performance coach Matt Cuban Hernandez; Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate Jessica Kim; and Los Angeles Poet Society founder Jessica M. Wilson.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and further details.
Where: Broad Museum
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 221 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://www.thebroad.org/events/when-we-dream-bittersweet-tongues-irreversible-entanglements
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest Kuahmel at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event
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.
Featured guest is Kuahmel!
Kuahmel Ayleesus KuahAllah is the co-host of Under the Mic Influence events, offered every 1st & 3rd Mondays of the month, and is a poet and performance artist. He is the author of Peace in the Pocket.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Xlunarlourdesx and openheart.spokenword with Featured Guest at Beach City Poetress, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Openheart.spokensword and Beach City hosts some passionate poetry and prose at Seabirds Kitchen in Long Beach, from 9:30 pm-midnight on April 1st.
Featured poet is Lourdes Luna.
Where: Seabirds Kitchen
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 9:30 pm – 12 am
Address: 975 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: N/A
826LA@Hammer: Choose Your Own Epic Ending at Hammer Museum – In-Person Kids Event
In this workshop, participants develop an outline and create a storyboard for a short story with fun choices that lead to multiple epic endings. They will create a book version of their story to share with family and friends. Led by Sibylla Nash, a Los Angeles–based writer whose work has appeared in Lit Hub, Essence, and Vibe.
Recommended for ages 8–14.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Sunday the 2nd
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/art-lab
Writing as Healing Workshop: Soul Stuf Features for National Poetry Month – Online Event
In this Writing as Healing workshop, a generative creative writing workshop, Soul Stuf will feature in honor of National Poetry Month.
Soul Stuf is the author of Play: A Reclamation of Soul, published by World Stage Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and further information.
Where: Writing as Healing
Date: Sunday the 2nd
Time: 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/soulstuf/?hl=en
Author Discussion: Klara Klarin & You Are Where You Go at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Author Klara Klarin will discuss her book, L.A. Painter.
Karla Klarin shares and looks at some of her most iconic works, while sharing essay excerpts from her new book L.A. Painter: The City I Know. The City I See. Join her on a journey through her artistic visions of Los Angeles as she discusses her process and perspective on what being an artist, woman, and mother is all about.
This book showcases more than 100 remarkable paintings that evoke the Los Angeles that painter Karla Klarin knows best. Combined with thirteen thoughtful essays, Klarin addresses what it means to be an artist in the world’s most-talked-about modern metropolis—a place that constantly reminds us that talent is power.
Karla Klarin was born in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley, was schooled in the Valley and Italy, and earned her BFA at San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA at Otis Art Institute. Her work is included in the collections of the Hammer Museum, LACMA, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, and Fisher Art Museum, among others, as well as numerous private collections.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 2nd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24180
Diana Biller, with Mallory O’Meara, & Hotel of Secrets at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents Diana Biller, in conversation with Mallory O’Meara, to discuss her new book, Hotel of Secrets.
Diana Biller’s Hotel of Secrets is chock full of banter-filled shenanigans, must-have-you kisses, and romance certain to light a fire in the hearts of readers everywhere.
During ball season, anything can happen—even love.
It’s ball season in Vienna, and Maria Wallner only wants one thing: to restore her family’s hotel, the Hotel Wallner, to its former glory. She’s not going to let anything get in her way – not her parents’ three-decade-long affair; not seemingly-random attacks by masked assassins; and especially not the broad-shouldered American foreign agent who’s saved her life two times already. No matter how luscious his mouth is.
Eli Whittaker also only wants one thing: to find out who is selling American secret codes across Europe, arrest them, and go home to his sensible life in Washington, DC. He has one lead – a letter the culprit sent from a Viennese hotel. But when he arrives in Vienna, he is immediately swept up into a chaotic whirlwind of balls, spies, waltzes, and beautiful hotelkeepers who seem to constantly find themselves in danger. He disapproves of all of it! But his disapproval is tested as he slowly falls deeper into the chaos – and as his attraction to said hotelkeeper grows.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 1st
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Life, Love and Mythology, The Show! at My Acting Studio, an Open Heart Production – In-Person Event
Support your storytellers and poets and become part of our tribe!
Featuring local artists and directed by Anthony “Da Boogie Man” Rucker.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: My Acting Studio
Date: Sunday the 2nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 4412 E. Village Rd., Long Beach, CA 90808
Website: https://www.myactingstudio.com/event-details/life-love-and-mythology-the-live-show
Poetry Reading: Blue Bunny at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Enjoy a poetry reading featuring blue bunny at The Pop Hop.
This event is free.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Sunday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.thepophop.com
Happily Everyone After Book Club: Secretly Yours at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents the Happily Everyone After book Club, to discuss the selected book, Secretly Yours, by author Tessa Bailey.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 2nd
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 