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 24th (and Thursday the 27th)
Time: 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/story-writing-club
Poetry Reading: Write to Read Eventat Pomona Public Library – In-Person Event
Join the Write to Read Poetry Reading with Poet Laureate Caesar K. Avelar, writer Margaret Elysia Garcia, and political poet and performance artist Matt Sedillo.
In celebration of National Library Week, this event will be held in the public conference room.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pomona Public Library
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Address: 505 S. Garey Ave., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: N/A
Book Club: The Measure via Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Sherman Oaks Branch Book Club participants will read this month’s selection, The Measure, by author Nikki Erlick.
Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.
From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?
As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?
The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.
Please email shrmno@lapl.org for the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sherman-oaks-book-club-measure-nikki-erlick
Book Club: Books and Community Tea at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mar Vista Branch Library welcomes all readers to our book club; no sign up is required.
For each month’s title, please contact the branch. Copies of the book are available at the Reference Desk for check-out.
Please note that the Mar Vista Book Club meets in person.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL, Community Room
Date: Monday the 24th
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-books-and-communi-tea
Soon Wiley, with Connie Wang, & When We Fell Apart at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Soon Wiley, in conversation with Connie Wang, will discuss his book, When We Fell Apart: A Novel.
This book is a profoundly moving and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties that bind families together–or break them apart–as a young Korean American man’s search for answers about his girlfriend’s mysterious death becomes a soul-searching journey into his own bi-cultural identity.
Devastated by Yu-jin’s death, Min throws himself into finding out why she could have secretly wanted to die. Or did she? With a controlling and powerful government official father, and a fraught friendship with her alluring and destructive roommate So-ra, Yu-jin’s life was much more complex than she chose to reveal to Min. And the more he learns about her, the more he begins to doubt he ever really knew her at all.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Soon-Wiley
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 24th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online Event, Zoom: 840 2975 5764
Website: https://www.facebook.com/LosAngelesPoetSociety/
Deborah “D.E.E.P.” Mouton & Black Chameleon at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Event
Deborah “D.E.E.P.” Mouton will present and sign her book, Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth.
Black Chameleon is a memoir and a praise song and an elegy for Black womanhood. The author tells her own story while remixing myths and drawing on traditions from all over the world: mothers literally grow eyes in the backs of their heads, children dust the childhood off their bodies, and women come to love the wildness of the hair they once tried to tame. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1361 North Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/deborah-deep-mouton-black-chameleon
Book Launch: Mary Bryce & quick quick slow at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Mary Bryce, in conversation and with readings by guests Halleta Alemu and Sammy Loren, will celebrate the release of her poetry collection, quick quick slow.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Jeff Benedict, with Bill Plaschke, & LeBron at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jeff Benedict, in conversation with Bill Plaschke, will present and discuss his book, LeBron.
LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of the twenty-first century, and he’s in the conversation with Michael Jordan as the greatest of all time. The reigning king of the game and the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, LeBron wears the crown like he was born with it. Yet his ascent has been anything but effortless and predetermined– the truth is vastly more interesting than that.
LeBron tells the full, riveting saga of how a child adrift found the will to become a titan. Jeff Benedict, the most celebrated sports biographer of our time, paints a vivid picture of LeBron’s epic origin story, showing the gradual rise of a star who, surrounded by a tight-knit group of teenage friends and adult mentors, accelerated into a speeding comet during high school. Today LeBron produces Hollywood films and television shows, has a social media presence that includes more than one hundred million followers, engages in political activism, takes outspoken stances on racism and social injustice, and transforms lives through his visionary philanthropy. He went from a lost boy in Akron to a beloved hero who uses his fortune to educate underprivileged children and lift up needy families–and brought home Cleveland’s first NBA championship.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Jeff-Benedict-LeBron
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 24th
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-619855162477
Gretchen Rubin, with author Scott Barry Kaufman, & Live in Five Senses at LiveTalks L. A. – In-Person Event
Gretchen Rubin, in conversation with Scott Barry Kaufman, will discuss her new book, Live in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World.
Seeking a life of more energy, creativity, luck and love? Gretchen Rubin, the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project, returns to our stage to share wisdom from her new book, Life in Five Senses. In this journey of self-experimentation, Rubin shares how she was lifted from a fog of preoccupation by rediscovering the power of her senses. Drawing on cutting-edge science, philosophy, and literature, she investigates the profound power of tuning in to the physical world.
Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential observers of happiness and human nature. Her books have sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide in more than thirty languages. She hosts the award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, where she explores practical solutions for living a happier life. She’s the author of several books, including the New York Times bestsellers Outer Order, Inner Calm; The Four Tendencies; Better Than Before; and The Happiness Project.
Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., is a cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. He is a professor at Columbia University and director of the Center for Human Potential. He has authored 10 books, including Choose Growth: A Workbook for Transcending Trauma, Fear, and Self-Doubt (with Jordyn Feingold), Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (with Carolyn Gregoire), and Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. He is also host of The Psychology Podcast.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Ann & Jerry Moss Theatre at New Roads School, Herb Alpert Educational Village
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/gretchen-rubin-2/
Venice Library Book Club: Interior Chinatown at Venice Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Venice Library Book Club participants will discuss Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu.
This Big Read selection is a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
Copies of each month’s selection will be available behind the Circulation Desk. New members are welcome.
Where: Venice Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/venice-book-club-1
Poetry Lab Book Club: A Poetry Handbook via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
The Poetry Lab’s Book Club participants will discuss A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry, by author Mary Oliver.
The Poetry Lab Book Club is held on the 4th Tuesday of every month in a guided discussion format. It is only available to subscribing members.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/membership or https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-poetry-handbook-mary-oliver/19665745?ean=9780156724005
Crime Book Club: The Devil Himself at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Book Jewel’s Crime Book Club participants will discuss The Devil Himself: A Novel, by author Peter Farris.
The Crime Book Club is held on the last Tuesday of the month and is hosted by author Eric Beetner at The Book Jewel in Westchester.
The Devil Himself is Southern Noir at its finest.
Deep in the backwoods of South Georgia, eighteen-year-old Maya narrowly escapes a savage end. The victim of a vast human trafficking operation managed out of Mexico, Maya had the misfortune to discover the dark plans of a high-ranking client. Her fate seemed sealed, until Leonard Moye, a lonely eccentric who doesn’t suffer fools or tolerate trespassers, takes the young woman under his protection. Both bearing the scars from personal tragedies, they soon develop a bond that makes them, as a pair, a formidable foe, even for hardened criminals and professional scumbags. Maya knows too much and the old man lives on land in the crosshairs of narco machinations. As the heavies seek to finish the job, they find they may be no match for the resourcefulness of a disturbed old man and a cunning young woman.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq61RUoITDQ/
Phi-Sci Book Club: Empire of the Scalpel at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Phy-Sci Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery, by Ira Rutkow, M.D.
From the 16th-century saga of Andreas Vesalius and his crusade to accurately describe human anatomy while appeasing the conservative clergy who clamored for his burning at the stake, to the hard-to-believe story of late-19th century surgeons’ apathy to Joseph Lister’s innovation of antisepsis and how this indifference led to thousands of unnecessary surgical deaths, Empire of the Scalpel is both a global history and a uniquely American tale. You’ll discover how in the 20th century the US achieved surgical leadership, heralded by Harvard’s Joseph Murray and his Nobel Prize–winning, seemingly impossible feat of transplanting a kidney, which ushered in a new era of transplants that continues to make procedures once thought insurmountable into achievable successes.
Ira Rutkow is a general surgeon and historian of American medicine. He also holds a doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University. Among Dr. Rutkow’s books are several encyclopedic works on surgical history: Surgery: An Illustrated History, named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; American Surgery: An Illustrated History; and a two-volume bibliography, The History of Surgery in the United States, 1775-1900. He is the author of three other books, Seeking the Cure, James A. Garfield, and Bleeding Blue and Gray. Dr. Rutkow and his wife divide their time between New York City and a farm in the Hudson Valley.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/phy-sci-book-club-empire-scalpel
Mystery Book Club: Cocaine Blues at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – InPerson Event
Join the Playa Vista Library’s monthly Mystery Book Club to read this month’s selection for discussion, Cocaine Blues by author Kerry Greenwood.
This book from the author of the bestselling Phryne Fisher Series comes Cocaine Blues, the first historical mystery featuring the sensual, posh, and intrepid murder detective Phryne Fisher…
We welcome new members.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-7
Max Miller, with Josh Scherer, & Tasting History at Diesel, A Book Store – In-Person Event
Max Miller, in conversation with Josh Scherer, will discuss his new book, Tasting History.
This cookbook is a must-have for any avid cook or history fan looking to experience delicious recipes from the past.
Max Miller is the creator and host of the viral digital series Tasting History with Max Miller on YouTube. Prior to his YouTube stardom, Max was an employee of Walt Disney Studios in the marketing and film distribution departments. When the COVID-19 stay-at-home order went into effect in Los Angeles, Max was furloughed and began turning his passion for historic dishes into a self-taped video series. Within weeks of his first video on YouTube, Max’s channel and videos reached hundreds of thousands of viewers who wanted to learn more about historic dishes. Max’s channel has been covered in outlets like America’s Test Kitchen, ABC’s Localish, Chowhound, Foodsided, GLAAD, KTLA Morning News, A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich podcast, PopCulture, Rachael Ray, Today, UPROXX, and Yahoo!. Max currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with his husband, José, and their two cats.
Josh Scherer is the Director of Culinary Content for Mythical Entertainment and Mythical Kitchen as well as the co-host of the hilarious food-debate podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and two-time Webby Award winner. Josh has two lower back tattoos and once held the Guinness world record for most baby food eaten in one minute.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Book Store
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Max-Miller-Author-signing
Zion Clark, with author James S. Hirsch, & Work What You Got: A Memoir at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Zion Clark and author James S. Hirsch will discuss the book, Work What You Got: A Memoir.
Elite wheelchair racer and wrestler Zion Clark joins with New York Times best-selling author James S. Hirsch for a stunning memoir–recounting childhood adversity, awe-inspiring perseverance, and self-invention.
When a baby named Zion was born in 1997 to an imprisoned, drug-addicted mother, his future seemed bleak. Born without legs due to a rare condition called caudal regression syndrome, Zion was abandoned and shunted to a foster-care system ill-equipped to care for him. In this stirring memoir, readers will follow as he is bounced from home to home, subjected to abuse, neglect, and inconceivable hardship. Somehow, Zion finds supportive angels along the way: his first two foster families, who offer a haven; the wrestling coach who senses his “warrior spirit” and nurtures it; the woman of fierce faith who adopts a seventeen-year-old and cheers his every match. From play-by-play narration of how Zion adapts wrestling moves to defeat able-bodied opponents, wielding phenomenal arm and hand strength, to accounts of his extraordinary work ethic, unflagging optimism, and motivational speaking, this is an inspirational story of courage that will appeal to any athlete who respects determination, any young person facing adversity, and any reader who wants to believe in the human spirit.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Zion-Clark
Author Event: Kevin Chen, with Michael Berry, & Ghost Town at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Westwood Branch Library to hear author Kevin Chen, in conversation with Michael Berry, discuss his book, Ghost Town.
The bestselling author and winner of the Taiwan Literature Award is back with one of the most anticipated books of last fall by the New York Times. Ghost Town begins a decade after Keith Chen leaves his traditional Taiwanese family in a small village in Taiwan for Berlin. Chen hopes to find support and acceptance far away from the attitudes and practices of his village.
The novel opens with Chen being released from prison for killing his boyfriend. He is about to return to the desolate village where he grew up. His parents are gone, and his siblings are angry or mad. Told in a myriad of voices, both living and dead, Ghost Town weaves a mesmerizing story where we learn what family secrets tore Chen’s family apart and the real tale behind the murder of Chen’s boyfriend.
RSVP: Reserve now: https://lfla.org/event/ghost-town.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/aloud-ghost-town
Non-Fiction Book Club: Lady Justice at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
The Non-Fiction Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America, by Dahlia Lithwick.
In Lady Justice, Dahlia Lithwick, one of the nation’s foremost legal commentators, tells the gripping and heroic story of the women lawyers who fought the racism, sexism, and xenophobia of Donald Trump’s presidency—and won.
After the sudden shock of Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, many Americans felt lost and uncertain. It was clear he and his administration were going to pursue a series of retrograde, devastating policies. What could be done?
Immediately, women lawyers all around the country, independently of each other, sprang into action, and they had a common goal: they weren’t going to stand by in the face of injustice, while Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican party did everything in their power to remake the judiciary in their own conservative image. Over the next four years, the women worked tirelessly to hold the line against the most chaotic and malign presidency in living memory. There was Sally Yates, the acting attorney general of the United States, who refused to sign off on the Muslim travel ban. And Becca Heller, the founder of a refugee assistance program who brought the fight over the travel ban to the airports. And Roberta Kaplan, the famed commercial litigator, who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. And, of course, Stacey Abrams, whose efforts to protect the voting rights of millions of Georgians may well have been what won the Senate for the Democrats in 2020.
Dahlia Lithwick is the senior legal correspondent at Slate, a news and politics analyst at MSNBC, and host of Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Commentary, among other places. Lithwick won a 2013 National Magazine Award for her columns on the Affordable Care Act. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2018.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/non-fiction-book-club-11
Rinny Perkins + Yazmin Monét Watkins & Not Everyone Is Going to Like You at Reparations Club – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Debut author Rinny Perkins (@rinnyriot), will discuss her illustrated manifesto Not Everyone is Going to Like You with poet, Yazmin Monét Watkins.
Rinny Perkins is a multidisciplinary artist and writer born and raised in Houston, TX and based in Los Angeles, CA. Her focus lies in graphic design, digital collage and installation art and comedy with an emphasis on the intersections of feminism in identity of Black and queer womanhood.
She continues to expand her message by using visual art as an instrument to disrupt the homogenous representation of women in media. Her work has been featured by outlets such as I-D/VICE, Nylon and Teen Vogue.
Yazmin Monét Watkins is a poet, comedian, screenwriter, actress, educator and organizer. Touring her intimate yet political poetry at colleges, universities, festivals, museums and institutions all around the globe from Obama’s White House to Johannesburg, and empowering students from Harvard to youth prisons, Watkins’ body of work weaves art and activism, exploring the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, self-love and all things Black Girl Magic.
She has co-developed and written pilots with Netflix and Comedy Central alongside Paul Downs, Lucia Aniello and the all-Black female comedy group, Obama’s Other Daughters. You can see their work on their Comedy Central show and their Shondaland / iHeartRadio podcast You Down? She can also be seen on season two of NBC television show, Grand Crew.
A Posse scholar and a graduate of Dickinson College, Watkins’ work provides critical artistic outlets for audiences to self-advocate and heal. She has commissioned poems and performances with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Lincoln Center and Center Theatre Group and has opened for the likes of Angela Davis, The Dalai Lama, Roxane Gay among others. Watkins serves as the co-chair of the Arts & Culture committee for Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. Once Beyoncé said she liked her hair.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3054 S. Victioria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/april-25-not-everyone-is-going-to-like-you
Dan Jones & Essex Dogs at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Dan Jones will present and discuss his book, Essex Dogs: A Novel.
In July 1346: Ten men land on the beaches of Normandy. They call themselves the Essex Dogs: an unruly platoon of archers and men-at-arms led by a battle-scarred captain whose best days are behind him. The fight for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe has begun.
Heading ever deeper into enemy territory toward Crécy, this band of brothers knows they are off to fight a battle that will forge nations and shape the very fabric of human lives. But first they must survive a bloody war in which rules are abandoned and chivalry itself is slaughtered.
Rooted in historical accuracy and told through an unforgettable cast, Essex Dogs delivers the stark reality of medieval war on the ground – and shines a light on the fighters and ordinary people caught in the storm.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/dan-jones-discusses-essex-dogs
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Shawna + The Light via Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Shahe Mankerian.
Shahe Mankerian is a poet, playwright, and a principal. His poems have been published in various literary journals.
His books include: The History of Forgetfulness, The Great Gatsby Anthology, Puff, Puff Prose, Poetry and a Play Vol III, and others.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
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 25th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups
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 25th
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 & Ravina at DiPiazza’s – In-Person Event
The New Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s with Shy But Flyy, will feature guest poet Ravina + an open mic.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: DiPiazza’s Pizza
Date: Tuesday the 25th
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-533965133087
Mystery Book Group: The Windows by Jess Montgomery at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Event
The Mystery Book Group will discuss this month’s selection, The Windows, by author Jess Montgomery.
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!
Inspired by the true story of Ohio’s first female sheriff, Jess Montgomery’s powerful, lyrical debut is the story of two women who take on murder and corruption at the heart of their community.
Kinship, Ohio, 1924: When Lily Ross learns that her husband, Daniel, the town’s widely respected sheriff, has been killed while transporting a prisoner in an apparent accident, she vows to seek the truth about his death.
Hours after his funeral, a stranger appears at her door. Marvena Whitcomb, a coal miner’s widow, is unaware that Daniel has died and begs to speak with him about her missing daughter.
From miles away but worlds apart, Lily’s and Marvena’s lives collide as they realize that Daniel was perhaps not the man that either of them believed him to be.
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, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 9 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-widows-jess-montgomery
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 26th
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: Ayiti by Roxane Gay at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join Dr. Andrea Liss online for our next Good Trouble Reading Group. We will read a selection of stories from Roxane Gay’s debut collection Ayiti, in which she weaves fiction, nonfiction and poetry into a vivid narrative to explore the Haitian diaspora experience. Ayiti is available through the library as a print book and an e-book. We’ll be discussing the stories “In the Manner of Water or Light”, “Lacrimosa” and “Of Ghosts and Shadows”.
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 Zoom link to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-ayiti-roxane-gay
Big Read: Esther Tseng & Jo Sung Discuss Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu at Exposition Park Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Big Read participants will hear Esther Tseng, noted food and culture writer, and actor Jo Sung discuss Interior Chinatown, by author Charles Yu.
Interior Chinatown, the Big Read selection, is a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
The first 10 people to RSVP to the program will receive a complimentary copy of the book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Exposition Park Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-esther-tseng-and-friends-discuss-interior-chinatown
Quest Book Club: The Swimmers at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Book Jewel’s Quest Book Club participants will discuss The Swimmers: A Novel, by author Julie Otsuka.
The Quest Book Club is held on the last Wednesday of the month and participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Swimmers: A Novelis a novel, by author Julie Otsuka. at The Book Jewel in Westchester.
The Swimmers is a novel that “starts as a catalogue of spoken and unspoken rules for swimmers at an aquatic center but unfolds into a powerful story of a mother’s dementia and her daughter’s love” (The Washington Post).
The swimmers are unknown to one another except through their private routines (slow lane, medium lane, fast lane) and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq8LuPSsYyu/?hl=enI
Victoria Ying with Elissa Sussman, & Hungry Ghost at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Victoria Ying, in conversation with Elissa Sussman, will present and discuss her graphic novel, Hungry Ghost.
A beautiful and heart-wrenching young adult graphic novel takes a look at eating disorders, family dynamics, and ultimately, a journey to self-love.
Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all, thin. No one, not even her best friend Jordan, knows that she has been binging and purging for years. But when tragedy strikes, Val finds herself taking a good, hard look at her priorities, her choices, and her own body. The path to happiness may lead her away from her hometown and her mother’s toxic projections–but first she will have to find the strength to seek help.
Elissa Sussman is the bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask, the upcoming Once More With Feeling, and three young adult novels. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA from Pacific University and lives in her hometown of Los Angeles with her family.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
WeHo Reads Event: Lounging with Poets, Spa Day – In-Person Event
Brian Sonia-Wallace will host the Lounging with Poets, Spa Day event at West Hollywood Aquatic & Recreation Center.
Self-care is a radical act. Come lounge with a poet at our inaugural Poetry Spa Day.
Guests will receive a menu of services and tokens to have individual, one-on-one experiences with former West Hollywood Poet Laureates and special guests, ranging from cucumber poetry facials to poetry speed dating. At 7:30 p.m., we gather at the steps at sunset to hear all the poets share their words in a ritual closing and celebration of National Poetry Month.
City of West Hollywood Poet Laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace emcees this event, and will be joined by Jen Cheng, Kim Dower, Charles Flowers, Linda Ravenswood, and Steven Reigns. This in-person event takes place at the Respite Deck of the West Hollywood Park Aquatic and Recreation Center (ARC), located at 8750 El Tovar Place, next to the West Hollywood Library. RSVPs are requested at http://www.weho.org/wehoreads.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: West Hollywood Aquatic & Recreation Center, Respite Deck
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm; at 7:30 readings begin.
Address: 8750 El Tovar Place., (next to West Hollywood Library), West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.weho.org/
Jim Ruland and Terese Svoboda Present Books: Make It Stop and Dog on Fire at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Jim Ruland and Terese Svoboda will present and discuss their new books:Make It Stop and Dog on Fire, respectively.
Jim Ruland’s Make It Stop is a speculative tale of dysfunctional vigilantes, sex-crazed junkies, and corporate healthcare run amok, from best-selling chronicler of LA punk Jim Ruland.
Scores of detox and rehab centers across Southern California have adopted a controversial new conditional release policy that forces patients to stay until they pay their bills. And if they can’t pay? They don’t leave.
Enter: Make It Stop, a group of highly skilled recovering addicts dedicated to rescuing those trapped in these prison hospitals by posing as patients and getting them out by any means necessary. But when Scary Gary, one of their top ops, gets killed on assignment, Melanie Marsh and her crew set out to avenge his death and unravel an unthinkable medical conspiracy that threatens to destroy the organization and cripple the city with a dangerous new drug. Melanie may be LA’s best hope but if, and only if, she can stay sober.
Terese Svoboda’s Dog on Fire unfolds around a family’s turmoil, past loves, and a mysterious death.
Out of a Shakespearean-wild Midwest dust storm, a man rises. “Just a glimpse of him,” says his sister; “every inch of him,” says his guilt-filled lover. “Close your eyes,” says his nephew. “What about it?” asks his father. The cupboard is filled with lime Jell-O, and there are aliens, deadly kissing, and a restless, alcoholic mother who carries a gun.
“Every family is this normal,” insists the narrator. “Whoever noticed my brother, with a family as normal as this?” the beleaguered sister asks. Against the smoky prairie horizon and despite his seizures, a brother builds a life. Imbued with melancholy cheer.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Jim-Ruland-Terese-Svoboda
New SOM Wednesdays Open Mic at Roscoe’s Lounge – In-Person Event
The New SOM Open Mic will be held Wednesdays (not Tuesdays) at the “new” venue Roscoe’s Lounge with music, comedy, and poetry + an open mic.
Hosted by Chris Severs @somopenmichost
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Roscoe’s Lounge
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm (Sign-ups at 6:30 pm)
Address: 730 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/somopenmic/
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 — Reading: Eric DeVaughann;
- 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 26th
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 26th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-621708425637
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Elyse Hart 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 Elyse Hart.
Elyse Hart is a writer from Los Angeles where she lives with her geriatric cat, Genevieve. She is the author of the forthcoming Poems for Squares: 29 Instagram Accounts in Verse (2023) and the chapbook White Noise Crucible (Dancing Girl Press, 2022). She has been featured in publications such as Slipstream, The Nervous Breakdown, Maudlin House, The Los Angeles Press, and others. She maintains an Instagram account for poetry @elysehartpoetry.
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 26th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ or https://allevents.in/orange/elyse-hart-at-the-ugly-mug/200024335512539
Whittier Reads Event: Javier Zamora Presents his Memoir Solito at Whittier Public Library – In-Person Event
The Whittier Public Library’s Whittier Reads Series will present author Javier Zamora to discuss his acclaimed memoir, Solito.
Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990. When he was a year old, his father fled El Salvador due to the US-funded Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992). His mother followed her husband’s footsteps in 1995 when Javier was about to turn five. Zamora was left in the care of his grandparents who helped raise him until he migrated to the US when he was nine. His first poetry collection, Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, September 2017), explores some of these themes.
In his debut New York Times bestselling memoir, SOLITO (Hogarth, September 2022), Javier retells his nine-week odyssey across Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. He travelled unaccompanied by boat, bus, and foot. After a coyote abandoned his group in Oaxaca, Javier managed to make it to Arizona with the aid of other migrants.
Zamora was a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University (Olive B. O’Connor), MacDowell, Macondo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation (Ruth Lilly), Stanford University (Stegner), and Yaddo. He is the recipient of a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize, and the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign.
Free tickets available at both libraries.
Where: Whittier Public Library
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 7344 Washington Ave., Whittier, CA 90602
Website: https://www.cityofwhittier.org
Cover to Cover Book Club: French Braid at Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Mid-Valley Regional Branch Cove to Cover Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, French Braid, by author Anne Tyler.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Tyler, this novel is described as a: “A quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.” —Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Book Review
Copies of each month’s selection will be available for check out at the Reference Desk. New members are always welcome!
Where: Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 16244 Nordhoff St., North Hills, CA 91343
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/cover-cover-book-club-0
Sci-Fi Short Story Club: Moonwalking with Einstein at Mark Twain Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Sci-Fi Short Story Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, the 1940 novella, The Invasion of Morel, by author Adolfo Bioy Casares.
This month’s special guest, author Colin Winnette, chose this selection. His newly published novel Users humorously and anxiously explores virtual reality and the modern family.
For the Zoom link, please send an email request to christopher.taylor@lapl.org.
Where: Mark Twain Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sci-fi-short-story-club-6
LGBTQ Book Club: Lavender House at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The LGBTQ Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Lavender House: A Novel, by Lev AC Rosen.
This book is a “Knives Out” type of story with a queer historical twist.
Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well guarded secret—but it’s not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they’ve needed to keep others out. And now they’re worried they’re keeping a murderer in.
Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept—his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand.
Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He’s seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn’t extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy—and Irene’s death is only the beginning.
When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.
LEV AC ROSEN writes books for people of all ages, including Lavender House. Camp was a best book of the year from Forbes, Elle, and The Today Show, among others, and is a Lambda finalist and ALA Rainbow List Top Ten. He lives in NYC with his husband and a very small cat.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/book/9781250834225
Amber Morrel & The Alchemy of Letting Go at LibroMobile – In-Person & Online IG Live Event
Author and librarian Amber Morrell will present and celebrate her debut book The Art of Letting Go.
Amber Morrell is a sci-fi and fantasy author, and her new book The Art of Letting Go is about a young scientist who finds a magical way to escape death, but can’t escape her emotions.
Join LibroMobile for this In-store & IG Live event at LibroMobile from 6-8pm PST.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 11500 S. Bristol St., A3., Santa Ana, CA 92708
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/the-alchemy-of-letting-go-by-amber-morrell
Carmela CIuraru, with Sarah Langan, & Lives of the Wives at Diesel, A Book Store – In-Person Event
Carmela CIuraru, in conversation with Sarah Langan, will discuss and sign her book Live of the Wives, a witty, provocative look inside the tumultuous marriages of five writers, illuminating the creative process as well as the role of money, power, and fame in these complex and fascinating relationships.
Lives of the Wives tells the stories of five literary marriages, exposing the misery behind closed doors. The legendary British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan encouraged his American wife, Elaine Dundy, to write, then watched in a jealous rage as she became a bestselling author and critical success. In the early years of their marriage, Roald Dahl enjoyed basking in the glow of his glamorous movie star wife, Patricia Neal, until he detested her for being the breadwinner, and being more famous than he was. Elizabeth Jane Howard had to divorce Kingsley Amis to escape his suffocating needs and devote herself to her own writing. (“I really couldn’t write very much when I was married to him,” she once recalled, “because I had a very large household to keep up and Kingsley wasn’t one to boil an egg, if you know what I mean.”) Surprisingly, the most traditional partnership in Lives of the Wives is a lesbian couple, Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall, both of whom were socially and politically conservative and unapologetic snobs.
Carmela Ciuraru is the author of the critically acclaimed book Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms and her anthologies include First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems That Captivated and Inspired Them and several volumes in the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets series. She has been interviewed on The Today Show and by newspapers and radio stations internationally.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Book Store
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Carmela-Ciuraru-Sarah-Langan-Author-signing
Orlando Ortega-Medina, with Daniel Olivas, & The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Orlando Ortega-Medina, in conversation with Daniel Olivas (How to Date a Flying Mexican), will discuss his book, The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants.
Inspired by events that forced the author and his partner to emigrate from the United States because of marriage inequality, The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants is an extraordinary and timely tale about the value of family and friendship, loyalty, and love in the face of adversity.
Attorney Marc Mendes, the estranged son of a prominent rabbi and a burned-out lawyer with addiction issues, plots his exit from the big city to a more peaceful life in idyllic Napa Valley. But before realizing his dream, the US government summons his Salvadoran life partner Isaac Perez to immigration court, threatening him with deportation.
As Marc battles to save Isaac, his world is further upended by a dark and alluring client who aims to tempt him away from his messy life. Torn between his commitment to Isaac and the pain-numbing escapism offered by his client, Marc is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils while confronting his twin demons of past addiction and guilt over the death of his first lover.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Orlando-Ortega-Medina
An Evening of Radical Poetry: Wyatt Welch & Luivette Restoat The Pop Hop – In-Person
The Pop-Hop presents an evening of radical, queer, witchcraft poetry! Tucson poet Wyatt Welch will perform an invocation, of course, and audience members are sure to get a perspective of the queer experience as Wyatt reads from their latest collection Capitalism Calls Poetry Lazy and discusses the impacts of agent orange and other war-crimes.
Wyatt will be joined by LA poet Luivette Resto, of Women Who Submit, an LA non-profit focused on women and nonbinary writers. Luivette will read from her latest work, Living On Islands Not Found On Maps.
Wyatt Welch grew up on the Interstates after being kidnapped by their father, a troubled veteran of the Vietnam War. A Floridian and long-time Tucsonan, questioning the boundaries of Self and the State has been the work of their recent poetry, alongside other poetic concerns such as living gay/transgender in the United States. Their debut book of poetry, Capitalism Calls Poetry Lazy, was released in 2022 by FlowerSong Press.
Luivette Resto, a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is on the Board of Directors for Women Who Submit, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles focused on women and nonbinary writers. Her latest collection Living On Islands Not Found On Maps is published by FlowerSong Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: The Pop Hop Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90042
Tananarive Due, with Lea Anderson, & The Wishing Pool & Other Stories at Salt Eaters Bookshop – In-Person Event
Tananarive Due, in conversation with horror scholar Lea Anderson, will discuss her book, The Wishing Pool & Other Stories.
In her second collection of stories, Due offers horror, science fiction, and suspense—all genres she wields masterfully. From the mysterious, magical town of Gracetown to the aftermath of a pandemic to the reaches of the far future, Due’s stories all share a sense of dread and fear balanced with heart and hope.
In some of these stories, the monster is racism itself; others address the monster within, each set against the supernatural or surreal. All are written with Due’s trademark attention to detail and deeply drawn characters.
In addition to previously published work, this collection contains brand-new stories, including “Rumpus Room,” a supernatural horror novelette set in Florida about a woman’s struggle against both outer and inner demons.
Tananarive Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. Due’s stories have been featured on LeVar Burton Reads and Realm. She is an executive producer on Shudder’s documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. She and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote for Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone and for Shudder’s anthology film Horror Noire. They also cowrote their Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes cohost a podcast, Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!
Lea Anderson writes about horror movies, monstrosity, and culture from a Black feminist perspective. You can read more of her work on Fangoria.
Where: Salt Eaters Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 302 Est Queen St., Inglewood, CA 90301
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-chat-tananarive-due-and-lea-anderson-tickets-607579595927
Jeff Smith Tour & Dawn of Man at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jeff Smith’s Dawn of Man Tour will feature Smith’s new critically acclaimed series: TUKI.
About TUKI: Set two million years ago, when multiple species of hominids existed at the same time, this hand-drawn story follows the misadventures of a small band of early humans who controlled fire in an epoch when gods and giants were real, and Fire was taboo.
About Jeff Smith: Jeff Smith is the writer & artist of comics and graphic novels like BONE, RASL, SHAZAM: The Monster Society of Evil, ROSE and Tall Tales. Both BONE and RASL were self-published and are New York Times Bestsellers. BONE launched the current YA Graphic Novel explosion via Scholastic Books’ Graphix imprint and has won 41 national and international awards including 10 Eisner Awards and 11 Harvey Awards and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. RASL won an Eisner for Best Graphic Novel. The webcomic version of TUKI won the National Cartoonists Award for Best Online Comic in 2014.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Some Favorite Writers: Mona Simpson & Commitment at Hammer Museum of Art – In-Person Event
Author Mona Simpson reads from her latest release, Commitment, a masterful novel about a single mother’s collapse and the fate of her family after she enters a California state mental hospital in the 1970s. Reading is followed by discussion between the author and chef, author, and radio host Evan Kleiman.
Mona Simpson is the best-selling author of Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father, A Regular Guy, Off Keck Road, My Hollywood, and Casebook. Commitment, her most recent work, was released March 21, 2023. Off Keck Road was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won the Heartland Prize from the Chicago Tribune. She has received a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is on the faculty at UCLA. In 2020, she was named publisher of The Paris Review.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/some-favorite-writers-mona-simpson
NoHo Online Book Club: Phantom of the Opera via North Hollywood Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
NoHo Online Book Club participants will discuss The Phantom of the Opera, by author Gaston Leroux.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: North Hollywood Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 10 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-online-book-club
Writing From the Heart: A Memoir Writing Workshop at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Everyone has a story! Join us in a safe space to share yours. Local author Judi Sadowsky will help participants support one another on their writing journeys as they tell their own unique personal stories.
Advance registration is required as space is limited. Please note that this workshop takes place over the course of six Friday afternoons. Please contact the library at brntwd@lapl.org or 310-575-8273 to register.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 28th (plus 5 more weekly meetings)
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/writing-heart-memoir-workshop
Fierce Friday & YALLWEST at Pico Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
YALLWEST returns to Santa Monica and SMPL for its ninth annual young adult and middle grade book festival. Join us Friday afternoon at the Pico Branch for a preview event, featuring book signings with a dozen major authors.
Then on Saturday, join us at Santa Monica High School for the ninth annual young adult book festival, featuring author panels and book signings, games, games, food trucks and lots more. Be sure to visit the library booth for a book signing with author and librarian Monica Zepeda (Boys of the Beast), play games and win prizes, and find out more about the library. Visit yallwest.com for free ticket info and author line-ups.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Library, SMPL
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 2201 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles/Calendar%20of%20Events%20-%20April%202023.pdf
Poetry Reading: Elizabeth Metzger + Guests, & Lying In at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Elizabeth Metzger will present her book, Lying In, with readings by guest poets: Catherine Pond, Vandana Khanna and F. Douglas Brown.
Lying In is a devastating, vulnerable collection tracing high-risk pregnancy and new motherhood amid grief.
“All my life all I’ve wanted was to be myself / and someone else,” writes Elizabeth Metzger. From the shadowy perspective of confinement, where the presence of death unsettles all outcomes, these poems examine an expansion and fracturing of the self—into motherhood as well as childhood, into past selves and future unknowns. The child becomes parent, the parent becomes child, the child arrives but in doing so is lost. New loss haunts new life, and life becomes “one or two lives.” The door is more valuable than the prize behind it.
With ambivalence as well as deep feeling, Metzger wonders how a single body can be expected to hold both immense joy and immense mourning, profound longing and creeping numbness, when one so often overtakes the other. She plunges into the darkness inside—of the gloomy room, the inner body, the afterlife and the pre-language mind—and sends back “a searchlight across the underworld,” Eurydice in search of herself.
Aching and contemplative, Lying In is an exquisite portrait of an in-between time—and of the person who emerges on the other side. “Isn’t it obvious how we’ve changed?”
Elizabeth Metzger is the author of Lying In, as well as The Spirit Papers, winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry, and the chapbook Bed.
F. Douglas Brown is the author of two poetry collections: ICON (Writ Large Press, 2018), and Zero to Three (University of Georgia, 2014), winner of the 2013 Cave Canem Poetry Prize selected by US Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith. Brown holds fellowships from both Cave Canem and Kundiman and was selected by Poets & Writers as one of their ten notable Debut Poets of 2014. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as The Academy of American Poets, The PBS News Hour, The Virginia Quarterly (VQR), Faultline, Furious Flower: seeding the future of African American Poetry, and Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature to name a few. An educator for 25 years, Brown currently serves as the director of equity and inclusion at Loyola High School of Los Angeles.
Born in New Delhi, India, Vandana Khanna is a writer, educator, and editor. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Train to Agra, Afternoon Masala, and Burning Like Her Own Planet, as well as the chapbook, The Goddess Monologues. Her work has won the Crab Orchard Review First Book Prize, The Miller Williams Poetry Prize, the Diode Editions Chapbook Competition, and the Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize. She has been published widely in journals and anthologies such as The New Republic, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, New England Review, Guernica, and The Penguin Book of Indian Poets.
Catherine Pond is the author of Fieldglass (Southern Illinois University Press 2021), winner of the Crab Orchard First Book Prize and a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets, Best American Nonrequired Reading, AGNI, Salmagundi, The Adroit Journal, Narrative, and other publications. Pond is a PhD candidate in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, where she teaches writing. She holds an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and a BA from Skidmore College, where she worked many summers as an Assistant Director for the New York State Summer Writers Institute. With Julia Anna Morrison, she is the co-founder and co-editor of Two Peach which has been operating since 2015.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
LGBTQ Open Mic NIght at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
LGBTQ Open Mic Night is offered every 4th Friday of the month at Café con Libros.
Liam and Charlie host a fun LGBTQ+ meeting. Share in a poem (serious, fun, or saucy) or enjoy a fun round of BEST STORY WINS!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Café con Libros, Pomona
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W, 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
Poetry Film Festival Los Angeles 2023 at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join Beyond Baroque for a two-day festival featuring the official selection of the Poetry Film Festival Los Angeles, 2023.
Founded by Lynn Holley, the two-day festival offers a platform to showcase the works of filmmakers and poets merging poetry and film.
On Friday, April 28, for the festival’s opening night, Beyond Baroque will host a screening of Thomas Antonic’s feature-length documentary One More Step West is The Sea on the legendary beat poet, ruth weiss. To introduce the evening, bay area author K.R. Morisson will be reading ruth weiss’s poetry accompanied by bassist Christian Camacho; a Q&A with the director moderated by S.A. Griffin will follow after the screening.
On Saturday, April 29, 43 international poem-based films comprising the Official Selection of the Poetry Film Festival Los Angeles, 2023, will be screened in the Experimental, Narrative, Animation, Documentary & Original Score categories. Special guest speakers in filmmaking and poetry will be discussing the possibilities of cinema, language, and their impact on a new generation of artists as the craft continues to evolve worldwide.
Join a weekend of screenings, live music, discussions with guest filmmakers and poets, and more!
Tickets are available for one or both days of events.
For the full schedule and more information about this year’s entries, please visit poetryfilmfestival.org.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, link, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-film-festival-los-angeles-2023-tickets-596210390327
Arts Party: SATURATED Pop-Up Zine Event at Hammer Museum – In-Person Event
Join hundreds of college students from all over Southern California for an unforgettable evening with live music, artist-led workshops, and after-hours access to the galleries!
Music by Grammy-nominated artist BJ the Chicago Kid and Cruza
Artist-led workshops by LA Zine Fest, Alicia Piller, and Aneesa Shami Zizzo
Temporary tattoos by Roberto Euán
Eight exhibitions on view including large-scale installations by Chiharu Shiota and Rita McBride
Free cookies from Insomnia Cookies
Cash bar, photo booth, food trucks, and swag
Organized by the Hammer Student Association, with collaboration from UCLA Campus Events Commission.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/arts-party-saturated
Slanguage Poetry Show at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
On Friday, April 28th we will be celebrating NATIONAL POETRY MONTH. Doors open at 7pm. We have vendors and food.
Slanguage Poetry Show is a produce Poetry/Spoken Word show with some of the best poets in Los Angeles.
You can expect high energy, poems that are life changing, edutainment, great music and delicious food!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm (Show starts at 8:05 pm)
Address: 2702 Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slanguage-poetry-show-tickets-599762113627
Maggie Smith, with Jennifer Pastiloff, & You Could Make This Place Beautiful at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Maggie Smith, in conversation with Jennifer Pastiloff, will discuss her memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful.
“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”
Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particula heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Tobin Mitnick & Must Love Trees: An Unconventional Guide at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
JewsLoveTrees creator Tobin Mitnick invites you to share his deeply personal connection to our forest companions in ways that expand the storied genre of nature writing. Part textbook, part memoir, and part comedy, Must Love Trees is the most complete—and most unconventional—story of our forest pals ever told.
Tobin Mitnick is an actor, comedian, and naturalist, widely known as @JewsLoveTrees on social media, where he has over 500,000 followers across platforms. He has attracted attention from Wired Magazine (Best TikToks of 2020), the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and other publications for his combination of Mitnick’s love for trees, comedy, and sketch.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/24189
Women/Femme’s Night at LA GET DOWN at Greenway Court Theater – In-Person Event
Women/Femme’s Night 7 Open Mic at LA Get Down Festival is hosted by Bay Davis and DJ Faucet. Produced by Jasmine Williams.
Stay ready. Be ready. Tell your story!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Da Poetry Lounge at Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 544 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.ticketsource.us/greenway-court-theatre/women-femme-s-night-at-la-get-down/e-dgoaxr
YALLWEST 9th Annual YA & MG Book Festival at Santa Monica High School – In-Person Event
YALLWEST returns to Santa Monica and SMPL for its ninth annual young adult and middle grade book festival. On Friday afternoon at the Pico Branch there’s a preview event, featuring book signings with a dozen major authors.
On Saturday, join YALLWEST at Santa Monica High School for the ninth annual young adult book festival, featuring author panels and book signings, games, games, food trucks and lots more. Be sure to visit the library booth for a book signing with author and librarian Monica Zepeda (Boys of the Beast), play games and win prizes, and find out more about the library. Visit yallwest.com for free ticket info and author line-ups.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Monica High School
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 10 am – 6 pm
Address: 601 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles/Calendar%20of%20Events%20-%20April%202023.pdf
Last INDIE Bookstore Day Celebration at Canyon Crest Locationat Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
Cellar Door will celebrate our last Indie Bookstore Day at the Canyon Crest location on Saturday, April 29th from 10am to 6pm, so we hope you’ll come and bring your memories of the good times we’ve shared here! It’ll be a PARTY!! Please, please come in, browse the store (not just your usual sections), find that book you haven’t seen on any social media but that we chose for the store because it looked so GOOD. Curation is what makes an indie bookstore unique, so maybe you’ll find something unexpected and enticing. Also, those books need to find good homes and if they do so before we move, we won’t have to move them, and you get a new friend. Win/Win!
We’ll see you there!
(PLEASE NOTE: While we welcome all customers to visit us on Indie Bookstore Day, the only customers who will be allowed into the store during Drag Queen Story Time are those customers who have registered for the event. That will be between 2 and 3pm that day. The store will be open for shopping 10am-2pm and 3-6pm!)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 10 am – 6 pm & 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/IBD2023 or https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/IBDdragqueens
Independent Bookstore Day at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Event
AUTHOR SIGNINGS & READINGS INCLUDE:
10:30 AM-12:30 PM
Tim DeRoche, author & Daniel Gonzalez, illustrator, Tales of Whimsy, Verses of Woe (Poetry) – This book has something for everyone, so good it will make you sneeze. Winner of the prestigious Baldersquash Medal, which honors the very best in highfalutin nonsense. Their novel, The Ballad of Huck & Miguel, is also available.
POETRY READING 11:30 AM
Jennie Palmer, The Wompananny Witches Make One Mean Pizza (Picture Book, Ages 3-7) – Two witches whip up all kinds of yummy treats. They also have a crippling fear of children. One day by mistake, they bake their fear into a pizza. Havoc ensues until a group of hungry children take matters into their own hands.
STORYTIME READING AT NOON
Hillary Vari, Let’s Make a Garden (Picture Book, Ages 2-7) – A new kind of pop-up book! Join Mimi and Milo and their dog Scout on a fun-filled adventure to transform their barren yard into a garden full of life! Children turn die-cut pages that layer to build a garden.
STORYTIME READING 11:00AM
1:00-3:00 PM:
MichelleTheibault, Rock & Rhyme (Picture Book, Ages 3-7) – A pop-up book filled with interactive fun while learning about some of the best artists of all time. Bob Marley and the Beatles, just to name a few.
COME EARLY FOR HER STORYTIME READING AT 12:30 PM
Michelle DeBellis, The Music We Make (Fiction) – A story of overcoming pain to achieve one’s dreams. Surviving an accident that takes his mother’s life, a 22-year-old songwriter is consumed by grief, guilt, and the opiates he is prescribed for his injuries.
Faye Duncan, Canyon of Shame: Book 2 Bungalow Heaven series (Mystery) – Pasadena homicide detective Peter McGinnis’ murder investigation of a woman whose body was found in Eaton Canyon becomes a career salvaging operation and one in which he becomes more and more entwined as facts are uncovered. Book 1, Murder on Wilson Street is also available.
Jennifer Salmassian & SALLY THE CAT PUBLISHING TITLES (Children’s Books) – Toma-Toes is Salmassian’s latest book. Other available titles include Chester and the Hot Air Balloon by Dannie & Dallas Raines (KABC meteorologist) and Oh, Charlie! titles by Mandy Williams.
STORYTIME READING AT 1:00PM
See site for additional activities.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 10:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA, 91011
Website: https://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2023/4/29/independent-bookstore-day-special-events
Felicia’s Free-Form Drop-In Writing Workshop at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
In this special workshop, Felicia offers a Free-Form Drop-In Writing Workshop as part of the 44 Poetry Class.
Felicia Taylor E. is a poet, actress, author, writer and arts educator. She’s performed with the Award-winning companies, Deaf West Theater and Dallas Children’s Theater. And toured with companies in California performing Shakespeare, Contemporary plays and Poetry. As an Arts Educator, she’s worked within the community creating worksho9ps and performances for museums, schools, libraries, and colleges. Her belief is that “writing and journaling is healing.” Her book “Southern Spiced: A Brown Girl’s Tale,” is a Reader’s Choice Book Award Finalist.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 2702 Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/felicias-free-form-drop-in-writing-session-tickets-619262088577
Poetry Film Festival Los Angeles 2023 (DAY 2) at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join Beyond Baroque for day 2 of a two-day festival featuring the official selection of the Poetry Film Festival Los Angeles, 2023.
Founded by Lynn Holley, the two-day festival offers a platform to showcase the works of filmmakers and poets merging poetry and film.
On Saturday, April 29, 43 international poem-based films comprising the Official Selection of the Poetry Film Festival Los Angeles, 2023, will be screened in the Experimental, Narrative, Animation, Documentary & Original Score categories. Special guest speakers in filmmaking and poetry will be discussing the possibilities of cinema, language, and their impact on a new generation of artists as the craft continues to evolve worldwide.
Join a weekend of screenings, live music, discussions with guest filmmakers and poets, and more!
Tickets are available for one or both days of events.
For the full schedule and more information about this year’s entries, please visit poetryfilmfestival.org.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, link, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Time: 1 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-film-festival-los-angeles-2023-tickets-596210390327
Homecoming Poetry Reading with Local Youth Poets + heidi andrea restrepo & Vickie Vértiz at LibroMobile – In-Person & Online IG Live Event
Poets heidi andrea restrepo and Vickie Vértiz will join local youth poets for a reading and discussion.
Featured Poets:
heidi andrea restrepo rhodes (she/they) is a queer, sick/disabled, brown/Colombian, poet, scholar, educator, and cultural worker. A 2023 recipient of the Creative Capital Award, she is author of The Inheritance of Haunting (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019). Their chapbook, Ephemeral, was the 2022 winner of the Lorca Latinx Poetry Prize and will be published by EcoTheo Collective in 2023. She wants to swim with you in the raucous and joyful possibilities of crip poetics and abolition dreams.
Vickie Vértiz is the oldest child of an immigrant Mexican family. Her writing is featured in the New York Times magazine, the Academy of American Poets, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among many others. She is the author of Auto/Body, winner of the 2022 Sandeen Prize from the University of Notre Dame. A recipient of fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, VONA, CantoMundo, and Macondo, Vickie teaches writing at UC-Santa Barbara. She lives in Los Angeles.
Youth Poets:
1. Kim Hernandez
2. Jacquie Ramirez
3. Edson Gomez
4. Kenia Cabrera
5. George Cruz
6. Stephany Alvarez
7. Susett Lopez
8. Kelly Rojas
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 11500 S. Bristol St., A3., Santa Ana, CA 92708
Writing Our Own Future: World Stage Press Poets Event at Central Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
Celebrate National Poetry Month and World Stage Press with a free reading by 26 poets published by World Stage Press.
Writing Our Own Future is an event celebrating the acquisition of the World Stage Press catalog by Los Angeles Public Library.
Founders Hiram Sims and Conney D. Williams will host performances by the likes of the following poets among others:
AKoldPiece is an educator, spoken word artist, poet, writer, host and motivational speaker and author of The Weather Report.
Alex Petunia is a nurse poet who has worn a kaleidoscope of hats, like drumming in an all-girl rock band, hippo-ing in a space ship, and road tripping with the moon and her poetry. Her first collection of poetry is Tending My Wild (World Stage Press, 2021).
Amon Elise is a modern-day sensualist, writer, and doula. In April of 2021, Amon released a poetry collection, How to Bear Your Teeth at Strangers. Amon’s end goal is to raise sexual awareness and break down its many, many stigmas.
Andrés Sánchez is a poet and instructor in the Community Literature Initiative Program (CLI). Their work explores identifying as a trangender person, mental health, their migration to the U.S. and how all of these things affect their relationship to people whether romantic, familial, or platonic connections. Sánchez debut poetry collection is This Body.
Poet Astrid is a Salvadoran-American poet and journalist from Los Ángeles, living in Long Beach. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her debut poetry collection is Through the Soil in My Skin.
Charlie Becker is a poet and visual artist who has been studying and writing with the Community Literature Initiative in Los Angeles for the past eight years. He has performed or read at open mics throughout Los Angeles and Pasadena, and his first book of poems and drawings, Friends My Poems Gave Me, was published in collaboration with World Stage Press in 2016.
Erika Ayon emigrated from Mexico when she was five years old and grew up in South Central, Los Angeles. She attended UCLA and graduated with a B.A. in English. In 2009 she was selected as a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow. In 2014 her poem “Hibiscus Skies,” was selected as a top ten poem from the Poetry in the Windows VI project sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective. Her debut poetry collection is Orange Lady.
Jessica D. Gallion is a writer, poet, mother, friend, from Natchitoches, Louisiana, raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the author of Can’t No Woman Woman Like Me, published by World Stage Press. Her work takes you on a journey through self discovery and affirmations, colorism, singlemotherhood, and trials and overcoming with a cayenne cultural thread of “sho ya right.”
Vida Montez is from Southern California, Los Angeles based Spoken Word Artist. C’est LA Vida: The Art of Blossoming! is her debut collection.
Yaa Asantewaa Faraji is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter, spoken word poet and author of Calabama. She holds a B.A in Advertising and Global Management, and frequently jumps off cliffs to prove to herself that she is still alive.
NOTE: See site for mobile e-ticket, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Spectrum 34-35 Issue: NOIR/DIVE at Thema’s Backyard in Pasadena – In-Person Event
Saturday Afternoon Poetry celebrates the Spectrum 34-35 Issue with readings by Spectrum poets in NOIR/DIVE.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Thelma’s Backyard
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1438 Atchison St. Pasadena, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Reading Performance: Michelle Lema & Bean vs. the Robots at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Michelle Lema will perform a reading of her new solo show, Bean vs. the Robots, a sci-fi rom-com exploring the inner workings of corporations, love, friendship, and what happens when we desperately try to separate our work from our life.
Moving through real time and flashbacks, the hour-long solo show is the third installment of Lema’s solo shows, the first of which was called Bean, which was awarded Best of Hollywood Fringe and was named a Top Ten Pick of the Fringe World Festival in Australia. Lema has performed in, written, and directed numerous other plays in the U.S. and internationally including productions in Scotland (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Germany (International Shakespeare Festival). In addition to her stage work, Lema previously worked for The Walt Disney Company for over a decade, most recently as the Manager, Creative Brand & Development, focusing on digital content creation for the Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Disney+ brands. With Disney, she was also host of the Oh My Disney Show, interviewing talent at premieres, press junkets, and live events.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: The Pop Hop Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90042
Laura Thalassa & Bewitched Book Launch at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents the Book Launch and discussion of Bewitched, by author Laura Thalassa.
There will be a book signing to follow. This event is free to attend and tickets are not required, however, we do appreciate RSVPs when possible!
From bestselling indie author Laura Thalassa comes the first in a dark fantasy romance spin-off of her smash-hit Bargainer series
At age twenty, Selene Bowers desperately hopes to be accepted into Henbane Coven, an academy for young witches. Since one of the requirements for entry is to connect with her powers via a quest through the wilderness, Selene books a trip to South America. When a nefarious supernatural force tries to drag her plane from the sky, Selene’s magic awakens to save her life—at a cost. Using her powers devours her memories, one by one.
Worse, when Selene braves the jungle and discovers the source of the attack, she finds herself awakening an ancient evil, Memnon the Cursed, who mistakes Selene for his long-dead wife. The wife who betrayed him. Selene manages to escape and begin her studies at Henbane, but when Memnon turns up at the coven and witches are found dead across campus, Selene becomes entangled in a dangerous plot. Accused of the murders on the basis of her memory loss, Selene must rely on Memnon’s help for answers—and his plans for her will change everything.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Showcase of Poets at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
Café con Libros hosts a showcase of poets reading in celebration of Independent Bookstore Day.
These poets never hesitate to build and help community grow and thrive.
See you there!
@iambrendavaca is the host of the open mic The Post Up at Casa Verde LA in Whittier, publisher of Riot of Roses Press and the author of the poetry collection Riot of Roses.
@diosa_xochiquetzalcoatl is a multilingual and multidimensional Xicana, Indigenous, MeXicana poetiza. She has a B.A. in English and an M.Ed. in Cross-Cultural Education. She is the author of the poetry collections A Church of My Own and Hechizera: Sus Sultry Spells.
@sofiaxaguilar is a Chicana writer and editor based on the traditional homelands of the Tongva and Chumash peoples, now known as Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared in Los Angeles Times, Refinery29 Somos, and New Orleans Review, among other publications. As a freelance journalist, she frequently covers breaking news, politics, pop culture, media and entertainment, and representation of marginalized communities. She is the author of two self-published poetry chapbooks STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv and STREAMING SERVICE: season two.
@sandyshakes_the is a poet and a composer of word melodies and vibrations.
@besskepp_ is a poet and storyteller who blends originality and rich heritage into his sought-after writings and performances. An HBO Def Poet, born and raised in Stockton, CA with brief stints in rural Texas, Cofer earned a Master of Arts in Education with an emphasis in Special Education and has taught and advocated for students with learning disabilities for over 20 years. Up the Street, Around the Corner is his debut book.
@saenzwriter, M. Ed, MFA is an award-winning educator and poet whose work focuses on memory, mujeres and motherhood. She is a UCLA Writing Project fellow, an alumna of the VONA/Voices Workshop for Writers of Color and a Macondo Writer’s Workshop Fellow. She is the author of the poetry collection Edgecliff (FlowerSong Press, 2021).
@futuroscopeusa is an actress, poet, playwright, Founder of Monarca Pictures and Futuroscope USA.
@chabemucho is a maestra, writer, lover of justice, co-host of @quemecuentaspod.
@alma.rosa.rivera is a Chicana writer, spoken word poet, and zine maker who lives in San Bernardino. She is also a bespeckled, Mexican American poet, mom, and wife who says she doesn’t like to “water down” her brownness.
@chicanachingona is a writer, director, producer, filmmaker, teaching artist, and @fullertonmuseum executive director.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Café con Libros, Pomona
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W, 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/ or https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=594988205992321&set=a.544376927720116&type=3
T(HAI)RAPY: A Night of Poetry for Black Youth at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
This special event, t(HAIR)apy for Black Youth, is a space to empower Black youth to wear their crowns with Pride!
Inspired by the Hair Tales Docu-Series on Hulu, we want to create a space to empower Black youth to wear their crowns with pride. A poetry event to feel seen and beautiful. We are making space for young poets to step up to the mic to share their hair poems. All ages welcome to the show. Only 18ish and under for the mic, though.
Featuring: October BLU.
In collaboration with Get Lit.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thairapy-for-black-youth-tickets-611445458827
Ink SLAM Invitational with Matthew Cuban and Shihan Van Clief at Greenway Court Theatre – In-Person Event
The Get Down Festival presents the Ink SLAM Invitational, a poetry competition, hosted by Matthew Cuban and Shihan Van Clief.
This event is part of the Get Down Festival for 2023.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 8 pm (doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 544 North Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles CA 90036
Website: https://greenwaycourttheatre.org/la-get-down/ or https://www.ticketsource.us/whats-on/ca/greenway-court-theatre/inkslam-invitational/e-ggaqkj
Reading Event: Jean Day, Paul Maziar, Syd Staiti at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
PRC presents a reading with Jean Day, Paul Maziar, and Syd Staiti, who will present and read their work.
Jean Day is a poet, academic editor, and (in recent years) union activist whose involvement in the San Francisco Bay Area poetry scene spans more than four decades. Her The Night Before the Day on Which was published by Roof Books last fall. Other projects include Late Human (Ugly Duckling, 2021), The Triumph of Life (Insurance Editions, 2018), Daydream (Litmus, 2017), and many others. She lives in Berkeley.
Paul Maziar is the author of two books of art writings, ONE FOOT IN THE OTHER WORLD and FLOWER POWER, as well as a handful of chapbooks of poems including To The Air, a collaboration with artist Cynthia Lahti (Cooley Gallery); New Kind of Neighborhood, a collaboration with Sam Lohmann (Great Fainting Spells); and Little Advantages (Couch Press). He’s the proprietor of Breather Editions and, alongside Aaron Smith, editor of Ergo Press.
Syd Staiti is author of Seldom Approaches (The Elephants, 2023) and The Undying Present (Krupskaya, 2015). Recent work is published in Baest, Tripwire, Social Text, and A Perfect Vacuum. Staiti is director of Small Press Traffic and a collective member of Light Field.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 8 pm (doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest TBA 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.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 29th
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: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer at Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event
Burning Issues Book Club (BIBC) is an online and local book club that gathers to read and discuss non-fiction works related to climate change, environmental degradation, environmental and social justice, and implementation of social change movements.
Participants will discuss this month’s selection, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, a prize-winning nonfiction book by author Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.
This book is a series of linked personal essays that will lead general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings, from salmon and hummingbirds to redwoods and rednecks. Kimmerer clearly and artfully explains the biology of mosses, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms might teach us.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Slow Lightning Lit: Online Global Poetry Series & NAPOWRIMO Three Poem Blitz with Peggy Dobreer – Online Event
Slow Lightning Lit’s Online Global Poetry Series will present readers reading from their work created during NAPOWRIMOin April.
Celebrate the close of National Poetry Month for 2023 and RSVP to save your spot!
RSVP now at adhocink@yahoo.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Slow Lightning Lit, Long Beach
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 12 pm PST
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/people/Slow-Lightning-Lit/100082729274263/?ref=page_internal
Book Launch: Jackie Huang & Picky Panda at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Paper engineer Jackie Huang will be sharing her debut picture book Picky Panda with a story time and craft. She will read her story, share about the creation process (including original art!), make a craft with kids, and then sign books. Best for ages 2+.
Persnickety Mr. Panda likes his world to be just so. His decisions are always easy: yes or no; good or bad; right or wrong; black or white . . . until one day when the gift of a red flower changes everything. Touching, clever, and with a great message about remaining flexible and open to the beauty in the world, this lift-the-flap picture book is an innovative and heartwarming story sure to resonate with readers. Author-illustrator Jackie Huang brings her utterly unique layered and cut-paper art style to this project, making Picky Panda even more of a standout on bookshelves.
Jackie Huang moved to Los Angeles after high school to attend the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Shortly after graduating, she returned to school to study illustration at ArtCenter College of Design. There she found a new way of storytelling through her love of paper art and pop-ups. Whether it’s through an unusual story twist or a pop-up unfolding, Huang believes in the magic of transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary. Huang lives with her family in Los Angeles. This is her first picture book. Learn more at jackiehuang.com.
This event includes a pre-order gift and raffle.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/picky-panda
Poetry & Music Jam: Grooves and Rhymes at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
This poetry and music jam with Lonnie ‘Meganut’ Marshall and the Front Porch Band offers smooth grooves and sublime rhymes.
This is a Be Free event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2702 Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/poetry-music-jam-7
Book Launch: David Van Den Berg & Love Letters from an Arsonist & at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
David Van Den Berg & Love Letters from an Arsonist at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
David Van Den Berg presents Love Letters from an Arsonist, a Southern gothic poetry collection that wrestles with themes of alienation and religion. The collection follows a rogue’s gallery of outsiders and is divided into three “epistles.” The poems in the first epistle are undiluted Southern gothic. The second epistle addresses religion and an absent God. The final epistle is intimate and confessional. A weird, wild, and beautiful wail of emotion that emanates from the very heart of the American south.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/25399
Book Launch: Jayne Allen, with bridgette bianca, & Black Girls Must Have It All at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents a book celebration of Black Girls Must Have It All, with author Jayne Allen in conversation with author bridgette bianca.
In this final installment in the acclaimed Black Girls Must Die Exhausted trilogy, Tabitha is juggling work, relationships, and a newborn baby—but will she find the happy ending she’s always wanted?
After a whirlwind year, Tabitha Walker’s carefully organized plan to achieve the life she wanted—perfect job, dream husband, and stylish home—has gone off the rails. Her checklist now consists of diapers changed (infinite), showers taken (zero), tears cried (buckets), and hours of sleep (what’s that?).
Don’t get her wrong, Tabby loves her new bundle of joy and motherhood is perhaps the only thing that’s consistent for her these days. When the news station announces that they will be hiring outside competitors for the new anchor position, Tabby throws herself into her work. But it’s not just maintaining her position as the station’s weekend anchor that has her worried. All of her relationships seem to be shifting out of their regular orbits. Best friend Alexis can’t manage to strike the right balance in her “refurbished” marriage with Rob, and Laila’s gone from being a consistent ride-or-die to a newly minted entrepreneur trying to raise capital for her growing business. And when Marc presents her with an ultimatum about their relationship, coupled with an extended “visit” from his mother, Tabby is forced to take stock of her life and make a new plan for the future.
Consumed by work, motherhood, and love, Tabby finds herself isolated from her friends and family just when she needs them most. But help is always there when you ask for it, and Tabby’s village will once again rally around her as she comes to terms with her new life and faces her biggest challenge yet: choosing herself
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 