Writer’s Group: Meetings at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Writing a book? Need deadlines and feedback? Then this is the group for you.
Please bring 5 – 10 double-spaced typed pages. Everyone will have a chance to read and receive constructive feedback.
The meeting room is on the first floor of the Robertson Branch Library, towards the rear of the lobby.
RSVP: First come, first served. No registration required.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/writers-group
Book Club: To Be Taught If Fortunate: A Novella via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join our monthly Book Club meeting via Google Meet. Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the Google Meet link.
The book selection for July 10 is To Be Taught If Fortunate: A Novella by Becky Chambers. A stand-alone science fiction novella from the award-winning, bestselling, critically acclaimed author of the Wayfarer series.
If you like to read ahead:
August selection: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/sun-valley-branch-book-club-0
Book Launch: Chelsea Fagan & A Perfect Vintage at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Chelsea Fagan is an author and the co-founder and CEO of The Financial Diet, the largest women’s financial media company. After publishing The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner’s Guide To Getting Good With Money, she is delving into the fiction world with her summer romance novel A Perfect Vintage.
Village Well hosts Chelsea for an intimate conversation about romance, travel, and her debut novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27309
Holly Knight & I Am the Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Holly Knight will present and discuss her book, I Am the Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties.
Knight’s story was an often lonely journey to success. Not only was Holly a woman in a male-dominated industry that didn’t welcome women warmly into the inner sanctum, she carried with her the baggage of a difficult childhood and a fraught relationship with her mother, the substance of which informed the themes that made her songs so anthemic. I Am the Warrior is a story of survival, perseverance, and triumph laced with ample amounts of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/holly-knight
Poetry Night Monday Open Mic & Featured Guests at The Platform, DTLA – In-Person Event
Join the Poetry Night Open Mic (Before the Comedy Open Mic) with Featured Guests, offered every Monday of the month at The Platform in DTLA.
Must RSVP on Instagram @ thekaliclub213.
Hosted by Lida Parent.
Featured poets TBA.
NOTE: RSVP required.
Where: The Platform, DTLA
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1056 Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90015
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159766485254891&set=a.263642949890
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 10th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html
Rise and Shine: A Morning Generative Writing Workshop with Nancy Lynee Woo and Shelley Holder – Online Event
Join us for six weeks on Tuesday mornings for an inspiring session of writing poetry and sharing in a supportive setting!
Each session opens with a warm-up stretch, an example poem, and a prompt. Then, we will have time to write. We will close out our session with sharing. This is a generative space for creating first drafts. This is NOT a critique space, so all feedback needs to be supportive and positive.
If you love waking up and writing in a group (or you want to try it), please join us!
This is a great way to generate new work, try new things, and enjoy literary community. These workshops are ALL LEVELS, which means everyone is welcome to come and write! Seasoned writers and beginners are all welcome.
These sessions are offered by donation, to increase access to the arts. Please pay what you are able. We suggest $5-25 per session.
Schedule:
We will meet every Tuesday for 8 weeks. You are welcome to come to one or all of them. Facilitators are Nancy Woo and Shelly Holder. They will switch off teaching each week, so you get the benefit of two different workshop leaders! (You will need to sign up for each session individually.)
July 11 – Shelly
July 18 – Nancy
July 25 – Shelly
August 1 – Nancy
August 8 – Shelly
August 15 – Nancy
August 22 – Shelly
August 29 – Nancy
About the Facilitators:
Nancy Lynée Woo is a poet, writer, organizer, and climate activist who harbors a wild love for the natural world. Her debut poetry collection is I’d Rather Be Lightening (GASHER Press, March 2023). Nancy has received fellowships from Artists at Work, PEN America, Arts Council for Long Beach, and Idyllwild Writers Week. Her work has been published in The Shore, Tupelo Quarterly, Stirring, Radar Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Nancy has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University and a BA in sociology from UC Santa Cruz. Find her cavorting around Long Beach (Tongva land) in California, and online at nancylyneewoo.com or @fancifulnance on social.
Shelly Holder is a poet, book club and workshop facilitator who is working on founding a library of literary magazines. She is a Women Who Submit chapter lead for the San Gabriel Valley. Her poetry can be found (in various formats) at Iron Horse Literary Review, One Art, and Gyroscope Review, among others, as well as on YouTube. You can follow up by visiting http://www.shellyholder.com or her Facebook profile /shellyholderpoet. Shelly lives in what she calls an “outer-outer-outer” suburb of Los Angeles, where she struggles to get an orange tree to fruit.
Where: Rise and Shine Workshops
Date: Tuesday the 11th (through August 29th)
Time: 8 am – 9:30 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://allevents.in/online/rise-and-shine-a-morning-generative-poetry-class/10000651332241267
Book Club: Olga Dies Dreaming at Baldwin HIlls Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Olga Dies Dreaming, by author Xochitl Gonzalez.
About the book: Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife, and the very notion of the American dream—all while asking what it really means to weather the storm. Pick up a copy of the book at the circulation desk.
Where: Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: 2906 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-olga-dies-dreaming-xochitl-gonzalez
Teen Poetry Workshop & Open Mic with Nancy Lynee Woo at Burnett Neighborhood Library, LBPL – In-Person Event
Teens! Create your own poem with local author Nancy Woo. Learn to create your own literary work! Ages 13-18,
Nancy Woo has had poems published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Radar Poetry, Confrontation Magazine, The Rusty Toque, and Stirring. Join us at Burnett Neighborhood Library to learn how to craft your own literary work. After, take the stage at Open Mic Nite and/or watch others showcase their talents.
Sign up at Library Reference Desk.
This event also will be offered on September 12th & November 14th.
Where: Burnett Neighborhood Branch Library, LBPL
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm (Open Mic starts at 4:30 pm)
Address: 560 E. Hill St., Long Beach, CA 90806
Website: https://www.longbeach.gov/library/events/burnett/
Exploring the Surreal: Poetry Workshop with Ginger Ayla via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
Are you interested in poetry that pushes—or completely bulldozes—our sense of logic and reality? In this class, participants will read examples of surreal poetry, discussing techniques like persona, non sequitur, and extended metaphor to get a feel for surrealism in action. We’ll read a sampling of poems that take us to the strange, the supernatural, and the dreamlike. Then we’ll try our hand at some generative exercises to help us start off our own surreal poems.
This one-time class is 5:30pm PT – 7:30pm PT via Zoom.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/summer/
Poetry Open Mic with Wyatt Underwood at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love! You are also welcome to just listen and enjoy. Emceed by Wyatt Underwood.
RSVP: To receive a Zoom invitation, please contact wwood@lapl.org.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-open-mic
Matt Sedillo Poetry Reading Event at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Matt Sedillo will present a poetry reading and a Q&A event at Re/Arte.
Matt Sedillo has been called one of the greatest political spoken word poets working now, and his work has been taught in many venues. He is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor and is co-founder of El Maritllo Press with author David Romero.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Boyle Heights, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/pages/calendar-of-events or https://www.instagram.com/re.arte.la/?hl=en
Nasim Alikhani & Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine: A Cookbook at Diesel, a Bookstore – In-Person Event
Nasim Alikhani will present her new book, Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine: A Cookbook.
Nasim Alikhani has always expressed herself best through food. Coming from a tradition of strong women who are great cooks, she began cooking for large gatherings and parties at a young age. In 2018, she opened Sofreh, a Brooklyn-based Iranian restaurant, to acclaim. Sofreh, Nasim Alikhani’s Brooklyn restaurant, opened in 2018 to near-universal acclaim. It— and Alikhani—have been covered in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, Saveur, and countless other outlets. Sofreh has appeared on numerous “best of” lists (including being named one of the ten best new restaurants of the year by Pete Wells). She has cooked at the White House, and she was one of ten chefs chosen to cook at the 2021 Met Gala. She is a finalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York State.
Where: Diesel, a Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Nasim-Alikhani-Author-signing
Book Launch: Maureen Lee Lenker, with Joanna Robinson, & It Happened One Flight at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents romance authors Maureen Lee Lenker, in conversation with Joanna Robinson, to discuss her debut historical romance novel, It Happened One Flight.
From Entertainment Weekly writer Maureen Lee Lenker comes a swoony romantic comedy set in the world of 1930s film.
Joan Davis is a movie star, and a damned good actor, too. Unfortunately, Hollywood only seems to care when she stars alongside Dash Howard, Tinseltown’s favorite leading man and a perpetual thorn in Joan’s side. She’s sick of his hotshot attitude, his never-ending attempts to get a rise out of her—especially after the night he sold her out to the press on a studio-arranged date. She’ll turn her career around without him. She’s engaged to Hollywood’s next rising star, after all, and preparing to make the film that could finally get her taken seriously. Then, a bombshell drops: thanks to one of his on-set pranks gone wrong, Dash and Joan are legally married.
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!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Book Launch: Philip Fracassi & Boys in the Valley at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Philip Fracssi will be hosting a launch event for his new novel, BOYS IN THE VALLEY. He will be doing a live Q&A with award-winning author Brian Evenson, a reading from the book, and a signing. Come be part of the launch for the book Stephen King called “old-school horror”.
Philip Fracassi is the Stoker-nominated author of the novels A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, and Boys in the Valley, as well as the award-winning story collections Behold the Void and Beneath a Pale Sky. His stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, Southwest Review, and Interzone. Philip lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Copps Literary Services. For more information visit him on social media, or at his website: www.pfracassi.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27549
Carmen Boullosa,withSamantha Schnee, & The Book of Eve at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Carmen Boullosa,in conversation withSamantha Schnee, will present and discuss her book, The Book of Eve.
In brilliant prose, Carmen Boullosa offers a twist on the Book of Genesis that dismantles patriarchy and rebuilds our understanding of the world—from the origin of gastronomy, to the domestication of animals, to the cultivation of land and pleasure—all through the feminine gaze. Based on this exploration, at times both joyful and painful, The Book of Eve takes a tour through the stories we’ve been told since childhood, which have helped to foster (and cement) the absurd idea that woman is the companion, complement, and even accessory to man, opening the door to criminal violence against women. Boullosa refutes this entrenched, dangerous perspective in her foundational and brazen feminist novel. (Deep Vellum Publishing)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/carmen-boullosa
Adult Book Club: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join book club participants to discuss this month’s selection, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by author V.E. Schwab.
Whether you loved it, hated it, or haven’t finished it, we want to see you at our Adult Book Club that has been going strong for 40+ years at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/adult-book-group-invisible-life-addie-larue-ve-schwab-hybrid
Mystery Book Club & Night Will Find You at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club participants will read and discuss this month’s selection, Night Will Find You: A Novel, by author Julia Heaberlin.
A scientist and reluctant psychic is brought in to find a girl who went missing long ago in the new novel by Julia Heaberlin, the bestselling author of We Are All the Same in the Dark.
Julia Heaberlin is the internationally bestselling author of six thrillers, including Night Will Find You, We Are All the Same in the Dark, Paper Ghosts, and Black-Eyed Susans. Her books have sold in more than twenty countries. We Are All the Same in the Dark won the 2020 Writers’ League of Texas award for fiction, and Paper Ghosts was a finalist for Best Hardcover Novel at the International Thriller Awards. Before writing novels, Heaberlin was a journalist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and The Detroit News, which fed her interest in true crime and the forgotten stories of victims, a theme she carries into her fiction. She currently lives in the Dallas–Fort Worth area with her family, where she’s working on her next psychological thriller.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-15
At Skylight: Ruth Madievsky, with Jean Kyoung, & All-Night Pharmacy at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Ruth Madievsky, in conversation with Jean Kyoung, will discuss her novel, All-Night Pharmacy, about young woman who commits a drunken act of violence just before her sister vanishes without a trace.
On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears.
Ruth Madievsky is the author of a bestselling poetry collection, Emergency Brake (Tavern Books, 2016). Her work appears in Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, Literary Hub, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers from the former Soviet Union. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care pharmacist.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Kemi Ashing-Giwa, with Tananarive Due, & Splinter in the Sky at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Kemi Ashing-Giwa, in conversation with Tananarive Due, will discuss her new book,The Splinter in the Sky.
This novel is a diverse, exciting debut space opera about a young tea expert who is taken as a political prisoner and recruited to spy on government officials-a role that may empower her to win back her nation’s independence-perfect for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor. The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital. There, she will learn just how far she is willing to go to exact vengeance, free her sibling, and perhaps even secure her homeland’s freedom. (Gallery/Saga Press)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, cost, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Kemi-Ashing-Giwa-with-Tananarive-Due-The-Splinter-in-the-Sky
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 11th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups or https://www.facebook.com/events/213407634459999/?active_tab=discussion
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.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre and YouTube Live Stream
Date: Tuesday the 11th
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
Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s – In-Person Event
The Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s with Shy But Flyy, will feature guest poet TBA + an open mic.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: DiPiazza’s Pizza
Date: Tuesday the 11th
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 Club &The Shadow at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Mystery Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Shadow, by James Patterson & Brian Sitts.
Please email wvally@lapl.org with “Mystery Book Club” in the subject line for information on the title to be discussed and the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-15
Write Your Novel Event at Platt Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Platt Branch Library invites you to write your novel at their library.
Is writing one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2023? Is completing a book on your bucket list? Whether you shouted an emphatic yes or mumbled a hushed maybe to either of those questions, our new novel writing support group is for you. This new group will be a place to learn, practice, and receive support from other writers. We will use LinkedIn Learning courses available on lapl.org to guide us through the novel writing process one step at a time. With weekly goals and the encouragement of your peers, you can spend the year working your way toward a completed novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Platt Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 12th
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
Comic Book/Graphic Novel Creation Workshop at Felipe de Neve Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teens & Adults Event
Participants will learn the basic steps to creating their comic book or the beginning of their graphic novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Felipe de Neve Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2820 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/comic-book-workshop-felipe
Fiction Book Club & Mary Astor’s Purple Diary via Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join participants online to discuss this month’s book club selection, Mary Astor’s Purple Dairy: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936, by Edward Sorel.
In a hilarious send-up of sex, scandal, and the Golden Age of Hollywood, legendary cartoonist Edward Sorel brings us a story (literally) ripped from the headlines of a bygone era, involving an affair and child custody battle in the entertainment industry.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/pacoima-book-club-1
Scott C. Johnson & The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Hunt for an Evil Genius at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Scott C. Johnson, in conversation with Matthew Belloni, will present his new book, The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Hunt for an Evil Genius.
This book Is the spellbinding tale of an epic international manhunt for a psychopathic con artist who exploited the dreams of creators to steal dozens of identities and millions of dollars. Blending years of deep reporting with distinctive, powerful prose, Scott C. Johnson’s unique true crime narrative recounts the tale of the brilliantly cunning imposter who carved a path of financial and emotional destruction across the world. Gifted with a diabolical flair for impersonation, manipulation, and deception, the Con Queen used their skill with accents and deft psychological insight to sweep through the entertainment industry. Johnson traces the origins of this mastermind and follows the years long investigation of a singularly determined private detective who helped deliver them to the FBI. Described by one victim as a “crazy, evil genius,” the Con Queen enacted one of the most elaborate scams ever to hit Hollywood— the perfect criminal, committing the perfect crime for our time.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Scott-C-Johnson-July-12
George Brown & Too Hot: Kool & the Gang & Me at Book Soup – In-Person Event
George Brown will present and discuss his book, Too Hot: Kool & the Gang & Me.
In Too Hot, drummer, keyboardist, and primary songwriter George Brown describes life in and out of the band, including a raucous life on the road as the band’s popularity grew. He weathered the ups and downs of his musical career and navigated many challenges including prescription drug addiction, depression, and health issues.
George shares how his recent cancer scare, and subsequent treatment, compelled him to share his story, warts and all, to give readers a glimpse into a band whose reputation was considered relatively tame, but in reality, it was exactly the opposite.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/george-brown
At Skylight: Jenny Xie, with Alexandra Chang, & HOLDING PATTERN at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Jenny Xie will present and discuss her new novel, Holding Pattern, in conversation with Alexandra Chang.
Kathleen Cheng has blown up her life. She’s gone through a humiliating breakup, dropped out of her graduate program, and left everything behind. Now she’s back in her childhood home in Oakland, wondering what’s next.
To her surprise, her mother isn’t the same person Kathleen remembers. No longer depressed or desperate to return to China, the new Marissa Cheng is sporty, perky, and has been transformed by love. Kathleen thought she’d be planning her own wedding, but instead finds herself helping her mother plan hers—to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur.
Grasping for direction, Kathleen takes a job at a start-up that specializes in an unconventional form of therapy based on touch. While she negotiates new ideas about intimacy and connection, an unforeseen attachment to someone at work pushes her to rethink her relationships—especially the one with Marissa. Will they succeed in seeing each other anew, adult to adult?
As they peel back the layers of their history—the old wounds, cultural barriers, and complex affection—they must come to a new understanding of how they can propel each other forward, and what they’ve done to hold each other back. Brilliantly observant, tender, and warm, Holding Pattern is a hopeful novel about immigration and belonging, mother-daughter relationships, and the many ways we learn to hold each other.
Jenny Xie is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. Originally from Shanghai, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her MFA at Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Ninth Letter, Joyland, Narrative, and the Best of the Net Anthology. Jenny is the recipient of a Bread Loaf scholarship and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Loghaven. She is a contributing writer for Architectural Digest, Apartment Therapy, and Dwell, where she was the executive editor.
Alexandra Chang is the author of Days of Distraction and the forthcoming Tomb Sweeping. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in Ventura County, California
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jenny-xie-presents-holding-pattern-w-alexandra-chang
Elizabeth L. Silver, with Natasha Deon, & The Majority at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Elizabeth L. Silver, in conversation with Natasha Deon, will discuss her new novel inspired by history,The Majority.
This is a riveting novel of love and friendship, motherhood and ambition, and one woman’s fight to be a Supreme Court justice.
Half of the United States is waiting for Justice Sylvia Olin Bernstein to die. The other half is praying for her to hold on. At 83, “the contemptuous S.O.B.” doesn’t have much time left. What she has is a story, one she has wrested from the grip of history to tell herself—of how she rose to her historic position on the Supreme Court, and the barriers she broke along the way.
Told over fifty years, from losing her mother at a young age, to falling in love, to navigating an unplanned pregnancy and motherhood, to learning how to spar with a sexist mentor, Sylvia’s personal story reveals the intimate truth about who she was as she ascended to her modern throne: not just a brilliant mind, but a daughter, a best friend, a wife, mother, and advocate. While caught in a dramatic tug of war between career and family, truth and convenience, progress, and patience, she will be given a chance to change the course of American history—and give voice, at last, to the majority.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Elizabeth-L-Silver-with-Natashia-Deon-The-Majority
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: Hiran Sims Birthday;
- 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 12th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
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 workshop facilitator is James Cushing, who retired in 2020 after thirty-five years teaching literature and creative writing in San Luis Obispo, CA, where he served as the community’s poet laureate in 2008-2010. Cushing’s poems have appeared widely and his collections include The Length of an Afternoon, Undercurrent Blues, Pinocchio’s Revolution, The Magicians’ Union, Solace, and Tangled Hologram, all from Cahuenga Press in Los Ángeles.
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 12th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Feature Daniel Romo 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 featured guest Daniel Romo.
Daniel Romo is the author of When Kerosene’s Involved (Mojave River Press, 2014) and STOP (Silver Birch Press, 2013). His poetry and photography can be found in The Los Angeles Review, Gargoyle, MiPOesias, Yemassee, Hobart, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and teaches English and creative writing. He is the Poetry Editor for Cease, Cows and Co-founder/Editor at Wherewithal. He lives in Long Beach, CA and bleeds Dodger Blue…A lot. Talk to him at danjromo@gmail.com.
The format is to welcome a featured artist 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 12th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://allevents.in/orange/daniel-romo-at-the-ugly-mug/200024558055938
CalArts Creates @ the Library: Creative Writing at Central Library, LAPL– In-Person Teen Event
Sign up for a free 8-session, 4-week course. Participants will conceptualize and produce individual creative writing projects that will include fiction writing, poetry, zine-making, spoken word performance, and more!
Eligible participants should reside in Los Angeles County and be current high school students. All class meetings will take place at Teen’Scape. All materials will be provided. Class dates are 7/11/23 – 8/3/23.
Register at https://tinyurl.com/LAPLSummer2023
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: 630 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/calarts-creates-library-creative-writing
Your Author Series: Kim Dwinell & Surfside Girls at Harbor Gateway Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
The Los Angeles Public Library is proud to present local author/illustrator Kim Dwinell as she discusses her graphic novel (and now an AppleTV+ series) Surfside Girls.
Things are getting weird in Surfside. Lately, Samantha’s best friend Jade explodes into fits of giggles whenever she sees a boy, and it’s throwing a wrench into the kick-back summer of surfing and hanging out that Sam had planned. But after swimming through a secret underwater cave, Sam starts to… see things. Like ghosts. And pirates. And maybe something even scarier! Can she and Jade get to the bottom of this mystery in time to save their town?
While Kim Dwinell has a fondness for stories that rivals her love for the beach, she has had a career as both a beach lifeguard and an animator, having worked on notable films such as The Swan Princess, Cats Don’t Dance, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan. Kim also shares her knowledge by teaching animation at CSU Long Beach. When she isn’t in the classroom or at her desk, you might find her participating in a 10K run, sailing on the ocean in her boat or riding the waves on her surfboard.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Harbor Gateway Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Where: 24000 S. Western, Harbor City, CA 90710
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-kim-dwinell
Book Club: Above the Bay of Angels at Venice Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
New members welcome! Copies are available at the circulation desk and at http://www.lapl.org.
July 13: Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowan.
A single twist of fate puts a servant girl to work in Queen Victoria’s royal kitchen, setting off a suspenseful, historical mystery by the New York Times bestselling author of The Tuscan Child and The Victory Garden.
RSVP: Email venice@lapl.org for Zoom login.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 5 pm
Where: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-9
Brian Slagel & Swing of the Blade at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Brian Slagel will present and discuss his book, Swing of the Blade: More Stories from Metal Blade Records.
Swing of the Blade follows Brian Slagel’s critically acclaimed 2017 book, For the Sake of Heaviness, which delivered a compelling inside look at how a metal-obsessed California teen built Metal Blade Records into the preeminent international home of heavy music. Rabid readers demanded more anecdotes, more bands, and more of Slagel’s musical wisdom. With Swing of the Blade, he delivers. Featuring a foreword by Slayer’s Kerry King, the new book is part memoir, part music-business primer, and all metal—delving deep into scenes and bands that fans worldwide obsess about.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/brian-slagel-july
Book Launch: Crystal Smith Paul, with Jayne Allen, & Did You Hear About Kitty Karr at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join North Figueroa Bookshop in welcoming Crystal Smith Paul, in conversation with Jayne Allen, to discuss her book, Did You Hear About Kitty Karr.
When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.
A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could―and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.
The truth behind Kitty’s ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/events/713-700pm-crystal-smith-paul-in-conversation-with-jayne-allen/
Multi-Genre Reading: Hosted by Elder Zamora at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Elder Zamora will host a multi-genre reading event featuring: Zachary C Jensen, Mireya Serrano Vela, Ramon Garcia, Elena Karina Byrne, and Pete Hsu.
Zachary C Jensen is a writer, journalist, and educator from Los Angeles, CA. He currently teaches English at Cal State University Northridge. His work has recently appeared in LA Record, Cultural Weekly, Entropy, and Palometa. He is the Managing Editor of Angel City Review and the editor for the Animals Chapbook Series at Business Bear Press.
Mireya Serrano Vela is a Mexican American creative nonfiction writer, storyteller, and artist in Los Angeles. Vestiges of Courage is her work of collected essays. In her work, Vela addresses the needs of immigrant Mexican families and the disparities they face every day. She tackles issues of inequity and how ingrained societal systems support the (ongoing) injustice that contributes to continuing poverty and abuse.
Ramon Garcia is a poet, writer, and scholar. Born in Colima, Mexico, and raised in Modesto, California, García earned a BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a PhD from the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of two collections of poetry: The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015), a finalist for the International Latino Book Award for Best Poetry Book in English, and Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010). García has also published a scholarly monograph, Ricardo Valverde (University of Minnesota Press, 2013).
Elena Karina Byrne is a poet, educator, and multi-media artist, and also is poetry consultant and moderator for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, literary programs director for the Ruskin Art Club, and a judge for the Kate/Kingsley Tufts Prizes in poetry. She served as regional director of the Poetry Society of America for 12 years and has also served as executive director of AVK Arts.
Byrne’s books include: The Flammable Bird (Zoo Press 2002), MASQUE (Tupelo Press, 2008), and Squander (Omnidawn, 2016). Her poetry and book reviews have also appeared in many magazines and journals.
Pete Hsu is a Taiwanese American writer based in Pasadena, CA. He is the author of the experimental chapbook, There is a Man, and the story collection If I Were the Ocean I’d Carry You Home. His work has also been featured in several journals and anthologies, including Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, F(r)iction, The Los Angeles Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He was a 2017 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow as well as the 2017 PEN in the Community Writer in Residence.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series: Three SoCal Poets Feature at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Trenches Full of Poets presents Live Readings by Three SoCal Poets:
Becca Hiraheta is a Salvadoran American poet and blogger who is homesick in two languages, for no place in particular. She writes about love, identity, and her body. She has been published in the first ever issue of Hue Journal and has featured at World Stage Press, with Not a Cult poets, and at LibroMobile.
Natalie Sierra (she/they) is a first-generation Latinx author and poet. She is the author of the feminist poetic retelling Medusa (2020, DSTL Arts), for which her poem “Medusa is My Sister” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has been featured in dozens of publications, including WestWind: A Journal of the Arts from UCLA, Medium, and the Los Angeles Times, and her debut novel, Charlie, Forever and Ever, was published by Flowersong Press in 2021. She also writes for the Barnes & Noble Spanish language blog, Aroma a Libros.
Sarah Thursday is a poet in hibernation, an arts advocate, and an eternal music lover. Long ago, she co-hosted 2nd Mondays Poetry Party, ran a poetry website called CadenceCollective.net, and founded Sadie Girl Press. She has been published in many fine journals and anthologies, interviewed by Poetry LA, and received a 2017 Best of the Net nomination. She has authored several chapbooks as well as two full-length collections, All the Tiny Anchors and Conversations with Gravel.
This event is presented on every 2nd Thursday of the month and is curated and hosted by poets Nikolai Garcia and Mauricio Andres Moreno.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 4884 Huntington Dr. South, Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/957673538774777
ACLU SOCAL Panel: Joanna Schwartz & Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Joanna Schwartz will present and discuss her new book,Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.
Vroman’s welcomes the ACLU SoCal, who has assembled a panel to discuss Joanna Schwartz’s book, Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable—an urgent and definitive examination of how the legal system prevents accountability for police misconduct, from one of the country’s leading scholars on policing.
This conversation will be moderated by LA Review of Books Editor, Michelle Chihara, and panelists include author Joanna Schwartz, ACLU of Southern California’s Executive Director, Hector Villagra and one more speaker TBA.
Joanna Schwartz is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She teaches Civil Procedure and a variety of courses on police accountability and public interest lawyering. She received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015 and served as Vice Dean for Faculty Development from 2017-2019.
Professor Schwartz is one of the country’s leading experts on police misconduct litigation and the author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (2023). Her recent scholarship—published in the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Columbia Law Review, New York University Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, and elsewhere—includes articles empirically examining the justifications for qualified immunity doctrine; the financial impact of settlements and judgments on federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and agency budgets; and regional variation in civil rights protections across the country. She has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, The Boston Review, and Politico, and has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS NewsHour, ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, and elsewhere. Professor Schwartz additionally studies the dynamics of modern civil litigation and is the co-author, with Stephen Yeazell and Maureen Carroll, of a leading casebook, Civil Procedure (11th Edition).
Professor Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School. After law school, Professor Schwartz clerked for Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York and Judge Harry Pregerson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was then associated with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, in New York City, where she specialized in police misconduct, prisoners’ rights, and First Amendment litigation.
Hector Villagra has been the Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California since 2011 and has overseen the opening of additional offices in Kern and San Bernardino counties.
He has led numerous civil rights cases involving such issues as educational equity, religious discrimination, immigrants’ rights and voting rights.
Hector has received the Daniel Levy Award for outstanding achievement in immigration law from the National Lawyer’s Guild and in 2012, he received the Attorney of the Year Award from the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County.
Hector graduated from Columbia University and Columbia University School of Law.
Michelle Chihara is Editor-in-Chief of LARB. Previously, she was Associate Dean and Director of the Whittier Scholars Program, and Associate Professor of English at Whittier College, where she taught contemporary American literature, media studies, and creative writing for nine years. Recent peer-reviewed publications include Distinktion: A Journal of Social Theory, American Literary History, Postmodern Culture, and a chapter in New Directions in Print Culture Studies from Bloomsbury Press. She co-edited The Routledge Companion to Literature and Economics (2018). Other essays have appeared in Post45: Contemporaries, Politics/Letters and Avidly.org. Since 2017, she has been the section editor for Econ & Finance at The Los Angeles Review of Books, where she is also a frequent contributor.
Before getting her doctorate at in English Literature, she received her MFA in Fiction, both at UC Irvine, and before that, she was a reporter, editor, and freelancer. She worked as a staff writer at two weekly newspapers, The New Haven Advocate and The Boston Phoenix and as an online editor at the investigative news magazine Mother Jones. Her reporting and prose have appeared in news outlets like The Boston Globe, The Houston Chronicle and Mother Jones, as well as magazines like n+1, Nerve.com, Bloomberg.com. Her essays have been anthologized and her essay from Rare Bird Press’s volume, Slouching Towards Los Angeles was featured on LitHub and on European television; she has published fiction, nonfiction, reportage, and essays in a variety of publications, online and off. She once quit her job, sold everything she owned, and moved to Rio de Janeiro to live by the beach and practice capoeira for a year.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, cost, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/ACLU-SoCal-Panel-Discussion-on-Shielded
MONARCHA Open Mic at Barrio Fuerza, San Bernardino – In-Person Event
Join the celebration of the Barrio Fuerza Open Mic event, Monarcha, on Thursday July 13th, hosted by Alma Rosa Rivera.
All are welcome! Come and share your talent!
Where: Barrio Fuerza Mercado
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm
Address: 395 N. E St., Suite 102, San Bernardino, CA 92401
Website: N/A
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is a weekly time to have fun with books with enthusiastic troubadour, Maddi!
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shonceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-40
Current Events Nonfiction Book Club at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Current Events Nonfiction Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by author Yuval N. Haran.
How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms How did we come to believe in gods nations and human rights to trust money books and laws and to be enslaved by bureaucracy timetables and consumerism And what will our world be like in the millennia to come.
Please email studio@lapl.org for details.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/current-events-nonfiction-book-club-0
Nolan Knight and Criag Clevenger Present: Gallows Dome & Mother Howl at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Nolan Knight and Criag Clevenger will present and discuss their new books:Gallows Dome and Mother Howl,respectively.
Nolan Knight’s Gallows Dome is about a desperate, a middle-aged arts teacher in Los Angeles whose teen daughter has been abducted. When seeking help from a private investigator, Joe Delancey, she finds he is out on a case at a Central Valley truck stop, deep undercover among truckers, prostitutes, and nomads—entrenched in a doomsday sect called Gallows Dome. The further Lena digs to find Joe, the deeper she submerges into The Dome’s hellscape, spiraling closer toward her daughter’s whereabouts than she could ever imagine. An unflinching look at the dark side of family and faith, this novel tackles a current American landscape whose thoughts and prayers help flap its flags at half-mast—teetering on the brink of total collapse. (Down & Out Books)
Craig Clevenger’s Mother Howl is about a desperate middle-aged arts teacher who recognizes the face of a murder victim on the nightly news—the waitress at his local diner. A place he often frequented with his dad. The following day his father is arrested and charged with her murder. And then eight further bodies are discovered.
Following the revelation that his dad is in fact a serial killer, Lyle is outcast and shunned. Forced to abandon his family, illegally obtaining a new identity, he moves away to start all over again.
Some years later, Lyle thinks he has finally moved on. But after several brushes with the law, Lyle’s past eventually catches up to him when a mysterious stranger known only as Icarus shows up and seems to know Lyle’s secret.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/nolan-knight
6040 Live Music & Poetry at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join North Figueroa Bookshop in an evening of live music & poetry at North Figueroa Bookshop featuring:
Fictitious Professor creates music. He got his name when one of this college professors started colling him professor and the entire school started to play along to the point of convincing thee years worth of new students that he was an actual professor.
Soul Stuf, AKA Christian Perfas, is a second generation Filipino-American spoken word poet who speaks on the Song, Truth Universal, and Flow of his own wandering spirit. Originally trained in the art of hip-hop and improv, Christian has learned from legendary spaces such as The Spoken Literature Art Movement at Art-Share LA, The Upright Citizens Brigade on Sunset, and Richard Horvitz’s 5 Steps To Success in North Hollywood.
Jessica Gerhardt is an LA-native singer-songwriter whose style ranges from intimate ukulele-driven folk to anthemic indie rock.
Arielle Estoria is a poet, author, actor, and artist, who has shared her work through custom spoken word pieces, workshops, and themed keynote talks, as well as self-acceptance workshops.
John Lowell Anderson is a mix engineer and singer/songwriter in Los Angeles CA. He has worked in a studio with grammy nominated mix engineer James Krausse (Beyonce, Nick Jonas) and loves helping both individuals and groups achieve their visions whether it be production, mixing, songwriting, or all the above.
Doors Open at 7pm, performances start at 7:30pm
RSVP AT SITE.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 p m
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/events/714-700pm-6040-live-music-and-poetry/
El Martillo Press Authors Reading at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Tia Chucha’s welcomes authors of El Martillo Press, founded by Matt Sedillo & David A. Romero, to read and discuss their work.
Readers include:
Paul S. Flores is one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and a nationally respected youth arts educator. He creates plays, oral narratives, and spoken word works about transnationality and citizenship that spur and supports societal movements that lead to change. He is the author of We Still Be: Poems and Performances.
Sonia Gutierrez is a poet and writer, the author of Spider Woman, co-editor of The Writer’s Response, author of Dreaming with Mariposas (FlowerSong Press) and most recently Paper Birds: Feather by Feather (El Martillo Press).
Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of Graft, a collection of Chicanx noir short stories set in Southern California and published by Tolsun Press, the eBook Sad Girls & Other Stories, and the audiobook Mary of the Chance Encounters, and the poetry chapbook Burn Scars published by the Lit Kit Collective. Her latest release is the daughterland, from El Martillo Press.
Donato Martinez was born in in small pueblo, Garcia de la Cadena, Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated into the USA at six years old. He teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. His new release is the collection Touch the Sky.
Ceasar K. Avelar is the second poet laureate of Pomona, CA. His poems speak the truth, not only to people in a position of power, but also to the everyday person that views the working class as a stigmatized identity. He is the author of God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.tiachucha.org/calendar_of_events
Double Book Launch: MiRi Park and Serouj Aprahamianat Village Well Books & Coffee
This event is part of the annual B-Boy/B-Girl Summit and will celebrate the launch of The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies and The Birth of Breaking: Hip Hop History From the Floor Up by Serouj “Midus” Aprahamian.
The evening will feature a panel of contributors to the Oxford anthology: Ken Swift, Serouj “Midus” Aprahamian, Anthony “YNOT” DeNaro, E. Moncell Durden, Mary Fogarty, Imani Kai Johnson, Grace Shinhae Jun, and Eric Pellerin, moderated by contributor MiRi Park.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27811
Sujata Massey, with Naomi Hirahara, & The Mistress of Bhatia House at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Sujata Massey, in conversation with Naomi Hirahara,will present and discuss her new book The Mistress of Bhatia House (A Perveen Mistry Novel #4).
Bombay’s only female solicitor, Perveen Mistry, grapples with class divisions, sexism, and complex family dynamics as she seeks justice for a mistreated young woman in this thrilling fourth installment in Sujata Massey’s award-winning series.
India, 1922: Perveen Mistry is the only female lawyer in Bombay, a city where child mortality is high, birth control is unavailable and very few women have ever seen a doctor.
Perveen is attending a lavish fundraiser for a new women’s hospital specializing in maternal health issues when she witnesses an accident. The grandson of an influential Gujarati businessman catches fire—but a servant, his young ayah, Sunanda, rushes to save him, selflessly putting herself in harm’s way. Later, Perveen learns that Sunanda, who’s still ailing from her burns, has been arrested on trumped-up charges made by a man who doesn’t seem to exist.
Perveen cannot stand by while Sunanda languishes in jail with no hope of justice. She takes Sunanda as a client, even inviting her to live at the Mistry home in Bombay’s Dadar Parsi colony. But the joint family household is already full of tension. Perveen’s father worries about their law firm taking so much personal responsibility for a client, and her brother and sister-in-law are struggling to cope with their new baby. Perveen herself is going through personal turmoil as she navigates a taboo relationship with a handsome former civil service officer.
When the hospital’s chief donor dies suddenly, Miriam Penkar, a Jewish-Indian obstetrician, and Sunanda become suspects. Perveen’s original case spirals into a complex investigation taking her into the Gujarati strongholds of Kalbadevi and Ghatkopar, and up the coast to Juhu Beach, where a decadent nawab lives with his Australian trophy wife. Then a second fire erupts, and Perveen realizes how much is at stake. Has someone powerful framed Sunanda to cover up another crime? Will Perveen be able to prove Sunanda’s innocence without endangering her own family?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, cost, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Sujata-Massey-with-Naomi-Hirahara-The-Mistress-of-Bhatia-House
Dual Book Launch: Arthur Kazakian & Rooja Mohassessy at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & LIve on YouTube Event
Join Beyond Baroque to welcome Arthur Kazakian & Rooja Mohassessy to celebrate the launch of their new books, with fellow guest readers Jose Hernadez Diaz and Emily Jon Tobias.
Rooja Mohassessy’s When Your Sky Runs Into Mine centers the dual experience of womanhood and immigration throughout the post-revolutionary Iran of the 1980s. It explores “personal revolution, the turning toward art in times of suffering, the claiming of a rich cultural heritage.” —Ellen Bass author of Indigo
The Book of Redacted Paintings is Arthur Kayzakian’s first full-length collection and incorporates the redacted imagery throughout the narrative arc in which a boy searches for his father’s painting. Through poems ranging in documentary, to visual, to lyrical, Kayzakian confronts how the grief of war and displacement are compounded by the loss of stolen familial objects, beloved items that served as a reminder of the life before.” –—Mai Der Vang, author of Yellow Rain
Arthur Kayzakian is the winner of the 2021 Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series award for his collection, The Book of Redacted Paintings, which was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. He is the recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also the winner of the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition for his chapbook, My Burning City. He has been a finalist for the Locked Horn Press Chapbook Prize, Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize, the C.D. Wright Prize, the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize, and the Black River Chapbook Competition. He is a contributing editor at Poetry International and a recipient of the Minas Savvas Fellowship. He serves as the Poetry Chair for the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA). His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from several publications including Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art, Portland Review, Chicago Review, Nat. Brut, Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, and Prairie Schooner.
Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet and educator. She is a MacDowell Fellow and an MFA graduate of Pacific University, Oregon. Her debut collection When Your Sky Runs Into Mine (Feb 2023) was the winner of the 22nd Annual Elixir Poetry Award. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Florida Review, Poetry Northwest, The Pinch, The Rumpus, The Journal, and elsewhere.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) and the forthcoming full-length Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024). His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Huizache, The Iowa Review, Poetry Magazine, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He teaches creative writing for Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshops, The Writer’s Center, and elsewhere. He serves as a Poetry Mentor for The Adroit Journal’s summer mentorship program.
Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet with her debut story collection, MONARCH, forthcoming by Black Lawrence Press in May, 2024. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in various literary journals and magazines. Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California where she is at work on her debut novel and other projects. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Meet Local Author: Kat Trejo & Yefferson, Actually at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Join us for a bilingual (English/Spanish) reading of picture book, Yefferson, Actually/ En realidad, es Yefferson by the author Katherine Trejo! Stay for a craft following the reading. This program will take place outdoors, on the Edendale patio.
Katherine Trejo is a first-generation Salvadoran American college graduate who lives in Historic Filipinotown with her extended family in the same apartment complex where she was raised! She enjoys spending time with friends and family and watching cartoons. She co-authored Yefferson, Actually/En Realidad, Es Yefferson with Scott Martin-Rowe, one of her most influential and favorite teachers in high school.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/meet-local-kids-author-kat-trejo
Sounds of Summer Workshops: A DSTL Arts x LAPL Collaboration – Online Event
This new, 8-week series of writing workshops for novice writers and English Language Learners explore the origins of Language across multiple cultures and a variety of poetic tools for creative expression.
This date is the 2nd of eight workshops.
Attend one workshop or attend all eight; this series is free and will help you think of Summer in a whole new way.
*Note: this workshop series is offered via Zoom only, and occurs weekly from Saturday, July 8–Saturday, August 26th, at 10:30 AM–12 PM. Handouts will only be provided to workshop attendees.
DSTL Arts invite you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81185877271?pwd=dFRibWhicW1mYVlITFpTZkcyeDBwUT09
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DSTL Arts & LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th (until August 26th)
Time: 10:30 am – 12 pm
Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar or https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81185877271?pwd=dFRibWhicW1mYVlITFpTZkcyeDBwUT09
ALOUD Travels to the Beach: Author Events at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Come out and celebrate summer with ALOUD in a festival-like atmosphere at one of our beachside library branches.
Co-presented by ALOUD and LAPL.
Agenda:
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Maddalena Bearzi in conversation with Beth Pratt about Stranded.
Stranded: Finding Nature in Uncertain Times: Marooned in Los Angeles by the pandemic, a marine biologist rediscovers the delights and wonders of the natural world in her own backyard.
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Crystal Smith Paul in conversation with Traci Thomas about Did You Hear…
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?: A Novel: A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz
Celebrate summer with ALOUD in a festival-like atmosphere at one of our beachside library branches. The afternoon-long event will feature beach-themed author talks, a SoCal Summer Storytelling hour, and family-friendly activities. Food trucks will be available and The Library Store will offer a pop-up shop filled with souvenirs to remember this perfect summer day.
Maddalena Bearzi is President and co-founder of the Ocean Conservation Society. She holds a Ph.D. in Biology and a Post-Doctorate from UCLA, and she has been involved in studying marine mammals with a conservation bias since 1990. Her research on dolphins and whales off California represents one of the longest investigations worldwide. She has published several scientific peer-reviewed papers, she is co-author of Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins (Harvard University Press), and author of Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist (University of Chicago Press) and Stranded: Finding Nature in Uncertain Times (Heyday). Her first children’s book for MacMillan is forthcoming. Her work and books have been covered, among many others, by CNN, NPR, KPCC, Al Jazeera America, The LA Times, and American Scientist. Maddalena is also a writer for other media, including National Geographic. Born and raised in Italy, she lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and dog.
A lifelong advocate for wildlife, Beth Pratt has worked in environmental leadership roles for over twenty-five years, and in two of the country’s largest national parks: Yosemite and Yellowstone. As the California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation, Pratt leads the #SaveLACougars campaign to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which broke ground on Earth Day, April 22, 2022. Her innovative conservation work has been featured by the Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New Yorker, and more. Author of I Heart Wildlife and When Mountain Lions are Neighbors, her new book Yosemite Wildlife will be published in 2024. She has also contributed to the books The Nature of Yosemite and Inspiring Generations as well as given a TEDx talk, “How a Lonely Cougar in Los Angeles Inspired the World,” and is featured in the documentary, “The Cat that Changed America.” Pratt spends much of her time in Los Angeles but makes her home outside of Yosemite with her five dogs, two cats, and the wildlife that frequent her backyard.
Crystal Smith Paul attended Spelman College and UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and received her master’s in journalism from NYU. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Salon, Jezebel, and HuffPost. She currently works in digital marketing for wellness and beauty brands. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is her first novel.
Traci Thomas is the creator and host of The Stacks, a podcast about books and the way they shape culture. The show asks the questions that provoke meaningful, poignant, and often hilarious conversations. Traci also hosts a live literary series with LAist called One for the Books, is a monthly contributor for NPR’s Here & Now, and writes a monthly column on shereads.com.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 11 am
Address: 861 Alma Real Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90272
Website: https://lfla.org/event/aloud-travels-to-pacific-palisades/ or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aloud-travels-to-the-beach-registration-641488127257
Storytime: Patricia Tanumihardja and Shiho Pate & Ramen for Everyone at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Storytime presentation by author Patricia Tanumihardja and illustrator Shiho Pate to explore their fun picture book, Ramen for Everyone.
The two will read the book, Shiho will do a quick drawing demo, and then they will sign books. Perfect for hungry readers ages 4+.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 11 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/ramen-everyone
Children’s Storytime with Zabie Yamasaki & Your Joy Is Beautiful at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Join Zabie Yamasaki to celebrate the release of her children‘s book, Your Joy is Beautiful: The Magic of Remembering That You Are Enough, Just as You Are.
In this book children will be reminded of the joy that exists within and around them, helping them feel seen and celebrated.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27550
Special Storytime: Leigh Luna & Clementine Fox and the Great Island Adventure at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Leigh Luna will present her children’s book, Clementine Fox and the Great Island Adventure.
Clementine is supposed to be on her way to school…but why not go out for a day of adventure and exploration instead? She recruits her friends Nubbins Squirrel and Penelope Rabbit and heads to the beach, where Jesse Otter is preparing to take his giant Turtle, Annabella, to a mysterious local island. Clementine’s great-aunt Marnie lives there—far away from math tests and tutors—so Clementine and her friends hitch a ride to the island as stowaways. What could go wrong?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Storytime-Leigh-Luna-Clementine-Fox-and-the-Great-Island-Adventure
L.A. Made Author Event: Marjorie McCown & Final Cut! at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us as L.A. Made welcomes author Marjorie McCown to discuss her new mystery, Final Cut!
Marjorie McCown has spent her entire professional life in the story-telling business. She began her career designing costumes for theater and opera companies before she moved to Los Angeles to work on feature films. She spent more than twenty-five years in Hollywood working on films that include Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, The Firm, A Bronx Tale, Wag the Dog, The Aviator, Hairspray, Angels and Demons, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and X-Men Days of Future Past.
LA Made funds are generously providing copies of Final Cut to be given away at this program. Quantities are limited. Marjorie will be available to sign them following her talk.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 1 pm
Address:19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/marjorie-mccown-discusses-her-new-mystery-novel-final-cut
Big Read Event: Interior Chinatown at Echo Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Events
Join the Carlos Bulosan Book Club and Big Read participants to discuss Charles Yu’s novel, Interior Chinatown.
For more information and zoom link, email cbbc@cbbc.club.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Echo Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address:1410 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-carlos-bulosan-book-club
Your Author Series: Aminah Mae Safi & Travelers Along the Way at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Teens Event
Author Aminah Mae Safi will be featured at the Los Angeles Public Library, showcasing her remarkable retelling of the Robin Hood legend with a strong female protagonist, Travelers Along the Way. In her presentation, Aminah will explore how she reframes the tales of the Third Crusade from a Muslim perspective, challenging the traditionally male and predominantly white Euro-centric narrative that surrounds its origins.
In the year 1192, amidst the ongoing Third Crusade in Jerusalem, Rahma al-Hud faithfully followed her older sister Zeena into the conflict for control over the Holy Land. However, with the arrival of reinforcements led by Richard the Lionheart, who came to be known as the Faranji invaders, Rahma’s sole desire is to ensure their survival and find a way back home.
Those attending the program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Teen Scape
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-aminah-mae-safi
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series and Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Hybrid Online Event
Join us in-person or via Zoom for Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series, featuring poetry readings and open poetry mic., every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month.
Please email studio@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 3 pm – 5pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic-1
Poetry Readings & Open MIc: Rachelle Escamilla, Randy James & Diosa X via Saturday Afternoon Poetry – Online Zoom Event
A Poetry Reading will be held on Zoom only.
Hosted by DKC & JRT, featured: RACHELLE ESCAMILLA, RANDY JAMES & DIOSA X + Open Reading.
Rachelle Escamilla is a Chicana poet from the Central Coast of California. Rachelle’s award winning first book of poetry is IMAGINARY ANIMAL, and she is the author most recently of Space Junk.
Randy James is a poet, student, teacher, and organizer. His interests include improvisational art, equity, and researching popular cultures. He has studied at UCLA, and his work has been published in Myriad, Westwind, FEM Newsmagazine, and Red Cedar Review.
Diosa X is the author most recently of the poetry collection, West of the Santa Ana.
Meeting ID: 759 9367 3202 (no spaces required) Password: poetry
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
RECLAMATION: A Writing As Healing Workshop & Mic with Soul Stuf at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
In this all-level guided workshop, you will experience centering voice healing and expression, followed by an Open Mic.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
2-Year Anniversary + Fundraising Event at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Zoom Event
Join us in celebrating our two-year anniversary, honoring the organizations and people that have made us possible.
We’ll have poetry, food (for sale), and celebration of our community.
The show will be split in four parts that will pay homage to the four different ways people and organizations have contributed to CLI and the Sims Library: giving us space, providing funds for our students, donating/making books, volunteering their time.
List of organizations and people TBD!
Our Poetic Line-up:
Aiyana Sha’niel
Ravina W.
Carlos Ornelas
Tommy Domino
Ron Dowell
Gia Civerolo
Tasha Thomas
Bonifer
Sheila Head
Benin Lemus
Lucas Rivera
+ more!
Ticket sales will continue to support our space and will be split between the featured poets.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest 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 15th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Stuck On Vibes Presents Ladies Night at Stuck on Vibes, Long Beach – In-Person Event
We’re back again with another VIBE! This time we are celebrating the LADIES! Come and join us July 15th! Performances, drinks, food & VIBES!
Hosted by: Kristien Owens.
Sounds by Aye Mitch.
In celebration of your favorite female artists:
@POET ASTRID – is a poet and writer and the author of Through the Soil in My Skin.
@KOSFRMLB – is a singer, songwriter, musician, and entertainer.
@VENTAGE1245 – is a poet and musician and host of a Thursday Open Mic where poetry meets Hip Hop.
@LEAHWRITES – aka Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (she/they) is a nonbinary femme autistic disabled writer, space creator and disability and transformative justice movement worker of Burgher and Tamil Sri Lankan, Irish and Galician/Roma ascent. They are the author or co-editor of ten books, including The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs, Beyond Survival; Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement (co-edited with Ejeris Dixon), Tonguebreaker, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Bodymap, Bridge of Flowers, Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, Bodymap, and The Revolution Starts At Home.
Where: Stuck on Vibes
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 5555 Sterns St., Long Beach, CA 90815
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stuck-on-vibes-ladies-night-tickets-662042395627
Book Launch: Christy Harrison & The Wellness Trap at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Celebrate the launch of The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses, and Find Your True Well-Being, with author Christy Harrison.
A searing critique of modern wellness culture and how it stands in the way of true well-being that “will change the way you think about your health—in all the best ways.” (Casey Gueren)
NOTE: RSVP at event link.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.thepophop.com/calendar?view=calendar&month=07-2023
Book Launch: Mauricio A. Moreno & Anatomy of a Flame at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Hosted by L.A. Poet Society Press, join us to celebrate Mauricio A. Moreno’s debut poetry collection, Anatomy of a Flame.
Join us for a milestone celebration, releasing pains, embracing self, and exploring the wreckless in-between, caused by toxic masculinity, multicultural displacement, body image, and mental health battles.
Get ready for some TRUTH! Anatomy of a Flame is a fantastic collection that looks you in the eyes without blinking. It’s gonna get hot!
NOTE: RSVP with donation to attend. See site for details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anatomy-of-a-flame-book-launch-tickets-662774986827
Gallery Party: Meet the Artist: Elena Secota Martellat The Wicked Wolf Long Beach – In-Person Event
Celebrate the work of artist and poet Elena Secota Martell at a Gallery Party at The Wicked Wolf, Long Beach.
Elena Secota Martell is the curator and host of Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Music in Santa Monica. There will be readings by poets: Peggy Dobreer, Lois P. Jones, Elena Karina Byrne, Beth Ruscio, and others.
NOTE: RSVP at event link.
Where: The Wicked Wolf Long Beach
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2332 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, CA 90806
Website: https://thewickedwolflb.com/event/gallery-party-meet-the-artist-elena-secota-martell/
Local Author Day: Richard Podkowski, M.A. Arana, & Sheri Kelsey at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Richard Podkowski presents The Walk-On.
In the twilight of his NFL career as a middle linebacker for the Chicago Storm, Mike “the Steelman” Stalowski masks his physical pain and mental anguish with alcohol and painkillers. The fan favorite has a rebel image and a notorious reputation, and he plays a violent gridiron game fueled by inner rage.
While estranged from his wife and living in the fishbowl environment of professional sports, he unexpectedly meets the fresh-out-of-college Kim Richardson. She sees through Mike’s star persona to who he really is: a kind guy from the Southeast Side of Chicago who has never forgotten his humble blue-collar roots. The lives of the star-crossed, seemingly mismatched couple collide during a whirlwind romance that culminates in a tragic series of events.
The Walk-On is a timeless tale of love and loss that explores the consequences of personal decisions and the rewards of faith, redemption, and hope.
m.a. Arana presents Wing Clipped: Book One of the Wings Series
Mabon Sevilla, Prince of Ava, is falsely accused of murdering his Avan mate and is exiled to Earth as punishment. While living among humans, he falls in love with one of them.
But, when a cruel tyrant from Mabon’s past threatens Ava, he must choose between staying on Earth with his new family or returning to Ava to stop the tyrant from starting a war and taking the throne.
In Wing Clipped, m. a. Arana tells the story of a prince who must overcome the mistrust of his kingdom and outmaneuver a formidable enemy to reclaim his place as leader. This is a gripping tale of redemption and the fight for power.
Sheri Kelsey presents Layers and Waves: Healing Transmissions.
True to the expression, healing comes in waves, Layers and Waves, is a collection of prose, poems, and artistic writing along a healing journey. This compact, but powerful collection takes you on a journey through ten waves (chapters) focused on layers of emotions and experiences surrounding disappointment, heartbreak, resilience, awareness, self-love, self-abandonment, shame, co-dependency, encouragement, surrender, and freedom. Layers and Waves evokes raw emotions, awakens inner-truths, and inspires you to spend time with your own heart.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Local-Author-Day-July-2023
July Focus on Craft Book Club: Marrying Off Morgan McBride at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents the July Focus on Craft Book Club every 3rd Sunday of the month, and today’s selection is Marrying Off Morgan McBride by author Amy Barry.
The Focus on Craft book club is led by editor and teacher Jeanne De Vita and it focuses on examining popular romance novels from a writer’s viewpoint. Everyone is welcome!
No membership is necessary, feel free to show up!
Book for July: Marrying Off Morgan McBride, by Amy Barry.
The McBride brothers are in for a matrimonial surprise when an enterprising woman answers their little sister’s mail order bride advertisement in this laugh-out-loud historical romance.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 